SharePoint Online Connector - Using T-SQL / Linked Server

T-SQL is a programming language used for managing and querying data in Microsoft SQL Server databases. We provides tools for data integration, automation, and connectivity.

If you want to use T-SQL with ZappySys, you can use our Connector, which allows you to connect to SQL Server databases and execute T-SQL queries from SharePoint Online.

Create Data Source in ZappySys Data Gateway based on ZappySys API Driver

Download and install ZappySys ODBC PowerPack.
Search for gateway in start menu and Open ZappySys Data Gateway:
Go to Users Tab to add our first Gateway user. Click Add; we will give it a name tdsuser and enter password you like to give. Check Admin option and click OK to save. We will use these details later when we create linked server:
Now we are ready to add a data source. Click Add, give data source a name (Copy this name somewhere, we will need it later) and then select Native - ZappySys API Driver. Finally, click OK. And it will create the Data Set for it and open the ZS driver UI.

SharePointOnlineDSN
When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "SharePoint Online" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "SharePoint Online" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

SharePointOnlineDSN

SharePoint Online

Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

User Credentials [OAuth]

OAuth App must be created in Microsoft Azure AD. These settings typically found here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-register-app-v2. [API Help..]

Steps to get SharePoint Online Credentials

Firstly, login into Azure Portal and there create an OAuth application:

Go to Azure Portal and login there.
Then go to Azure Active Directory.
On the left side click menu item App registrations
Then proceed with clicking New registration.
Enter a name for your application.
Select Accounts in this organizational directory only as supported account type to access data in your company.
In Redirect URI section leave option selected at Web.
In nearby textbox enter https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/nativeclient as Redirect URI or any other valid redirect URL, e.g. https://zappysys.com/oauth
Use this Redirect URI in Redirect URL grid row.
Copy Application (client) ID and paste it into API Connection Manager configuration grid in Client ID row.
Then click on Endpoints link and copy first URL to Authorization URL and second one to Token URL in configuration grid. Usually they look similar to these:
- https://login.microsoftonline.com/daed1250-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-ef0a982d3d1e/oauth2/v2.0/authorize
- https://login.microsoftonline.com/daed1250-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-ef0a982d3d1e/oauth2/v2.0/token
- https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/authorize
- https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/token
Close "Endpoints" and create a Client Secret by clicking Certificates & secrets.
Proceed by clicking New client secret and setting expiration period. Copy the client secret and paste it into configuration grid in Client Secret row.
Use these scopes in Scopes field: offline_access Files.Read Files.Read.All Files.ReadWrite Files.ReadWrite.All openid profile Sites.Read.All Sites.ReadWrite.All User.Read email
Click Generate Token to generate tokens.
NOTE: If you are planning to use your current data connection/token for automated processes, we recommend that you use a generic account for token generation when the login box appears (e.g. sales_automation@mycompany.com instead of bob_smith@mycompany.com). When you use a personal account which is tied to a specific employee profile and that employee leaves the company, the token may become invalid and any automated processes using that token will fail. Another potentially unwanted effect of using a personal token is incorrect logging; the API calls (e.g. Read, Edit, Delete, Upload) made with that token will record the specific user as performing the calls instead of an automated process.
That's it!

For more information you can read this link https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-register-app-v2 Also https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-register-app-v2

Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

SharePointOnlineDSN

SharePoint Online

User Credentials [OAuth]

https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0

Required Parameters
Authorization URL	Fill in the parameter...
Token URL	Fill in the parameter...
Client ID	Fill in the parameter...
Scope	Fill in the parameter...
SiteId (select after pressing 'Generate Token')	Fill in the parameter...
Optional Parameters
Client Secret	Fill in the parameter...
ReturnUrl	Fill in the parameter...
Login Prompt Option	Fill in the parameter...
RetryMode	Fill in the parameter...
RetryStatusCodeList	Fill in the parameter...
RetryCountMax	Fill in the parameter...
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	Fill in the parameter...

Application Credentials [OAuth]

OAuth App must be created in Microsoft Azure AD. These settings typically found here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-v2-service [API Help..]

Steps to get SharePoint Online Credentials

Firstly, login into Azure Portal and there create an OAuth application:

Step-1: Create OAuth App

Go to Azure Portal and login there.
Then go to Azure Active Directory.
On the left side click menu item App registrations
Then proceed with clicking New registration.
Enter a name for your application.
Select one of Accounts in this organizational directory only as supported account type to access data in your company.
In Redirect URI section leave option selected at Web.
Copy Application (client) ID and paste it into API Connection Manager configuration grid in Client ID row.

Then click on Endpoints link and copy second, Token, URL to Token URL field in configuration grid. Usually they look similar to these:

https://login.microsoftonline.com/daed1250-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-ef0a982d3d1e/oauth2/v2.0/token
https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/token

Close "Endpoints" and create a Client Secret by clicking Certificates & secrets.
Proceed by clicking New client secret and setting expiration period. Copy the client secret and paste it into configuration grid in Client Secret row.
Go to API Permissions section and add Microsoft Graph permissions for SharePoint and Drive, e.g. Sites.Selected, Sites.Read.All, Sites.ReadWrite.All, Files.Read.All, Files.ReadWrite.All.
Finally, Grant admin consent for your domain for your permissions.

