SharePoint 2013 - getting list of files from a Document library in a site and sub-site

Question

I have encountered strange behavior in SharePoint 2013SP when using REST API to retrieve information about documents located Document libraries.

Here is a description of the issue, steps to reproduce are:

In the top-level site I create a sub-site called 'collab'.
I import two documents to the Documents library in the top-level site.
I import a new document to the Documents library in the 'collab' subsite (just one document to somehow differentiate the two libraries).

I did it on a SharePoint 2013SP1 server - freshly installed.

Now, when I query the server to find documents in the 'collab' subsite I use the following REST call:

http://localhost/collab/_api/Web/lists/getByTitle('Documents')/Items

this returns 2 documents which are located in the top-level site Document library and not just the one document from the collab sub-site. Strange.

Exactly same result I get when I run this URL:

http://localhost/_api/Web/lists/getByTitle('Documents')/Items

Why SharePoint does not honor the subsite name in the URL?

At this point I thought that perhaps I am using a wrong endpoint, so I decide to try something else:

http://localhost/collab/_api/Web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl('/collab/Shared%20Documents')

This to my surprise returns correct number of documents: 1

Querying the top level site also returns correct number of items: 2.

http://localhost/_api/Web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl('/Shared%20Documents')

So now I try to retrieve information about the contents of the Document library of the top level site and the subsite:

First the top-level site:

http://localhost/_api/Web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl('/Shared%20Documents')/Files

this request gives correct response, there are two items.

Lets see if I get the same for the sub-site:

http://localhost/collab/_api/Web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl('/collab/Shared%20Documents')/Files

Sadly, I get a response which is difficult for me to understand:

<feed xml:base="http://localhost/_api/" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/metadata" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml">
  <id>8f772a2c-2d90-4324-9168-3344aedca14b</id>
  <title/>
  <updated>2018-01-28T11:37:22Z</updated>
  <author>
    <name/>
  </author>
</feed>

What does this response mean?

When I try a slightly different URL:

http://localhost/collab/_api/Web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl('/Shared%20Documents')/Files

I get in the response details about the documents which are in the top level site, even though I have 'collab' site name in the URL. What is going on here?

Questions are:

How do I retrieve list of documents for the site and subsite Documents library in a consistent manner? What REST API endpoint should I use?
Why above REST API calls return only those documents which are in the top-level Document library site ignoring the subsite's Document library?

Thanks!

Karol

LZ_MSFT LZ_MSFT · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-29T08:04:28

Get files from documents library in root site using the following REST URL:

http://localhost/_api/Web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl('Shared%20Documents')/Files

Get files from documents library in sub site("collab") using the following REST URL:

http://localhost/collab/_api/Web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl('Shared%20Documents')/Files

If it still not works, I suggest you update the latest CU for SharePoint 2013. Latest Updates for SharePoint 2013

SharePoint 2013 - getting list of files from a Document library in a site and sub-site

1 Answers