Overview

SharePoint Embedded provides Power Platform developers the ability to integrate robust document management capabilities of Microsoft 365 into their applications.

Many times, developers focus on writing custom code to interact with an API based platform like SharePoint Embedded.  Using the connector framework in the Power Platform, you can quickly create a solution that controls the user experience, manages documents according to your business logic and provides the full collaborative experience users expect.

To help you get started quickly, I’ll outline the major components you need to configure a Power Platform solution enabling you to focus on the user experience that meets your requirements.

The Solution

The core components of a SharePoint Embedded configuration are:

Containers: A dedicated SharePoint partition where your application stores files and maintains a security boundary.
Files: Folders and documents necessary to work with your applications.
Search: A quick way to find information in containers or files.

Managing these components using the SharePoint Embedded Graph API endpoints and configuring your app to perform the CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations is easily achieved.

PowerApps is used to control the user experience and manage the business logic of the solution
Power Automate will react to user events and make the API calls to support the business logic.

To help understand how SharePoint Embedded fits into the Power Platform, a starter kit solution has been created that encompasses major activities that an administrator or developer may need to configure when creating an application.

How it works

Once you install the dependencies and solution in your Power Platform environment, you can easily start to manage core functionality of containers and retrieve detailed information without having to know the Graph API endpoint.

After your application is registered in the SharePoint Admin center, you can create additional containers to support your applications logic. 

Create Container – Simply provide a name, description and owner.  Once created, you can see it in the SharePoint Admin center and begin using it.
Delete Container – This will place it in the deleted containers tab in the SharePoint admin center for 93 days.  You can restore or permanently delete it from there.
Permissions – Assign or remove container permissions as needed.
Container Properties – Metadata assigned to each container that gives you organization and the ability to search. (Think of a SharePoint property bag attribute).

Figure 1 -Managing SharePoint Embedded Containers

As you create containers and manage permissions, file management is the core activity users will be performing. 

Add/Delete files – Upload, collaborate and view version history information on any file that is stored in a container.
Share – Create a sharing link that will invite internal and external users to collaborate on your document.
Collaborate – Simply click on the document name that will launch it into the feature rich Office Online experience.
Metadata – Files in a container can be assigned metadata for easy searching.

Figure 2 – File management in SharePoint Embedded containers

Searching for documents can be keyword or metadata based on an individual container or all containers.  If your familiar with the KQL (SharePoint Query Language) then you can easily incorporate this into your applications search experience.

Files – Searching the drive items (files) in one or all containers
Metadata – Organize files and containers by applying metadata to organize and find what you’re looking for. 
OCR – SharePoint Embedded container (s) can be enabled to OCR content as you add it.  PDF Images, .JPEG, .GIF and .PNG files automatically have the content added to the search index.
Isolated – SharePoint Embedded content is only surfaces through your application, not in the M365 or SharePoint search results.  This allows you complete control over your content.

Figure 2 – Search for files in a single or multiple containers

Resources

Learn more about SharePoint Embedded:

Overview of SharePoint Embedded
Power Platform Starter Kit – everything you need to get started managing your SharePoint Embedded environment.
Public Documentation
Graph API for SharePoint Embedded

Reach out to the SharePoint Embedded team with any questions or guidance as you are implementing your solution.

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