Is there a solution to correctly read sharepoint list attributes that are multi-select columns?
When reading a sharepoint list with relevant permissions to read,write etc. the data table returned shows only <NULL> values for any column that has multi-selection enabled - adjacent columns with single select settings that hold the same data type (username) are returning the expected values - only the column settings differ.
[Note the column setting for allow selection of {people only / people and groups} may also play a part in this question]
The column that is returning NULL only has settings as below:
List columns that return the expected values have settings:
Could you check the Feature Information window to see if the entries appear? Since it’s an attribute with multiple values, it will read in as an unexposed list attribute. You can view it in the Visual Preview window by selecting a feature/record in the table view and opening the Feature Information window.
If that didn’t work, can you check if your Reader and FeatureReader are upgradeable? You can do this by going to Navigator > Upgradeable Transformers. If they’re both up to date, try re-adding them or rebuilding your workspace if possible.
When setting Allow multiple selections to Yes, try adjusting the Allow selection of option to People only and then to People and Group to see if it makes a difference.
Mine looks a bit different that yours but it’s essentially doing the same thing
If none of these steps work, please create a support ticket and include your workspace, along with any related data and information. Our team will be happy to assist you!
Which version of workbench are you using? This behavior could be related to an issue in earlier versions of Workbench where, when multi-selection was toggled on, FME was unable to read the values in a specific column, resulting in all entries there being populated as NULL. This issue has been addressed in version 2023.1 and later. You can download the latest version of FME Form here.
Thanks for the insight into a possible solution for the list reader behaviour.
I have re-run the test in this version:
Edition: FME Form Fixed, Fixed License, Serial Number: AEBG-XH73-24VH, expires in 436 days Version: FME(R) 2023.1.1.1 (20231011 - Build 23636 - WIN64) OS Locale Name: en_US OS Encoding: windows-1252 Process Encoding: UTF-8 FME API version: 4.0 20230426
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit (Build 19041)
with the native reader and FeatureReader [v14] - both give the same result => NULLs in multi-select columns.
Could you check the Feature Information window to see if the entries appear? Since it’s an attribute with multiple values, it will read in as an unexposed list attribute. You can view it in the Visual Preview window by selecting a feature/record in the table view and opening the Feature Information window.
If that didn’t work, can you check if your Reader and FeatureReader are upgradeable? You can do this by going to Navigator > Upgradeable Transformers. If they’re both up to date, try re-adding them or rebuilding your workspace if possible.
When setting Allow multiple selections to Yes, try adjusting the Allow selection of option to People only and then to People and Group to see if it makes a difference.
Mine looks a bit different that yours but it’s essentially doing the same thing
If none of these steps work, please create a support ticket and include your workspace, along with any related data and information. Our team will be happy to assist you!
That’s the key - I hadn’t been aware of the unexposed list values: I tried this test in FME 2024 and exposed the lists - sorted! Is this functionality documented anywhere? I don’t see anything specific around that in the reader docs or in the sharepoint list data types other than Microsoft SharePoint List Writer: User Attributes (safe.com):
List attributes are basically FME's way of allowing multiple values per attribute. Certain FME readers make use of attribute lists to represent recurring values read from the original data source and that’s exactly what the Microsoft SharePoint List Reader did in your situation.
You can learn more about List Attributes using the following resources:
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