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I have a rest api right now that accesses files in a folder. It works and returns the name of the file and a count accurately. I am trying to get data from a column field as well but everything I've done returns as undefined. I have my code cycling through files in the folder and all I need is to get the FileType field for each item.

"/_api/web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl('" + folderUrl + "')?$expand=Folders,Files&$select=fileType",
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  • Is fileType a custom column that you added, or a default column?
    – Chris Odegard
    Jul 3, 2019 at 18:57
  • custom column that is a choice field
    – spUser01
    Jul 3, 2019 at 19:33

1 Answer 1

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So, you are trying to do two things at once:

  • Get the Item Count for the given folder
  • Get the 'fileType' column for all items in the folder

This seems like a job better suited to multiple sequential REST calls, but this worked for me:

<server>/_api/web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl('/Pages')?$expand=Folders,Files/ListItemAllFields/FieldValuesAsText&$select=ItemCount,Folders/ItemCount,Folders/Name,Files/ListItemAllFields/FieldValuesAsText/File_x005f_x0020_x005f_Type,Files/ListItemAllFields/FieldValuesAsText/fileLeafRef

Here I'm doing multiple levels of expansion and selection:

$expand=Folders,Files/ListItemAllFields/FieldValuesAsText

  • The additional expansion on Files was just to get to the File_x005f_x0020_x005f_Type value for each file, which is the same as the file extension

$select=ItemCount,Folders/ItemCount,Folders/Name,Files/ListItemAllFields/FieldValuesAsText/File_x005f_x0020_x005f_Type,Files/ListItemAllFields/FieldValuesAsText/fileLeafRef

  • This selects ItemCount for the current folder (the folder you specified in GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl), ItemCount and Name for each sub-folder, and File_x005f_x0020_x005f_Type and fileLeafRef (the literal file name) for all files contained in the current folder, regardless of sub-folders.

Since this query goes several levels deep, it returns a lot of metadata that you probably don't need. So I would recommend using the odata=nometadata headers when making your REST call:

Accept:application/json;odata=nometadata Content-Type:application/json;odata=nometadata

Edit: If I recall correctly, the nometadata property only works with SP 2016+

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  • still seems to be returning undefined, the column name in Sharepoint is FileType, Do i need 'x005f_x0020_x005f' ?
    – spUser01
    Jul 3, 2019 at 20:05
  • I'm not sure. Try running the query without the $select clause. It should return the full set of columns for each file, then you can find the ones you need. Also, if you're not already, I would suggest using a REST app like Postman* to explore the API. *I have no affiliation, it's just the one I use.
    – Chris Odegard
    Jul 4, 2019 at 2:29
  • running without the select clause worked! thanks!
    – spUser01
    Jul 8, 2019 at 23:00

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