SharePoint Browser

A modern Python-based file browser for Microsoft SharePoint, specifically designed to bypass the Windows MAX_PATH (260 character) limitation. It achieves this by interacting directly with the Microsoft Graph API using unique IDs and downloading files to short, temporary local paths for editing.

Project Overview

Purpose: Provide a seamless SharePoint browsing and editing experience regardless of folder depth.
Key Strategy: Uses unique Microsoft Graph API IDs instead of traditional file paths to avoid path length issues.
Core Workflow:
1. Authenticate via MSAL.
2. Browse SharePoint sites/folders dynamically.
3. Checkout a file on SharePoint.
4. Download to a short local path (e.g., C:\Temp_SP\[ShortHash].[ext]).
5. Monitor local file usage; detect when the editing application is closed.
6. Upload the modified file back to SharePoint.
7. Checkin and clean up local temporary files.

Tech Stack

Language: Python 3.x
GUI Framework: wxPython (Native Windows UI)
Authentication: MSAL (Microsoft Authentication Library)
API Interaction: Microsoft Graph API via requests
File Monitoring: Local file lock polling

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Ensure you have Python installed. You will also need to install the following dependencies:

pip install wxPython msal requests

Running the Application

Execute the main script:

python sharepoint_browser.py

Configuration

The application is pre-configured with a CLIENT_ID and TENANT_ID for Microsoft authentication. These are located at the top of sharepoint_browser.py:

CLIENT_ID = '281c91fc-4572-4614-b4d2-e3795d4b502d'
TENANT_ID = 'cce9d2ae-239b-4a22-86bb-fb904c85be79'
TEMP_DIR = "C:\\Temp_SP"

Architecture & Conventions

Main Entry Point: sharepoint_browser.py contains both the GUI logic and the Graph API integration.
Threading: File operations (download, wait, upload) are executed in background threads (threading.Thread) to keep the GUI responsive.
File Detection: Uses a polling mechanism with os.rename(local_path, local_path) to detect when the external editor (e.g., Word, Excel) has released the file lock.
Path Handling: Generates unique local filenames using MD5 hashes of the SharePoint item IDs to ensure they remain short and avoid collisions.

Key Files

sharepoint_browser.py: The complete application logic.
project_description.md: Original project requirements and context (in Danish).
GEMINI.md: This instructional context file.

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