How to download/upload files from/to SharePoint 2013 using CSOM?

Question

I am developing a Win8 (WinRT, C#, XAML) client application (CSOM) that needs to download/upload files from/to SharePoint 2013.

How do I do the Download/Upload?

Cabbageworm

Answer 1

Upload a file

Upload a file to a SharePoint site (including SharePoint Online) using File.SaveBinaryDirect Method:

using (var clientContext = new ClientContext(url))
{
     using (var fs = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open))
     {
         var fi = new FileInfo(fileName);
         var list = clientContext.Web.Lists.GetByTitle(listTitle);
         clientContext.Load(list.RootFolder);
         clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
         var fileUrl = String.Format("{0}/{1}", list.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl, fi.Name);

         Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.File.SaveBinaryDirect(clientContext, fileUrl, fs, true);
     }
}

Download file

Download file from a SharePoint site (including SharePoint Online) using File.OpenBinaryDirect Method:

using (var clientContext = new ClientContext(url))
{

     var list = clientContext.Web.Lists.GetByTitle(listTitle);
     var listItem = list.GetItemById(listItemId);
     clientContext.Load(list);
     clientContext.Load(listItem, i => i.File);
     clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

     var fileRef = listItem.File.ServerRelativeUrl;
     var fileInfo = Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.File.OpenBinaryDirect(clientContext, fileRef);
     var fileName = Path.Combine(filePath,(string)listItem.File.Name);
     using (var fileStream = System.IO.File.Create(fileName))
     {                  
          fileInfo.Stream.CopyTo(fileStream);
     }
}

Reversion

Vadim, 1. I get an error on ICredentials & Path. Do i need to do anything. 2. You had <Summary> commented where do that go in the XML file. I'm a newbie, Please give me little more information on this. I'm trying to download a file from Sharepoint site to my local drive. – Vociferate

Regarding credentials, NetworkCredential is used in on-premises environment, SharePointOnlineCredentials in SharePoint Online – Reversion

I tried your upload method and get "The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized" – Corinthian

@Apollo, refer to my previous comment on which credentials to utilize – Reversion

Answer 2

This article describes various options for accessing SharePoint content. You have a choice between REST and CSOM. I'd try CSOM if possible. File upload / download specifically is nicely described in this article.

Overall notes:

    //First construct client context, the object which will be responsible for
    //communication with SharePoint:
    var context = new ClientContext(@"http://site.absolute.url")

    //then get a hold of the list item you want to download, for example
    var list = context.Web.Lists.GetByTitle("Pipeline");
    var query = CamlQuery.CreateAllItemsQuery(10000);
    var result = list.GetItems(query);

    //note that data has not been loaded yet. In order to load the data
    //you need to tell SharePoint client what you want to download:

    context.Load(result, items=>items.Include(
        item => item["Title"],
        item => item["FileRef"]
    ));

    //now you get the data
    context.ExecuteQuery();

    //here you have list items, but not their content (files). To download file
    //you'll have to do something like this:

    var item = items.First();

    //get the URL of the file you want:
    var fileRef = item["FileRef"];

    //get the file contents:
    FileInformation fileInfo = File.OpenBinaryDirect(context, fileRef.ToString());

    using (var memory = new MemoryStream())
    {
          byte[] buffer = new byte[1024 * 64];
          int nread = 0;
          while ((nread = fileInfo.Stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
          {
              memory.Write(buffer, 0, nread);
          }
          memory.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
          // ... here you have the contents of your file in memory, 
          // do whatever you want
    }

Avoid working with the stream directly, read it into the memory first. Network-bound streams are not necessarily supporting stream operations, not to mention performance. So, if you are reading a pic from that stream or parsing a document, you may end up with some unexpected behavior.

On a side note, I have a related question re: performance of this code above, as you are taking some penalty with every file request. See here. And yes, you need 4.5 full .NET profile for this.

Trinomial

Answer 3

File.OpenBinaryDirect may cause exception when you are using Oauth accestoken Explained in This Article

Code should be written as below to avoid exceptions

 Uri filename = new Uri(filepath);
        string server = filename.AbsoluteUri.Replace(filename.AbsolutePath, 
         "");
        string serverrelative = filename.AbsolutePath;

        Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.File file = 
        this.ClientContext.Web.GetFileByServerRelativeUrl(serverrelative);
        this.ClientContext.Load(file);
        ClientResult<Stream> streamResult = file.OpenBinaryStream();
        this.ClientContext.ExecuteQuery();
        return streamResult.Value;

Evadne

Answer 4

A little late this comment but I will leave here my results working with the library of SharePoin Online and it is very easy to use and implement in your project, just go to the NuGet administrator of .Net and Add Microsoft.SharePoint.CSOM to your project .

