n8n-nodes-sharepoint-excel

⚠️ Warning: Please review the known limitations before using this node.

This is an n8n community node that provides Excel file operations for SharePoint via Microsoft Graph API. Unlike native n8n nodes that rely on WAC tokens, this node downloads and modifies files directly, bypassing common SharePoint Excel issues.

Features

• 🔓 Bypasses WAC Token Issues - No more token expiration or permission errors with SharePoint files
• 📊 Full Excel Support - Read, write, append, update, and upsert rows in .xlsx files
• 📋 Table Operations - Read data from formal Excel Tables with column lookups
• 📁 Workbook Management - Create sheets, list workbooks, and manage files
• 🔍 Smart Dropdowns - Searchable site, drive, file, and sheet selectors
• ⚡ Reliable - Uses exceljs library for robust Excel parsing

Why This Node?

The native n8n Microsoft Excel 365 node uses WAC (Web Application Companion) tokens which often fail with SharePoint:

• ❌ Token expiration issues
• ❌ Permission complexities with SharePoint sites
• ❌ WAC service availability problems

This node takes a different approach: download → modify → upload. Simple and reliable.

📖 For a deep technical analysis, see Why Not WAC?

Installation

Follow the installation guide in the n8n community nodes documentation.

npm install @lab1095/n8n-nodes-sharepoint-excel

Operations

📊 Sheet

Operation	Description
Get Sheets	List all worksheets in the workbook
Get Rows	Read rows with configurable header and start row
Append Rows	Add new rows to the end of a sheet
Update	Update a specific cell by reference (e.g., A1)
Upsert Rows	Insert or update rows based on a key column
Clear	Clear all data from a sheet
Delete	Delete a sheet from the workbook

📋 Table

Operation	Description
Get Rows	Retrieve all rows from an Excel table
Get Columns	Get column definitions from a table
Lookup	Find a row by column value

📁 Workbook

Operation	Description
Add Sheet	Create a new sheet in the workbook
Delete	Delete the workbook file
Get Workbooks	List all Excel files in the drive

Credentials

This node requires Microsoft Graph OAuth2 credentials.

Setup

1. Register an app in Azure AD:

   • Go to Azure Portal → Azure Active Directory → App registrations
   • Click "New registration"
   • Set redirect URI to your n8n OAuth callback URL

2. Configure API permissions:

   • Add Microsoft Graph delegated permissions:
     • Sites.Read.All - Read sites
     • Files.ReadWrite.All - Read and write files
   • Grant admin consent

3. Create a client secret:

   • Go to "Certificates & secrets"
   • Create new client secret and copy the value

4. Configure in n8n:

   • Add credentials of type "Microsoft Graph OAuth2 API"
   • Enter Client ID and Client Secret
   • Complete OAuth2 flow

📖 See Security and Permissions for enterprise considerations.

Usage

Finding Required IDs

The node provides searchable dropdowns to select:

• Site - Your SharePoint site
• Drive - The document library
• File - The Excel file
• Sheet/Table - The specific sheet or table

Or enter IDs manually:

• Site ID: contoso.sharepoint.com,site-guid,web-guid
• Drive ID: b!xxxxx...
• File ID: Item ID from SharePoint

Reading Data

Configure:

• Header Row - Which row contains column headers (default: 1)
• Start Row - First data row to read (default: 2)
• Max Rows - Limit rows returned (0 = all)

Writing Data

Provide data as JSON with column headers as keys:

{ "Name": "John", "Email": "john@example.com" }

For multiple rows, use an array of objects.

Limitations

Limitation	Impact
Excel Tables may be corrupted	Write operations on files with formal Excel Tables may corrupt them. Read operations are safe. Details
Full file download/upload	Each operation downloads and re-uploads the entire file
No table creation/deletion	Can only read table data, not create/delete tables

Note: "Excel Tables" refers to Insert → Table, not regular cell data. Most users are unaffected.

Documentation

Document	Description
Security and Permissions	OAuth scopes and enterprise considerations
File Locking Behavior	Why files get locked and how to handle it
Excel Table Limitation	Details on table corruption risk
Why Not WAC?	Deep dive into WAC tokens and our approach

Compatibility

• n8n version 1.x and above
• Microsoft Graph API v1.0
• .xlsx files only

Resources

• n8n Community Nodes
• Microsoft Graph API
• SharePoint REST API

License

MIT