Create a console application to work with SharePoint Online using visual studio

This SharePoint CSOM tutorial, we will discuss, how to create a console application using visual studio to work with SharePoint Online Office 365.

In SharePoint Online we can not write server-side code, we can write only client-side code. We can create a console application to work with the client object model (csom/c#.net) code.

Create a console application to work with SharePoint Online using visual studio

Now, we will see a step by step tutorial, how to create a console application using a visual studio in SharePoint Online Office 365.

Follow the below steps:

Open visual studio 2015/2017/2019 and then File -> New -> Project…

Here from the left side, choose Templates -> Visual C#. And then from the list of template choose Console Application. Make sure to choose the .net framework version to “.NET Framework 4.5.2” like below:

Now our console application is ready, but to work with SharePoint online sites we need to add few dlls like below:

• Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll
• Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll etc.

We can add those dlls like below. Click on Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Manage NuGet Packages for Solutions…. like below:

In the Manage Packages for Solution, click on the Browse tab and search for “Microsoft.SharePoint.Client”. In the search result we can see like below dlls like below:

• Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll
• Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll

Select one dll and then select the project and click on Install like below:

Then it will show the Preview dialog box like below. Click on OK like below:

Once it will add the dll successfully, it will show a message like below:

To connect to SharePoint online site, we need to use credentials which we can save in App.config like below:

<appSettings>
<add key=”SPOAccount” value=”********@OnlySharePoint2013.onmicrosoft.com” />
<add key=”SPOPassword” value=”********” />
</appSettings>

The app.config looks like below:

Then in the Program.cs file we need to retrieve the user name and password from the App.Config file like below:

private static SecureString GetSPOSecureStringPassword()
{
try
{
var secureString = new SecureString();
foreach (char c in ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[“SPOPassword”])
{
secureString.AppendChar(c);
}
return secureString;
}
catch
{
throw;
}
}

private static string GetSPOAccountName()
{
try
{
return ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[“SPOAccount”];
}
catch
{
throw;
}
}

Then we can connect to the SharePoint online site using AuthenticationMode as ClientAuthenticationMode.Default;

And then we can pass the credentials to the context object. The full code looks like below:

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Linq;
using System.Security;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace SPOnlineConsoleAppDemo
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
using (ClientContext context = new ClientContext(“https://onlysharepoint2013.sharepoint.com/sites/Bhawana/”))
{
// Use default authentication mode.
context.AuthenticationMode = ClientAuthenticationMode.Default;
context.Credentials = new SharePointOnlineCredentials(GetSPOAccountName(), GetSPOSecureStringPassword());
var web = context.Web;
context.Load(web, w => w.Webs);
context.ExecuteQuery();
}
}

private static SecureString GetSPOSecureStringPassword()
{
try
{
var secureString = new SecureString();
foreach (char c in ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[“SPOPassword”])
{
secureString.AppendChar(c);
}
return secureString;
}

catch
{
throw;
}
}

private static string GetSPOAccountName()
{
try
{
return ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[“SPOAccount”];
}

catch
{
throw;
}
}
}
}

You may like following SharePoint CSOM tutorials:

• Copy list items from one list to another in SharePoint programmatically using CSOM
• Steps to add items from CSV file to SharePoint Online List using PowerShell in CSOM
• How to Use CAML Query for Boolean field for SharePoint 2013/2016/Online Object Model CSOM
• Create an index in SharePoint Online list using CSOM
• Read CSV file from SharePoint document library programmatically using CSOM
• Activate SharePoint Server Publishing Feature programmatically using CSOM

This SharePoint tutorial, we learned how to create a console application using visual studio 2017/2019/2013 to work with SharePoint Online Office 365.