[https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/office/blogs/new-sharepoint-csom-version-released-for-office-365-may-2017/][1]

The following code snippet will help you connect your credentials to your SharePoint site, you can also read and download files from a specific site and folder.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;
using System.Security;

using ClientOM = Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;

namespace MvcApplication.Models.Home
{
    public class SharepointModel
    {
        public ClientContext clientContext { get; set; }
        private string ServerSiteUrl = "https://somecompany.sharepoint.com/sites/ITVillahermosa";
        private string LibraryUrl = "Shared Documents/Invoices/";
        private string UserName = "[email protected]";
        private string Password = "********";
        private Web WebClient { get; set; }

        public SharepointModel()
        {
            this.Connect();
        }

        public void Connect()
        {
            try
            {
                using (clientContext = new ClientContext(ServerSiteUrl))
                {
                    var securePassword = new SecureString();
                    foreach (char c in Password)
                    {
                        securePassword.AppendChar(c);
                    }

                    clientContext.Credentials = new SharePointOnlineCredentials(UserName, securePassword);
                    WebClient = clientContext.Web;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw (ex);
            }
        }

        public string UploadMultiFiles(HttpRequestBase Request, HttpServerUtilityBase Server)
        {
            try
            {
                HttpPostedFileBase file = null;
                for (int f = 0; f < Request.Files.Count; f++)
                {
                    file = Request.Files[f] as HttpPostedFileBase;

                    string[] SubFolders = LibraryUrl.Split('/');
                    string filename = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(file.FileName);
                    var path = System.IO.Path.Combine(Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/uploads"), filename);
                    file.SaveAs(path);

                    clientContext.Load(WebClient, website => website.Lists, website => website.ServerRelativeUrl);
                    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

                    //https://somecompany.sharepoint.com/sites/ITVillahermosa/Shared Documents/
                    List documentsList = clientContext.Web.Lists.GetByTitle("Documents"); //Shared Documents -> Documents
                    clientContext.Load(documentsList, i => i.RootFolder.Folders, i => i.RootFolder);
                    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

                    string SubFolderName = SubFolders[1];//Get SubFolder 'Invoice'
                    var folderToBindTo = documentsList.RootFolder.Folders;
                    var folderToUpload = folderToBindTo.Where(i => i.Name == SubFolderName).First();

                    var fileCreationInformation = new FileCreationInformation();
                    //Assign to content byte[] i.e. documentStream
                    fileCreationInformation.Content = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(path);
                    //Allow owerwrite of document
                    fileCreationInformation.Overwrite = true;
                    //Upload URL
                    fileCreationInformation.Url = ServerSiteUrl + LibraryUrl + filename;

                    Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.File uploadFile = documentsList.RootFolder.Files.Add(fileCreationInformation);

                    //Update the metadata for a field having name "DocType"
                    uploadFile.ListItemAllFields["Title"] = "UploadedCSOM";

                    uploadFile.ListItemAllFields.Update();
                    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
                }

                return "";
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw (ex);
            }
        }

        public string DownloadFiles()
        {
            try
            {
                string tempLocation = @"c:\Downloads\Sharepoint\";
                System.IO.DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(tempLocation);
                foreach (FileInfo file in di.GetFiles())
                {
                    file.Delete();
                }

                FileCollection files = WebClient.GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl(this.LibraryUrl).Files;
                clientContext.Load(files);
                clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

                if (clientContext.HasPendingRequest)
                    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

                foreach (ClientOM.File file in files)
                {
                    FileInformation fileInfo = ClientOM.File.OpenBinaryDirect(clientContext, file.ServerRelativeUrl);
                    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

                    var filePath = tempLocation + file.Name;
                    using (var fileStream = new System.IO.FileStream(filePath, System.IO.FileMode.Create))
                    {
                        fileInfo.Stream.CopyTo(fileStream);
                    }
                }

                return "";
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw (ex);
            }
        }

    }
}

Then to invoke the functions from the controller in this case MVC ASP.NET is done in the following way.