Step-2: Register OAuth App in SharePoint Admin Portal

After we create OAuth App we need to add grant SharePoint access to that App using Admin Portal. Make sure you have admin permission to acces Portal. For detailed steps you may refer to this link. Here are basic steps you can follow.

https://YOURCOMPANY-admin.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/appprincipals.aspx?Scope=Web

Enter App Id and other information

Enter XML snippet which describes which permission you want to grant. Here is an example permission (App with FullControl / Read / Write)

<AppPermissionRequests AllowAppOnlyPolicy="true">
  <AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/content/tenant" Right="FullControl" />
</AppPermissionRequests>

Click Add to grant the permission. That's it!

NOTE: After adding App in SharePoint if you ever remove the permission then you can visit the following URL and delete the App.

https://YOURCOMPANY-admin.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/appprincipals.aspx?Scope=Web

Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

SharePointOnlineDSN

SharePoint Online

Application Credentials [OAuth]

https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0

Required Parameters
Token URL	Fill in the parameter...
Client ID	Fill in the parameter...
Client Secret	Fill in the parameter...
SiteId	Fill in the parameter...
Optional Parameters
Scope	Fill in the parameter...
RetryMode	Fill in the parameter...
RetryStatusCodeList	Fill in the parameter...
RetryCountMax	Fill in the parameter...
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	Fill in the parameter...

Once the data source has been configured, you can preview data. Select the Preview tab and use settings similar to the following to preview data:
Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Read data in SQL Server from the ZappySys Data Gateway

To read the data in SQL Server the first thing you have to do is create a Linked Server. Go to SQL Server Management Studio and configure it in a similar way:
Then click on Security option and configure username we created in ZappySys Data Gateway in one of the previous steps:
Optional: Under the Server Options, Enable RPC and RPC Out and Disable Promotion of Distributed Transactions(MSDTC).

You need to enable RPC Out if you plan to use EXEC(...) AT [MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME] rather than OPENQUERY.
If don't enabled it, you will encounter the Server 'MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME' is not configured for RPC error.

Query Example:
```
EXEC('Select * from Products') AT [MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME]
```
If you plan to use 'INSERT INTO...EXEC(....) AT [MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME]' in that case you need to Disable Promotion of Distributed Transactions(MSDTC).
If don't disabled it, you will encounter the The operation could not be performed because OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI11" for linked server "MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME" was unable to begin a distributed transaction. error.

Query Example:
```
Insert Into dbo.Products
 EXEC('Select * from Products') AT [MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME]
```
Finally, open a new query and execute a query we saved in one of the previous steps:
```
SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME], 'SELECT * FROM Products');
```

Create Linked Server using Code

In previous section you saw how to create a Linked Server from UI. You can do similar action by code too (see below). Run below script after changing necessary parameters. Assuming your Data Source name on ZappySys Data Gateway UI is 'SharePointOnlineDSN'


    USE [master]
    GO
    --///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    --Run below code in SSMS to create Linked Server and use ZappySys Drivers in SQL Server
    --///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

    //Replace YOUR_GATEWAY_USER, YOUR_GATEWAY_PASSWORD
    //Replace localhost with IP/Machine name if ZappySys Gateway Running on different machine other than SQL Server
    //Replace Port 5000 if you configured gateway on a different port


    --1. Configure your gateway service as per this article https://zappysys.com/links?id=10036
    
    --2. Make sure you have SQL Server Installed. You can download FREE SQL Server Express Edition from here if you dont want to buy Paid version https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-editions-express

    --Uncomment below if you like to drop linked server if it already exists
    --EXEC master.dbo.sp_dropserver @server=N'LS_SharePointOnlineDSN', @droplogins='droplogins'

    --3. Create new linked server
    
    EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver
      @server = N'LS_SharePointOnlineDSN'  --Linked server name (this will be used in OPENQUERY sql
    , @srvproduct=N''
    , @provider=N'SQLNCLI11'
    , @datasrc=N'localhost,5000' --//Machine / Port where Gateway service is running
    , @provstr=N'Network Library=DBMSSOCN;'
    , @catalog=N'SharePointOnlineDSN' --Data source name you gave on Gateway service settings

    --4. Attach gateway login with linked server

    EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedsrvlogin
      @rmtsrvname=N'LS_SharePointOnlineDSN'  --linked server name
    , @useself=N'False'
    , @locallogin=NULL
    , @rmtuser=N'YOUR_GATEWAY_USER' --enter your Gateway user name
    , @rmtpassword='YOUR_GATEWAY_PASSWORD'  --enter your Gateway user's password
    GO

    --5. Enable RPC OUT (This is Optional - Only needed if you plan to use EXEC(...) AT YourLinkedServerName rather than OPENQUERY
    EXEC sp_serveroption 'LS_SharePointOnlineDSN', 'rpc', true;
    EXEC sp_serveroption 'LS_SharePointOnlineDSN', 'rpc out', true;

    --Disable MSDTC - Below needed to support INSERT INTO from EXEC AT statement
    EXEC sp_serveroption 'LS_SharePointOnlineDSN', 'remote proc transaction promotion', false;
    
    --Increase query timeout if query is going to take longer than 10 mins (Default timeout is 600 seconds)
    --EXEC sp_serveroption 'LS_SharePointOnlineDSN', 'query timeout', 1200;
    GO