Introduction


Welcome to the SharePoint 2013 REST Series. In my previous article, we saw how to how to get the regional settings for a specific web application using the REST API.

This article explains how to get the workflow templates for a specific web application.

The SharePoint 2013 environment adds the ability for you to remotely interact with SharePoint sites using REST. So you can talk to SharePoint objects using any technology that supports standard REST capabilities. In this way, SharePoint data can be accessed anywhere and everywhere.

List of REST Access Points

The following is a list of access points that provide you entry into granular access points.

http://server/site/_api/site
  • Web
http://server/site/_api/web
  • User Profile
http:// server/site/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager
  • Search
http:// server/site/_api/search
  • Publishing
http:// server/site/_api/publishing

List of REST End Points

The following is a list of endpoints that are the most commonly used in a SharePoint list:

Note: The following code is tested in my SP 2013 online environment.

Step 1: Before writing your code, please ensure you have sufficient permission to access cross-domain requests. So I have given full permission to all the contents listed below.

Tenant Full Permission
Site Collection Full Permission
Web Full Permission
List Full Permission

PROPERTY PERMISSION

Step 2 : Navigate to the App.js file and copy the following code and paste it in.

Code
  1. 'use strict';
  2. var hostweburl;
  3. var appweburl;
  5. // This code runs when the DOM is ready and creates a context object which is
  6. // needed to use the SharePoint object model
  7. $(document).ready(function () {
  9. //Get the URI decoded URLs.
  10. hostweburl =
  11. decodeURIComponent(
  12. getQueryStringParameter("SPHostUrl"));
  13. appweburl =
  14. decodeURIComponent(
  15. getQueryStringParameter("SPAppWebUrl"));
  16. // Resources are in URLs in the form:
  17. // web_url/_layouts/15/resource
  18. var scriptbase = hostweburl + "/_layouts/15/";
  20. // Load the js file and continue to load the page with information about the list top level folders.
  21. // SP.RequestExecutor.js to make cross-domain requests
  23. // Load the js files and continue to the successHandler
  24. $.getScript(scriptbase + "SP.RequestExecutor.js", execCrossDomainRequest);
  25. });
  27. // Function to prepare and issue the request to get
  28. // SharePoint data
  29. function execCrossDomainRequest() {
  30. // executor: The RequestExecutor object
  31. // Initialize the RequestExecutor with the app web URL.
  32. var executor = new SP.RequestExecutor(appweburl);
  34. // Issue the call against the app web.
  35. // To get the title using REST we can hit the endpoint:
  37. // The response formats the data in the JSON format.
  38. // The functions successHandler and errorHandler attend the
  39. // sucess and error events respectively.
  40. executor.executeAsync(
  41. {
  42. url:
  44. appweburl +
  46. "/_api/SP.AppContextSite(@target)/web/ WorkflowTemplates?@target='" +
  47. hostweburl + "'",
  48. method: "POST",
  51. headers: { "Accept": "application/json; odata=verbose" },
  52. success: function (data) {
  53. alert("success: " + JSON.stringify(data));
  54. error: function (err) {
  55. alert("error: " + JSON.stringify(err));
  56. }
  58. }
  60. );
  62. }
  64. // This function prepares, loads, and then executes a SharePoint query to get
  65. // the current users information
  67. //Utilities
  69. // Retrieve a query string value.
  70. // For production purposes you may want to use
  71. // a library to handle the query string.
  72. function getQueryStringParameter(paramToRetrieve) {
  73. var params =
  74. document.URL.split("?")[1].split("&");
  75. for (var i = 0; i < params.length; i = i + 1) {
  76. var singleParam = params[i].split("=");
  77. if (singleParam[0] == paramToRetrieve)
  78. return singleParam[1];
  79. }
  80. }
Step 3: When deploying, you will be prompted with the following screen. Press Trust it and proceed with the deployment.
MY APP DEV SITE.
Output
WebInfo property Description
Created Gets a value that specifies when the site was created.
Description Gets or sets the description for the site.
Id Gets a value that specifies the site identifier.
Language Gets a value that specifies the locale ID (LCID) for the language that is used
LastItemModifiedDate Gets a value that specifies when an item was last modified in the site.
Title Gets or sets the title for the site.
WebTemplateId Gets the identifier of the site template

Code Walkthrough

A. Post Method in REST API

The SharePoint 2013 REST service supports sending POST commands that include object definitions to endpoints that represent collections. In this example, Test List is a custom SharePoint list where list items are updated.

IF-MATCH header

Provides a way to verify that the object being changed has not been changed since it was last retrieved. Or, lets you specify to overwrite any changes, as shown in the following example: "IF-MATCH":"*".

B. Request Executor.JS

The cross-domain library lets you interact with more than one domain in your remote app page through a proxy. SP.RequestExecutor.js acts as a cross-domain library to fetch or create a SharePoint list from your APP domain.

1. function execCrossDomainRequest() {
2. // executor: The RequestExecutor object
3. // Initialize the RequestExecutor with the app web URL.
4. var executor = new SP.RequestExecutor(appweburl); var metatdata = "{ '__metadata': { 'type': 'SP.Data.TestListListItem' }, 'Title': 'changelistitemtitle'}";

Summary

I hope this article helps you.