Consuming SharePoint web services with a Java client

I used to think that a Camel was something to smoke or ride in the desert, but that was before I opened my mouth at work one day and said, “Sure I can automatically save these documents up to SharePoint.” SharePoint has been around for a long time, so I assumed that there must be a Java API or possibly some exposed web services that I could consume. Well, as it turns out I did get the job done, and as with many things it ended better than it started. But there were quite a few hurdles along the way, which I’d like to help other JavaWorld readers avoid.

In this Java tip I’ll show you how to perform basic CRUD operations on a SharePoint document folder from a Java client. The demonstration will focus on some of the more popular methods that any SharePoint web service consumer is likely to invoke, which are found in Microsoft’s Copy and Lists services. For the CRUD operations we’ll use CAML (Collaborative Application Markup Language), an XML-based language utilized in many of the methods exposed by Copy and Lists. You’ll learn how to construct valid CAML structures that are passed as method parameters or assigned to object properties, which are in turn passed as parameters to these services.

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