Upload a Document to the SharePoint Document Library using a Webservice

Many a times, we may want to upload documents in a SharePoint server and place these documents in a document library. Document Libraries can consist of different files. The best part about this is that we can share these different files from the document library with other team members . In this article, we will discuss how to add a document to a SharePoint document library through a WebService.

Update: This article does not use a Webservice, but instead uses the SharePoint API. Apologies for the incorrect title.

This article will discuss only  about adding documents using WebServices, however we can similarly upload documents using WCF services or through Web pages. We can also upload documents directly using the Upload menu from the SharePoint Interface. You can see interface for adding documents directly using the SharePoint interface below.

   

Let us see how to add documents to the Document Library using a WebService

Step 1: At first we will Create a New ASP.Net WebService Application. Open Visual Studio. File > NewProject> Select the language (C# or VB.NET) > Select Web Template >Select ASP.Net WebService Application.

Step 2: Name it as UploadFileService and specify the location where you want to save that project. This step will create a Service1.asmx file.

Step 3: The Service1.asmx file by default will contain a HelloWorld method as shown below:

C#

[WebMethod]

public string HelloWorld()

{

    return "Hello World";

}       

 

VB.NET

<WebMethod> _

Public Function HelloWorld() As String

      Return "Hello World"

End Function

 

Step 4: We will change the method name to “UploadFileToDocmentLibrary” and the return type to void. So now our method will look like this.

 

C#

[WebMethod]

public void UploadFileToDocmentLibrary()

{

 

}

VB.NET

<WebMethod> _

Public Sub UploadFileToDocmentLibrary()

 

End Sub

 

Step 5: Add a reference to the Microsoft. SharePoint dll as shown in screenshot below and add the Namespace to your .cs or .vb file. This namespace is required to be used in the SharePoint Site

 

C#

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

 

VB.NET

Imports Microsoft.SharePoint

 

 

 

Step 6: Now add code in “UploadFileToDocmentLibrary“ method for connecting to your SharePoint site and adding a document. We can upload the document from the Fileupload control also, but here we will take the data from a bytearray directly.

 

Our Complete web method will look like this.

 

C#

 

[WebMethod]

public void UploadFileToDocmentLibrary()

{

    //Referring Top level sharepoint site

    //Change URI according to your sharepoint site

 

    using (SPSite sharePointtopLevelSite = new SPSite("http://localhost"))

    {

        //Will get Website collection inside top level site

        //Here my Toplevel site contains a website named test .

        //Change name according to your site settings

        SPWeb websiteCollection = sharePointtopLevelSite.AllWebs["test"];

        websiteCollection.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;

        websiteCollection.Lists.IncludeRootFolder = true;

 

        //Will get List collection inside a website

        //Here my Toplevel site contains a List named tree .

        //Change name according to your site settings

        SPList docLibrary = websiteCollection.Lists["Tree"];

 

 

        //Here we are converting a Text to Byte Array

        //We can get byte array from Fileupload control of asp.net also

        //Add Reference to System.Text Namespace

        Byte[] contentArray = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("Hello Sharepoint.");

 

        // Uploading the file to SharePoint doclib

        SPFile file = websiteCollection.Files.Add(websiteCollection.Url.ToString() + "/" + docLibrary.Title.ToString() + "/" + "SharePointTest.txt", contentArray);

        file.Update();

 

    }

}

 

VB.NET

 

<WebMethod> _

Public Sub UploadFileToDocmentLibrary()

      'Referring Top level sharepoint site

      'Change URI according to your sharepoint site

 

      Using sharePointtopLevelSite As New SPSite("http://localhost")

            'Will get Website collection inside top level site

            'Here my Toplevel site contains a website named test .

            'Change name according to your site settings

            Dim websiteCollection As SPWeb = sharePointtopLevelSite.AllWebs("test")

            websiteCollection.AllowUnsafeUpdates = True

            websiteCollection.Lists.IncludeRootFolder = True

 

            'Will get List collection inside a website

            'Here my Toplevel site contains a List named tree .

            'Change name according to your site settings

            Dim docLibrary As SPList = websiteCollection.Lists("Tree")

 

 

            'Here we are converting a Text to Byte Array

            'We can get byte array from Fileupload control of asp.net also

            'Add Reference to System.Text Namespace

            Dim contentArray() As Byte = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("Hello Sharepoint.")

 

            ' Uploading the file to SharePoint doclib

            Dim file As SPFile = websiteCollection.Files.Add(websiteCollection.Url.ToString() & "/" & docLibrary.Title.ToString() & "/" & "SharePointTest.txt", contentArray)

            file.Update()

 

      End Using

End Sub

 

 

Step 7: Run this application and Refresh your web page and you will get the file name ‘SharepointTest’ in your document library

 

That's it!