Attach files to a To Do task

Using the To Do API in Microsoft Graph, you can attach files up to 25 MB to a todoTask. Depending on the file size, choose one of two ways to attach the file:

  • For attaching files of any size, create an upload session, and iteratively use PUT to upload ranges of bytes of the file until you have uploaded the entire file. A header in the final successful PUT response includes a URL with the attachment ID.
  • If the file size is under 3 MB, do a single POST on the attachments navigation property of a todoTask; see how to do this for a task. The successful POST response includes the ID of the file attachment.

This article illustrates the first approach. You will learn step-by-step how to create and use an upload session to add a file attachment to a task.

Step 1: Create an upload session

Create an upload session to attach a file to a todoTask. Specify the file in the input parameter attachmentInfo.

A successful operation returns HTTP 201 Created and a new uploadSession instance, which contains an opaque URL that you can use in subsequent PUT operations to upload portions of the file. The uploadSession provides a temporary storage location where the bytes of the file are saved until you have uploaded the complete file.

The uploadSession object in the response also includes the nextExpectedRanges property, which indicates that the initial upload starting location should be byte 0.

Permissions

One of the following permissions is required to call this API. To learn more, including how to choose permissions, see Permissions.

Permission type Permissions (from least to most privileged)
Delegated (work or school account) Tasks.ReadWrite
Delegated (personal Microsoft account) Tasks.ReadWrite
Application Not supported.

Example: Create an upload session for a todoTask

Request

The following example shows a request to create an upload session.

POST https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/me/todo/lists/AAMDiFkfh=/tasks/AAMkADliMm=/attachments/createUploadSession
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "attachmentInfo": {
    "attachmentType": "file",
    "name": "flower",
    "size": 3483322
  }
}

Response

The following example shows the uploadSession resource returned for the task in the response body.

Note: The response object shown here might be shortened for readability.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "@odata.context": "https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/$metadata#microsoft.graph.uploadSession",
    "uploadUrl": "https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/users/6f9a2a92-8527-4d64-837e-b5312852f36d/todo/lists/AAMDiFkfh=/tasks/AAMkADliMm=/attachmentSessions/AAMkADliMm=",
    "expirationDateTime": "2022-06-09T10:45:27.4324526Z",
    "nextExpectedRanges": [
        "0-"
    ]
}

Step 2: Use the upload session to upload a range of bytes of the file

To upload the file, or a portion of the file, append /content to the URL returned in step 1 in the uploadUrl property of the uploadSession resource and make a PUT request on the appended URL. You can upload the entire file, or split the file into multiple byte ranges. Each byte range needs to be less than 4 MB.

Specify the request headers and the request body as described in the following sections.

Request headers

Name Type Description
Authorization String Bearer {token}. Required. Learn more about authentication and authorization.
Content-Length Int32 The number of bytes being uploaded in this operation. The upper limit of the number of bytes for each PUT operation is 4 MB. The request will fail for anything higher than 4 MB. Required.
Content-Range String The 0-based byte range of the file being uploaded in this operation, expressed in the format bytes {start}-{end}/{total}. Required.
Content-Type String The MIME type. Specify application/octet-stream. Required.

Request body

Specify the actual bytes of the file to be attached, that are in the location range specified by the Content-Range request header.

Response

A successful upload returns a HTTP 200 OK response code and an uploadSession object. Note the following in the response object:

  • The expirationDateTime property value remains the same as returned by the initial uploadSession in step 1.
  • The nextExpectedRanges specifies the next byte location to start uploading from, for example, "nextExpectedRanges":["2097152"]. You must upload bytes in a file in order.
  • The uploadUrl property is not explicitly returned, because all PUT operations of an upload session use the same URL returned when you create the session (step 1).

Example: First upload to the todoTask

Request

The following example shows a request.

PUT https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/users/6f9a2a92-8527-4d64-837e-b5312852f36d/todo/lists/AAMDiFkfh=/tasks/AAMkADliMm=/attachmentSessions/AAMkADliMm=/content
Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Content-Length: 2097152
Content-Range: bytes 0-2097151/3483322

{
  <bytes 0-2097151 of the file to be attached, in binary format>
}

Response

The following is an example of the response that shows in the nextExpectedRanges property the start of the next byte range that the server expects.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-type: application/json

{
  "ExpirationDateTime":"2022-06-09T10:45:27.4324526Z",
  "NextExpectedRanges":["2097152"]
}

Step 3: Continue uploading byte ranges until the entire file has been uploaded

Following the initial upload in step 2, continue to upload the remaining portion of the file, using a similar PUT request as described in step 2, before you reach the expiration date/time for the session. Use the nextExpectedRanges collection to determine where to start the next byte range to upload. You might see multiple ranges specified, indicating parts of the file that the server has not yet received. This is useful if you need to resume a transfer that was interrupted and your client is unsure of the state on the service.

Once the last byte of the file has been successfully uploaded, the final PUT operation returns a HTTP 201 Created response code and a Location header that indicates the URL to the file attachment. You can get the attachment ID from the URL and save it for later use.

The following examples show how to upload the last byte range of the file to the todoTask in the preceding steps.

Example: Final upload to the todoTask

Request

The following example shows a request.

PUT https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/users/6f9a2a92-8527-4d64-837e-b5312852f36d/todo/lists/AAMDiFkfh=/tasks/AAMkADliMm=/attachmentSessions/AAMkADliMm=/content
Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Content-Length: 1386170
Content-Range: bytes 2097152-3483321/3483322

{
  <bytes 2097152-3483321 of the file to be attached, in binary format>
}

Response

The following is an example of the response that shows a Location response header from which you can save the attachment ID (AAMkADI5MAAIT3drCAAABEgAQANAqbAe7qaROhYdTnUQwXm0=) for later use.

HTTP/1.1 201 Created

Location: https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/users/6f9a2a92-8527-4d64-837e-b5312852f36d/todo/lists/AAMDiFkfh=/tasks/AAMkADliMm=/Attachments/AAMkADI5MAAIT3drCAAABEgAQANAqbAe7qaROhYdTnUQwXm0=
Content-Length: 0

Alternative step: Cancel the upload session

At any point of time before the upload session expires, if you have to cancel the upload, you can use the same initial URL to delete the upload session. A successful operation returns an HTTP 204 No Content response code.

Example: Cancel the upload session

Request

The following example shows a request.

DELETE https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/users/6f9a2a92-8527-4d64-837e-b5312852f36d/todo/lists/AAMDiFkfh=/tasks/AAMkADliMm=/attachmentSessions/AAMkADliMm=

Response

The following example shows the response.

HTTP/1.1 204 No content