So I ran across an interesting mystery a while back that I thought I would share the fix for once I had time to document it. I have a client that uses an embeddable SharePoint page within CRM to allow document uploads right from the front entity screens without having to deviate to another screen and for the most part things have been going well. Until…the mystery began.
The problem: In some sporadic cases when uploading documents via POST to the REST API users would encounter an issue with the dynamically generated URLs from SharePoint that contain single apostrophes or quotes in the library name that would be used in the POST URL.
Errors may look like:
{"error":{code":"-1,Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.InvalidClientQueryException","message":{"lang":en-US","value":"The expression\"web/getfolderbyserverrelativeurl('yourfolder/O'Lastname, Firstname - 23424ID')/files/add(overwrite=true,url='filename.pdf')\" is not valid."}}}
The odd part about that? If you browse the library on its own, it’s fine! However, trying to post to the REST API with an improperly escape quote is not. So let’s fix that.
The solution: It’s all in how you build the URL with properly escaped characters.
Snippet in question:
// Add the file to the file collection in the Shared Documents folder.
function addFileToFolder(arrayBuffer) {
// Get the file name from the file input control on the page.
var parts = fileInput[0].value.split('\\');
var fileName = parts[parts.length - 1];
// Construct the endpoint.
var fileCollectionEndpoint = String.format(
"{0}/_api/web/getfolderbyserverrelativeurl('{1}')/files" +
"/add(overwrite=true, url='{2}')",
serverUrl, serverRelativeUrlToFolder, fileName);
// Send the request and return the response.
// This call returns the SharePoint file.
return jQuery.ajax({
url: fileCollectionEndpoint,
type: "POST",
data: arrayBuffer,
processData: false,
headers: {
"accept": "application/json;odata=verbose",
"X-RequestDigest": jQuery("#__REQUESTDIGEST").val(),
"content-length": arrayBuffer.byteLength
}
});
Fixed snippet:
// Add the file to the file collection in the Shared Documents folder.
function addFileToFolder(arrayBuffer) {
// Get the file name from the file input control on the page.
var parts = fileInput[0].value.split('\\');
var fileName = parts[parts.length - 1];
// Construct the endpoint.
var fileCollectionEndpoint = String.format(
"{0}/_api/web/getfolderbyserverrelativeurl('{1}')/files" +
"/add(overwrite=true, url='{2}')",
serverUrl, serverRelativeUrlToFolder.replace(/\%27/g,"''"), fileName);
// Send the request and return the response.
// This call returns the SharePoint file.
return jQuery.ajax({
url: fileCollectionEndpoint,
type: "POST",
data: arrayBuffer,
processData: false,
headers: {
"accept": "application/json;odata=verbose",
"X-RequestDigest": jQuery("#__REQUESTDIGEST").val(),
"content-length": arrayBuffer.byteLength
}
});
Conclusion? With the replace regex fix in place it will now take every occurance (and not just the first, thanks regex) of a single quote that come as a part of the folder directory and properly escape them when I want to post a file back with the API.
Key change:
serverRelativeUrlToFolder.replace(/\%27/g,"''")
Everybody wins now, espcially the people out there with apostrophes in there names and folder names with titles that still need the quotes in them! Hope this helps.
References:
@JaredMeredith 