SharePoint Rest API: GetChanges

Question

Imagine we have a file in a folder named FOLDER_B, and FOLDER_B is located inside another folder, FOLDER_A. I am moving a file from FOLDER_B to FOLDER_A (parent of FOLDER_B). Afterward, I attempt to retrieve the file changes by making the following API call to:

https://mindtickledotcom.sharepoint.com/sites/<sitename>/api/web/GetFolderById('folder id of FOLDER_B')/GetChanges

The JSON payload for the request is:

{
  "query": {
    "Add": true,
    "SystemUpdate": true,
    "DeleteObject": true,
    "Move": true,
    "Rename": true,
    "Restore": true,
    "Item": true,
    "File": true,
    "Folder": true,
    "ChangeTokenStart": {
      "StringValue": "1;3;3df964e0-3257-415d-a8b0-538d5ddabe43;638625074960000000;1055416306"
    }
  }
}

The response I receive is:

{
    "d": {
        "results": []
    }
}

My query is that the response doesn't contain the Move ChangeType. What parameters or adjustments should I make to capture the Move change type?

Answer 1

Hi @prakash prajapat,Thank you for posting in this community.

According to this document: Working with folders by using REST, the folder doesn't seem to support this GetChanges Rest API.

Instead, I found that the SharePoint SDK (Client-Side Object Model or CSOM) support GetChanges for folders.

You can refer to this article: Enumerating changes that happened in SharePoint to use SDK to get folder changes.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 2

The key to detecting when a file is moved between folders in SharePoint Online that has worked for me is to use the Rename parameter in the Change API, as SharePoint treats file moves as a change in the file's name or location:

var changeQuery = new ChangeQuery(false, false)

{

Item = true, // Detect changes in items

DeleteObject = true, // Detect deletions

Restore = true, // Detect restores

Add = true, // Detect additions

Update = true, // Detect updates

File = true, // Detect changes in files

Rename = true, // Used to detect if a document has been moved or renamed

ChangeTokenStart = lastChangeToken, // Previous change token to avoid duplicates

};

var changes = documentLibrary.GetChanges(changeQuery);

context.Load(changes);

await context.ExecuteQueryAsync();