The purpose of this tool is,

• Explore SharePoint with the help of SharePoint REST API(for e.g. lists, libraries, features, etc)
• Generate CAML Query and export list/library data in various formats like excel, csv, pdf and clipboard.

You have two options to use this tool.

• Farm Based Solution
• SharePoint Application(SharePoint Hosted)

Tool does exactly same job for both options.

TODO: I am also planning to release this in Office Store. Once its release I will update this page.

Installation

Farm Solution

1. Deploy the "SharePoint.Explorer.wsp" solution.
2. Activate "SharePoint Explorer" feature.
3. Navigate to http://<servername>:<portno>/_layouts/15/SharePoint.Explorer/SharePoint.Explorer.aspx

Once you navigate to the page mentioned in above step you are all set to explore.

SharePoint App

1. Upload App to Office 365

Once you navigate to application mentioned in above step you are all set to explore.

Note: Export functionality will not work with IE.

Difference between farm and application.

Textbox v/s Dropdown

• With farm solution text box will be displayed in upper left corner
• With application drop down you have an option to choose between AppWeb and HostWeb.

Go Button

• With farm solution you can update URL and click go to navigate to the specific subsite if you want. Other approach to browse subsite will be to navigate to subsite and then browse “_layouts/15/SharePoint.Explorer/SharePoint.Explorer.aspx”.
• No need for Go button in application

OData URL

• If you look at the green box with URL which will show you the OData URL which will is what has been executed last. If you browse Host from application URL will be different. For e.g. https://<SPWebUrl>/SharePointAppExplorer/_api/SP.AppContextSite(@target)/web?@target='<SPHostURL>'

Access point

With this tool you can access multiple access point within SharePoint

• Site - http://server/site/_api/site
• Web - http://server/site/_api/web
• User Profile - http:// server/site/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager
• Search - http:// server/site/_api/search
• Publishing - http:// server/site/_api/publishing

Single Page Application

If you look at the tool you will notice two sections.

Left section

• This section has three or four controls depending on which tool you are using.
• Farm solution: you will see Textbox, go button, drop down control for access point and tree view.
• Application: you will see two dropdown to select url, access point dropdown and tree view.

Right section

This section has two section Rest URL and Tabs (Properties and Results)

Rest URL

Here you can see what the latest rest call was. This will be helpful if you need to know what the REST URL to access any particular resource is. First you can navigate to the specific object and then grab the url from here and you can use it in your application.

Properties Tab

This tab will show all metadata that has been retrieved with REST call for selected node. This tab also have button “Export”. If you click on this button all metadata will be exported to Excel.

Results Tab

This tab will give results or more specifically it will iterate every element under “data.d.results” node. If you are familiar with SharePoint Rest API you will understand what I am talking about. For e.g. if you click on Lists node this tab will show all lists. If you click on Items node under any list tab this tab will display all items (first 100). If you click on Content Types node this tab will display all content types.



Once you are on Results tab you can do any of below three operations.

Show/Hide Columns

You can click on “Select columns” text which will open popup up with all existing columns. You can hide/show columns from results table by check/uncheck checkbox.

Export

You can export all items from Result table to Excel. This functionality is currently disabled in IE.

Previous

You will only see “Previous” button when you click on Items node under any List’s node. This button will be disabled when you are on first page or list items count is less than 100. This button will be enabled when you are on second page.

Next

You will only see “Next” button when you click on Items node under any List’s node. This button will be disabled when you are on last page or list items count is less than 100. This button will be enabled when list items count is greater than 100.

CAML Query Builder

You can open CAML Query Builder tab by clicking on “CAML” button under Results tab.
You can execute CAML by performing below steps (i.e. Select Fields, Select Filters, Select additional options and then click on “Execute” button.

Select Properties

Before you execute query you will select fields which will be retrieved with CAML query.
You can either select field by view or by field attribute. These all options are available in drop down shown below.

Select Filters

You can select filter by selecting fields, operator and its value.

Date Field

If you select date type field then button will appear next to value text box. Clicking on this button will open popup to select date value. You can click on this button or enter valid date value.



Select Today's Date



Select Specific Date

Lookup Field

If you select lookup type field then button will appear next to value text box. Clicking on this button will open popup to select lookup value. You can click on this button or enter valid lookup value.



Select lookup field value

User Field

If you select user type field then button will appear next to value text box. Clicking on this button will open popup to select user value. You can click on this button or enter valid user value.

Select current user



Select specific user



Select membership

IN Operator

If you select IN operator then you can select multiple values or enter multiple values separated by <AND> separator.



Select multiple value by Shift + Left Click

Select Additional options

In this section you can select additional query options (Files and folder option, Row limit, Dates in UTC).

Execute

Once you have selected Fields, Filters and Options you can now click on “Execute”. Once you click “Execute” button tool will perform below steps.

• Update CAML Query textbox
• Execute query
• Activate Results tab and populate result in result tab

I have used DataTable to show CAML Results

Export

Once you execute CAML against any list you can export data into any of below format.

• Clipboard
• Excel
• CSV
• PDF