How to Download File Folders with DriveItem Activity in Microsoft Graph
If you are working with files and folders in Microsoft OneDrive or SharePoint, you might have encountered the term DriveItem. In this article, you will learn what DriveItem is, why it matters, and how to download file folders with DriveItem activity using Microsoft Graph API.
download file folders cannot be downloaded with this activity. please input a different driveitem
What is DriveItem and Why It Matters
DriveItem is a resource type that represents a file, folder, or other item stored in a drive. All file system objects in OneDrive and SharePoint are returned as DriveItem resources. Items in SharePoint document libraries can be represented as listItem or driveItem resources .
DriveItem matters because it provides a unified way of accessing and manipulating files and folders across different platforms and services. You can use DriveItem to perform various tasks such as uploading, downloading, copying, moving, deleting, searching, sharing, and syncing files and folders. You can also use DriveItem to get metadata, thumbnails, versions, permissions, analytics, activities, and more information about files and folders.
DriveItem resource type and properties
A DriveItem resource has a set of properties that provide data about its identities and capabilities. For example:
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Folders have a folder facet
Files have a file facet
Images have an image facet in addition to their file facet
Images taken with a camera (photos) have a photo facet that identifies the item as a photo and provides the properties of when the photo was taken and with what device
Items with the folder facet act as containers of items and therefore have a children reference pointing to a collection of driveItems under the folder
You can find the full list of DriveItem properties and their descriptions in the .
DriveItem methods and scenarios
A DriveItem resource also supports various methods that allow you to perform actions on it. For example:
Get item: Retrieve the metadata for a DriveItem in a Drive
Create item: Create a driveItem in the specified drive
Update item: Update a driveItem in the drive
Upload content: Upload content to the driveItem
Download content: Download content of a driveItem
Delete item: Delete a driveItem
Move item: Move a driveItem to a new parent item
Copy item: Create a copy of an driveItem (including any children)
Search items: Search the hierarchy of items for items matching a query
List changes in a drive: List any changes in the drive
Create sharing link: Create a link to share the driveItem
Add permissions: Send a sharing invite to a user
List permissions: Retrieve the collection of permissions on an driveItem
List thumbnails: List driveItems with their thumbnails
List versions: Retrieve the versions of a file in the current user's drive
List activities by interval: Get a collection of itemActivityStats within the specified time interval
Get analytics: Get analytics for this resource
You can find the full list of DriveItem methods and their descriptions in the .
How to Download File Folders with DriveItem Activity
In this section, you will learn how to download file folders with DriveItem activity using Microsoft Graph API. This scenario can be useful when you want to backup or sync your files and folders from OneDrive or SharePoint to your local machine or another cloud service.
<h Prerequisites and steps
To download file folders with DriveItem activity, you will need the following prerequisites:
A Microsoft account or a work or school account that can access OneDrive or SharePoint
A registered application with the Microsoft identity platform that has the appropriate permissions to access the files and folders you want to download. You can learn how to register an application and grant permissions in the .
A tool or a library that can send HTTP requests and handle JSON responses. You can use any programming language or framework that supports RESTful APIs. For this example, we will use , a popular tool for testing APIs.
Once you have the prerequisites, you can follow these steps to download file folders with DriveItem activity:
Get the ID or path of the file folder you want to download. You can use the to browse and query your files and folders in OneDrive or SharePoint. For example, if you want to download a folder named "Documents" in your OneDrive root, you can use this query: The response will include an ID property that you can use in the next step.
Get the content URL of the file folder. You can use the of the DriveItem resource to get a temporary URL that can be used to download the content of the file folder. You can use Postman to send a GET request to this URL: where item-id is the ID of the file folder you obtained in the previous step. The response will be a 302 Found status code with a Location header that contains the content URL.
Download the content of the file folder. You can use Postman to send another GET request to the content URL you obtained in the previous step. The response will be a ZIP file that contains all the files and subfolders in the file folder. You can save this ZIP file to your local machine or another cloud service.