using MvcApplication.Models.Home;
using System;
using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace MvcApplication.Controllers
{
    public class SharepointController : MvcBoostraBaseController
    {
        [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult Upload(FormCollection form)
        {
            try
            {
                SharepointModel sharepointModel = new SharepointModel();
                return Json(sharepointModel.UploadMultiFiles(Request, Server), JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                return ThrowJSONError(ex);
            }
        }

        public ActionResult Download(string ServerUrl, string RelativeUrl)
        {
            try
            {
                SharepointModel sharepointModel = new SharepointModel();
                return Json(sharepointModel.DownloadFiles(), JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                return ThrowJSONError(ex);
            }
        }
    }
}

If you need this source code you can visit my github repository

https://github.com/israelz11/MvcBoostrapTestSharePoint/

Murat

Answer 5

Though this is an old post and have many answers, but here I have my version of code to upload the file to sharepoint 2013 using CSOM(c#)

I hope if you are working with downloading and uploading files then you know how to create Clientcontext object and Web object

/* Assuming you have created ClientContext object and Web object*/
string listTitle = "List title where you want your file to upload";
string filePath = "your file physical path";
List oList = web.Lists.GetByTitle(listTitle);
clientContext.Load(oList.RootFolder);//to load the folder where you will upload the file
FileCreationInformation fileInfo = new FileCreationInformation();

fileInfo.Overwrite = true;
fileInfo.Content = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(filePath);
fileInfo.Url = fileName;

File fileToUpload = fileCollection.Add(fileInfo);
clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

fileToUpload.CheckIn("your checkin comment", CheckinType.MajorCheckIn);
if (oList.EnableMinorVersions)
{
    fileToUpload.Publish("your publish comment");
    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
}
if (oList.EnableModeration)
{
     fileToUpload.Approve("your approve comment"); 
}
clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

And here is the code for download

List oList = web.Lists.GetByTitle("ListNameWhereFileExist");
clientContext.Load(oList);
clientContext.Load(oList.RootFolder);
clientContext.Load(oList.RootFolder.Files);
clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
FileCollection fileCollection = oList.RootFolder.Files;
File SP_file = fileCollection.GetByUrl("fileNameToDownloadWithExtension");
clientContext.Load(SP_file);
clientContext.ExecuteQuery();                
var Local_stream = System.IO.File.Open("c:/testing/" + SP_file.Name, System.IO.FileMode.CreateNew);
var fileInformation = File.OpenBinaryDirect(clientContext, SP_file.ServerRelativeUrl);
var Sp_Stream = fileInformation.Stream;
Sp_Stream.CopyTo(Local_stream);

Still there are different ways I believe that can be used to upload and download.

Mientao

Answer 6

Private Sub DownloadFile(relativeUrl As String, destinationPath As String, name As String)
    Try
        destinationPath = Replace(destinationPath + "\" + name, "\\", "\")
        Dim fi As FileInformation = Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.File.OpenBinaryDirect(Me.context, relativeUrl)
        Dim down As Stream = System.IO.File.Create(destinationPath)
        Dim a As Integer = fi.Stream.ReadByte()
        While a <> -1
            down.WriteByte(CType(a, Byte))
            a = fi.Stream.ReadByte()
        End While
    Catch ex As Exception
        ToLog(Type.ERROR, ex.Message)
    End Try
End Sub

Monitory

Answer 7

Just a suggestion SharePoint 2013 online & on-prem file encoding is UTF-8 BOM. Make sure your file is UTF-8 BOM, otherwise your uploaded html and scripts may not rendered correctly in browser.

Moralez

Answer 8

I would suggest reading some Microsoft documentation on what you can do with CSOM. This might be one example of what you are looking for, but there is a huge API documented in msdn.

// Starting with ClientContext, the constructor requires a URL to the 
// server running SharePoint. 
ClientContext context = new ClientContext("http://SiteUrl"); 

// Assume that the web has a list named "Announcements". 
List announcementsList = context.Web.Lists.GetByTitle("Announcements"); 

// Assume there is a list item with ID=1. 
ListItem listItem = announcementsList.Items.GetById(1); 

// Write a new value to the Body field of the Announcement item.
listItem["Body"] = "This is my new value!!"; 
listItem.Update(); 

context.ExecuteQuery(); 

From: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp179912.aspx

Seriema

This has nothing to do with downloading / uploading files. You're updating a listitem with this code – Maas