Files.com's integration with Sharepoint allows you to integrate with SharePoint in several different ways.

Files.com's Remote Server Mount feature gives you the ability connect a specific folder on Files.com to the remote server in a real time manner.

That folder then becomes a client, or window, accessing the files stored in your remote server or cloud.

Once you configure a Mount, any operation you perform on or inside that folder will act directly on the remote in real time. Whether you are dropping a file into that folder, deleting a file, creating a subfolder, or performing any other file/folder operations your Files.com user has permissions for, those operations will "pass through" to the remote in real time.

This powerful feature enables a wide variety of use cases such as accessing files on a counterparty (client or vendor)'s cloud without provisioning individual access to individual users, reducing storage costs by leveraging on-premise or bulk storage solutions, enabling applications to access 3rd party clouds via Files.com API, FTP, SFTP, or Files.com Apps and many more.

Alternatively, Files.com's Remote Server Sync feature give you the ability to push or pull files to or from remote servers. This means that the files will exist in both places at the end of the sync process.

A remote sync can be a "push", where files from your Files.com site are transferred to the remote server, a "pull" where files are transferred from the remote server to your Files.com site, or a two-way "sync" where files that are new or changed in either location are pushed and pulled to maintain a synchronized state between the folder on your Files.com site and that on the remote server.

Add SharePoint as a Remote Server

To connect to SharePoint, add your SharePoint server as a Remote Server in Files.com.

After adding the SharePoint Remote Server, you will need to authenticate the connection. Use the Connect option for the Remote Server to launch the authentication process.

Once your Remote Server is connected, you can use it as either a Remote Server Mount or Remote Server Sync.

You can create as many SharePoint Remote Servers as required. Repeat the above instructions and enter different credentials each time the Microsoft login page is presented.

Remote Server Mounts are created by mounting them onto an empty folder in Files.com. This folder should ideally not be the Root of your site, although that is supported if you need it.

You can select the remote SharePoint folder you want to mount. You can also manually enter the full path to a SharePoint folder. This is useful for hidden sites within SharePoint that aren't presented to Files.com via their API.

After saving the configuration, the folder will reload and immediately list the remote folders/files from the selected remote path.

You can also set up Remote Syncs with your SharePoint site.

Case Sensitivity

Be aware of case sensitivity differences when copying, moving, or syncing files and folders between SharePoint and other storage locations. Sharepoint is a case insensitive system whereas other systems may be case sensitive. This can cause files to be overwritten, and folders to have their contents merged, if their case insensitive names are a match.

Reauthenticating

What To Do When Your Remote Server Connection Is Disabled

Because SharePoint uses the OAuth authorization protocol, there may be future errors with the authentication even after your remote server is configured and running smoothly for some time. When one of those errors happens, Files.com will disable your SharePoint remote server connection and record the error in your site alerts, showing it in the overall site warnings which displays on the top bar of the Administrator view in the web portal.

When you've resolved the problem that caused the authentication error, you can re-enable your remote server by re-saving its configuration. Even if you don't make any changes to the configuration, saving the record will cause Files.com to re-enable the connection so that any associated mounts and syncs will begin working again.

SharePoint Access and Permissions

Files.com implements OAuth for access delegation to Sharepoint.

When configuring a connection to Sharepoint you will be redirected to your SharePoint server login page to authenticate.

Access controls and permissions are restricted to those of the SharePoint userID used to authenticate.

If you require Files.com to access and retrieve files from SharePoint then the SharePoint userID used should have at least Read and List permissions to the relevant SharePoint sites, folders, and files.

If you require Files.com to transfer or upload files to SharePoint then the SharePoint userID used should have at least Create, Read, Update, Delete and List permissions to the relevant SharePoint sites, folders, and files.

Service Account Versus Named Users

When connecting to SharePoint, Files.com will act in the context of the SharePoint userID used to authenticate the connection.

As a best practice, we recommend that you create a SharePoint userID specifically for Files.com and use this to authenticate the connection.

However, there may be times when you need to access the SharePoint content of specific users and so you can authenticate using those SharePoint user credentials instead.

You can configure as many connections to SharePoint as you require, each with different SharePoint credentials if needed, allowing you to restrict access to specific parts of SharePoint to specific users.

On-Premise SharePoint

This integration with SharePoint does not support on-premises instances of SharePoint. Only the Microsoft 365 cloud-based service of SharePoint is supported for this integration.

However, our WebDAV integration can be used to connected with on-premise SharePoint servers, provided that your firewall has been configured to allow WebDAV connectivity to pass through.