Upload files for education assignments and submissions using the Microsoft Graph API

Resources are an integral part of education assignments and submissions. Teachers determine the resources to upload to an assignment folder, and students determine the resources to upload to a submission folder.

This article describes how to use the education API in Microsoft Graph to upload files to an assignment or submission folder.

Prerequisites

Before you can upload files, set up a SharePoint folder to which to upload the files for a given education assignment or submission resource.

Upload a resource

The setUpResourcesFolder API returns a model that contains the resourcesFolderUrl property.

{
    ...
    "resourcesFolderUrl": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/drives/b!6SQl0y4WHkS2P5MeIsSGpKwfynEIaD1OvPVeH4wbOp_1uyhNwJMSSpseJneB7Z4F/items/01YT2AIJRQLVYT24IWWFAJHMRRNYCB3GFA"
    ...
}

The following steps describe how to upload a resource/file to a relevant resource folder.

Step 1 - Construct the upload URL

Build the URL to upload content following this specific format {resourcesFolderUrl}:/{Name of new file}:/content. The following example shows an upload URL that contains the resourcesFolderUrl property.

https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/drives/b!6SQl0y4WHkS2P5MeIsSGpKwfynEIaD1OvPVeH4wbOp_1uyhNwJMSSpseJneB7Z4F/items/01YT2AIJRQLVYT24IWWFAJHMRRNYCB3GE2:/MyPictureFile.png:/content

Step 2 - Upload the resource to SharePoint

Make a PUT request with the upload URL to upload the content.

The contents of the request body should be the binary stream of the file to be uploaded.

For more details, see Upload large files with an upload session.

Request

The following example shows the request.

PUT https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/drives/b!6SQl0y4WHkS2P5MeIsSGpKwfynEIaD1OvPVeH4wbOp_1uyhNwJMSSpseJneB7Z4F/items/01YT2AIJRQLVYT24IWWFAJHMRRNYCB3GE2:/MyPictureFile.png:/content
Content-Type: text/plain

Binary data for the file

Response

The following example shows the response.

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Content-type: application/json

{
    "@odata.context": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/$metadata#drives('b%216SQl0y4WHkS2P5MeIsSGpKwfynEIaD1OvPVeH4wbOp_1uyhNwJMSSpseJneB7Z4F')/items/$entity",
    "@microsoft.graph.downloadUrl": "...",
    "createdDateTime": "2021-03-11T18:49:47Z",
    "eTag": "\"{EDD00CE7-B74C-4C3E-BA3E-484CB41EF31D},1\"",
    "id": "01YT2AIJU7DAXTU6XLOJGYWYMTGM5JT5UQ",
    "lastModifiedDateTime": "2021-03-11T18:49:47Z",
    "name": "MyPictureFile.png",
    "webUrl": "https://contososdorg.sharepoint.com/sites/GraphTest/Class%20Files/Assignments/Test%20File%20Distribution/MyPictureFile.png",
    "cTag": "\"c:{EDD00CE7-B74C-4C3E-BA3E-484CB41EF31D},2\"",
    "size": 2302233,
    "createdBy": {
        "application": null,
        "device": null,
        "user": {
            "email": "t-james@contososd.org",
            "id": "42ff222c-571f-497c-a9d3-f77ea9ece327",
            "displayName": "James"
        }
    },
    "lastModifiedBy": {
        "application": null,
        "device": null,
        "user": {
            "email": "t-james@contososd.org",
            "id": "42ff222c-571f-497c-a9d3-f77ea9ece327",
            "displayName": "James"
        }
    },
    "parentReference": {
        "driveId": "b!6SQl0y4WHkS2P5MeIsSGpKwfynEIaD1OvPVeH4wbOp_1uyhNwJMSSpseJneB7Z4F",
        "driveType": "documentLibrary",
        "id": "01YT2AIJRQLVYT24IWWFAJHMRRNYCB3GE2",
        "path": "/drives/b!6SQl0y4WHkS2P5MeIsSGpKwfynEIaD1OvPVeH4wbOp_1uyhNwJMSSpseJneB7Z4F/root:/Assignments/Test File Distribution"
    },
    "file": {
        "mimeType": "image/png",
        "hashes": {
            "quickXorHash": "CvYQxN7MCGrIsdrA38c6wWhOu5g="
        }
    },
    "fileSystemInfo": {
        "createdDateTime": "2021-03-11T18:49:47Z",
        "lastModifiedDateTime": "2021-03-11T18:49:47Z"
    },
    "image": {}
}

