SharePoint and Templafy Content Connector

About this article

With Templafy, you can easily set up a SharePoint Content Connector in order to provide access to static assets being stored and managed in SharePoint directly within Templafy Library. 

Sections in this article:

• Setting up the Content Connector
• Storage, processing & access
• SharePoint Drive ID
• Folders and assets within the Drive ID

Prerequisites

Setting up the Content Connector

All instructions to set up the connector within the Templafy Admin Center can be found here: How to enable SharePoint Content Connector?

Storage, processing, & access

Content and user credentials aren’t stored in Templafy, and the content isn’t processed by Templafy.

In order to surface the SharePoint assets within the Templafy Library, the end-user will need to log in when accessing the Library tab linked to SharePoint (using the SharePoint authentication). Once authenticated, the users will be able to utilize the assets they have access to (read/read-write). If the users don't have access to the content in SharePoint, the Library will not display any assets. 

Please note that the login is per browser, which means that the users will need to log in to each application separately (for example, login in Word doesn’t trigger an automatic login in Excel)

SharePoint Drive ID

When setting up Templafy Content Connector, you will need to specify which Drive ID (Library) Templafy should surface in the Library for a specific asset type. 

What is a SharePoint Drive ID? 

The Drive ID is an identifier from SharePoint that is unique for each Document Library that is available on the SharePoint sites. 

For example, Documents is a default Document library generally available on SharePoint sites (highlighted in red). Creating an additional Document Library can be done by clicking + New and selecting Document library (highlighted in green). Those Libraries will each have a different Drive IDs. Read more about SharePoint Libraries

How to manually retrieve a SharePoint Drive ID? 

To manually find a Drive ID, you can use Microsoft Graph API Explorer.
Working with SharePoint sites in Microsoft Graph. 

The following query can be run in the Graph Explorer by replacing <m365TenantID> with your organization's Microsoft tenant, and replacing <siteName> with the name of your desired SharePoint site:

https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/<m365TenantID>.sharepoint.com:/sites/<siteName>:/drives.

The ID for the specific Document library will be visible under the response preview: 

Folders and assets within the Drive ID

Once the SharePoint Content Connector has been enabled and is pointing to a Drive ID (SharePoint library), it will be reflected in Templafy Library. Each static asset type set up in the Admin Center will be displayed as its own tab in the Library, and the folder structure of the drive ID will be reflected there. In order to provide a great experience to the end-users, please note the following: 

• Users should have access (read-only or read-write) to some of the content on the SharePoint library to avoid end-users seeing This folder is empty when trying to log into SharePoint through the Library.
  
  
• If you are to set up multiple asset types pointing to the same SharePoint Library, keep in mind all available folders will be shown, but only assets corresponding to the selected library type will be shown. Additionally, Library will only display the assets that can be utilized based on where the user is working from. 
  This means that If a Slides Library is added, only .pptx files will appear. If a folder is in the Library that does not contain any .pptx files, users will see the folder, but it will appear as empty in Templafy.
  Example: I have set up two different asset types in the SharePoint Content Connector: SharePoint Texts and SharePoint Slides pointing to the same Drive ID, and in my SharePoint Drive, I have two folders. Folder A contains a docx X and a pptx Y, Folder B contains a docx Z only
  
  • In the WebApp, the users will be able to see SharePoint Texts and SharePoint Slides as tabs
    • In SharePoint Texts the user will be able to access docx X in folder A and docx Z in folder B
    • In SharePoint Slides the user will be able to access pptx Y in folder A, folder B will be displayed but will show as empty as it doesn't contain any assets that can be utilized in PowerPoint. 
  • In Word, the user will be able to access SharePoint Texts as a tab that will display docx X in folder A and docx Z in folder B
  • In PowerPoint, will be ab;e to access SharePoint Slides as a tab that will display pptx Y in folder A, folder B will be displayed but will show as empty as it doesn't contain any assets that can be utilized in PowerPoint. 
    
    
• When setting up Slides as an asset type for SharePoint Content Connector, it should be noted: 
  • A presentation containing only one slide will be inserted as an individual slide. 
  • A presentation containing more than one slide will be inserted as a slide collection. 
    
    
• When setting up Slide Elements as an asset type for SharePoint Content Connector, it should be noted:
  • Each element should be saved as its own single slide presentation.
  • If a presentation with multiple slides is uploaded, only the first slide will be shown as an available Slide Element in the Library task pane.

• If dynamic content is stored in the SharePoint library, it will not be processed by Templafy and will not benefit from Templafy dynamic capabilities 
  Example: there is a text element where the binding {{UserProfile.FullName}} is used. If the end-user utilizes this asset, it will be downloaded/inserted with the literal text {{UserProfile.FullName}}, and not John Doe.
  
  
• SharePoint search is being utilized within the Library tabs that are connected with SharePoint Libraries (for example, tags set in SharePoint will be searchable but not displayed).

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