Example code and output
To illustrate the steps above, let's assume we want to download a file folder named "Photos" in our OneDrive root. Here is an example of how we can do that using Postman:
We use Graph Explorer to get the ID of the "Photos" folder by sending this query: The response includes this ID: "id": "01BYE5RZ6Y2GOVW7725BZO354PWSELRRZD".
We use Postman to get the content URL of the "Photos" folder by sending a GET request to this URL: The response is a 302 Found status code with a Location header that contains this content URL: "Location": "
We use Postman to download the content of the "Photos" folder by sending another GET request to the content URL. The response is a ZIP file that contains all the files and subfolders in the "Photos" folder. We save this ZIP file to our local machine.
The following screenshot shows how Postman looks like after completing these steps:
<img src="" alt="Postman screenshot Troubleshooting and Tips
Downloading file folders with DriveItem activity can sometimes encounter errors or issues. Here are some common ones and how to solve them:
Common errors and solutions
Invalid authentication token: This error means that your access token has expired or is invalid. You need to refresh your access token or obtain a new one using the .
Item not found: This error means that the ID or path of the file folder you specified does not exist or is not accessible. You need to check if the file folder is in the drive you are querying and if you have the permission to access it.
Download URL expired: This error means that the content URL of the file folder has expired. The content URL is only valid for a short time and cannot be cached or stored. You need to get a new content URL by sending another GET request to the DriveItem content endpoint.
Too many requests: This error means that you have exceeded the rate limit of the Microsoft Graph API. You need to reduce the frequency of your requests or implement a with exponential backoff.
Best practices and recommendations
Use delta queries: If you want to download file folders incrementally or periodically, you can use to track changes in the drive and only download the items that have changed since the last request.
Use selective scopes: If you only need to access specific files or folders, you can use to limit the permissions of your application and reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
Use compression and streaming: If you want to download large or multiple file folders, you can use to reduce the bandwidth and memory usage of your application.
Use webhooks and subscriptions: If you want to get notified when a file or folder changes in the drive, you can use to receive push notifications from Microsoft Graph.
Conclusion and FAQs
In this article, you learned what DriveItem is, why it matters, and how to download file folders with DriveItem activity using Microsoft Graph API. You also learned some troubleshooting tips and best practices for working with files and folders in OneDrive and SharePoint.
Summary and key takeaways
Here are the main points you should remember from this article:
DriveItem is a resource type that represents a file, folder, or other item stored in a drive.
DriveItem provides a unified way of accessing and manipulating files and folders across different platforms and services.
To download file folders with DriveItem activity, you need to get the ID or path of the file folder, get the content URL of the file folder, and download the content of the file folder using HTTP requests.
You can use tools like Postman or Graph Explorer to test and debug your requests and responses.
You can use various methods, properties, facets, and features of DriveItem to perform various tasks and scenarios with files and folders.
You should handle errors gracefully and follow best practices when working with DriveItem.
Frequently asked questions
Q: How can I download a single file with DriveItem activity?
A: You can follow the same steps as downloading a file folder, but use the ID or path of the single file instead of the file folder. The response will be a single file instead of a ZIP file.
Q: How can I upload a file or folder with DriveItem activity?
A: You can use the of the DriveItem resource to get a temporary URL that can be used to upload content to a file or folder. You can use Postman to send a PUT request to this URL with the content as the request body. The response will be a DriveItem resource that represents the uploaded file or folder.
Q: How can I list all the files and folders in a drive with DriveItem activity?
A: You can use the to get more results if the response is paged.
Q: How can I get more information about a file or folder with DriveItem activity?
A: You can use the to include related resources such as children, thumbnails, permissions, versions, activities, and analytics in the response.
Q: How can I get help or support for DriveItem activity?
A: You can use the to ask technical questions or find answers from other developers.
I hope you found this article helpful and informative. If you have any feedback or comments, please let me know. Thank you for reading! 44f88ac181
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