Step 3 - Construct the value for the fileUrl property

Build the value for the fileUrl property using the following format: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/drives/{drive-id}/items/{item-id}. Replace the {drive-id} and {item-id} placeholders with the values described in the following table.

Placeholder Description Example
{drive-id} Drive ID from the request URL used in step 2. b!6SQl0y4WHkS2P5MeIsSGpKwfynEIaD1OvPVeH4wbOp_1uyhNwJMSSpseJneB7Z4F
{item-id} Item ID from the response body obtained in step 2. 01YT2AIJU7DAXTU6XLOJGYWYMTGM5JT5UQ

The following example shows a fileUrl based on this format.

https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/drives/b!6SQl0y4WHkS2P5MeIsSGpKwfynEIaD1OvPVeH4wbOp_1uyhNwJMSSpseJneB7Z4F/items/01YT2AIJU7DAXTU6XLOJGYWYMTGM5JT5UQ

Step 4 - Create educationAssignmentResource

This step shows how to upload a SharePoint resource to an assignment resources folder.

Use the fileUrl from the previous step in the request body to Create an educationAssignmentResource.

Request

The following example shows the request.

POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/education/classes/b07edbef-7420-4b3d-8f7c-d599cf21e069/assignments/48b80dff-452a-4108-bd85-fa0d84e39d0a/resources
Content-type: application/json

{
    "resource": {
        "@odata.type": "#microsoft.graph.educationFileResource",
        "fileUrl": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/drives/b!6SQl0y4WHkS2P5MeIsSGpKwfynEIaD1OvPVeH4wbOp_1uyhNwJMSSpseJneB7Z4F/items/01YT2AIJU7DAXTU6XLOJGYWYMTGM5JT5UQ",
        "displayName": "Parts of a Sonnet"
    }
}

Response

The following example shows the response.

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Content-type: application/json

{
    "@odata.context": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/$metadata#education/classes('b07edbef-7420-4b3d-8f7c-d599cf21e069')/assignments('48b80dff-452a-4108-bd85-fa0d84e39d0a')/resources/$entity",
    "distributeForStudentWork": false,
    "id": "ff1aafe4-ae89-49c3-8366-4b509f640d6a",
    "resource": {
        "@odata.type": "#microsoft.graph.educationFileResource",
        "displayName": "Parts of a Sonnet",
        "createdDateTime": "2021-03-11T18:35:40.6642039Z",
        "lastModifiedDateTime": "2021-03-11T18:35:40.6642039Z",
        "fileUrl": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/drives/b!6SQl0y4WHkS2P5MeIsSGpKwfynEIaD1OvPVeH4wbOp_1uyhNwJMSSpseJneB7Z4F/items/01YT2AIJU7DAXTU6XLOJGYWYMTGM5JT5UQ",
        "createdBy": {
            "application": null,
            "device": null,
            "user": {
                "id": "42ff222c-571f-497c-a9d3-f77ea9ece327",
                "displayName": null
            }
        },
        "lastModifiedBy": {
            "application": null,
            "device": null,
            "user": {
                "id": "42ff222c-571f-497c-a9d3-f77ea9ece327",
                "displayName": null
            }
        }
    }
}

You have now successfully uploaded a SharePoint resource to an assignment resources folder (and attached it to the associated assignment). You can follow similar steps to upload one or more student work resources.

For more details, see Create educationSubmissionResource.