topic Sharepoint App Connection Question in Workato Pros Discussion Board

Sharepoint App Connection Question

rharkness — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 20:56:35 GMT

I'm trying to establish an app connection to sharepoint. The client is telling me that we have to use the Client Credentials method because the "Authorization Code Grant" method is requiring tennat authentication and at this point and time they aren't wanting to jump through the administrative hoops to get a service account approved and granted.

Our issue is how do we get the strings out of the cer and pfx files to put into the Certificate and Private Key fields?

Re: Sharepoint App Connection Question

Bhagya_pola — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 14:51:11 GMT

Hi @rharkness
Have you gone through this documentation on how to establish a SharePoint connection using Client Credentials

Workato connectors - SharePoint | Workato Docs

Re: Sharepoint App Connection Question

rharkness — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 03:05:37 GMT

Yes, that was the website being consulted when I was working with the client's sharepoint person. It wasn't very helpful

Re: Sharepoint App Connection Question

Bhagya_pola — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 04:51:22 GMT

Okay, try doing it in this way

🔹1. Register the App in Azure

Head to https://portal.azure.com and in left menu you can find Microsoft Entra ID, choose that.
under manage you can see App registrations → click New registration
Give it a name
Leave redirect URI empty (client credentials don’t need it)
Click Register

2. Add API Permissions

After registration, go to API permissions ( in left menu you can find it)
Click Add a permission → choose Microsoft Graph
Choose Application permissions
Add Sites.Read.All or Sites.ReadWrite.All depending on your needs
Click Grant admin consent so these permissions are actually active

3. Upload or Use a Certificate

Go to Certificates & secrets → under Certificates, click Upload certificate
Upload the .cer file you have
You’ll now see a thumbprint
If you're using .pfx instead (which includes the private key too), see next step

4. Extract Certificate & Private Key from .pfx (for Workato Connection)

If Workato is asking for certificate and private key, and all you’ve got is a .pfx file, you can extract both using

Use Windows Certificate Manager

Double-click your .pfx file → Import it into Current User
Open certmgr.msc (Windows Key + R → type certmgr.msc)
Find your cert under Personal → Certificates
Right-click it → All Tasks → Export
- Export without private key → choose .cer (Base64 X.509)
- Export with private key → choose .pfx or .pem format
Once exported, open both files in Notepad/Notepad++ to grab:
- The certificate → starts with -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
- The private key → starts with -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----

These are the strings you'll copy-paste into Workato's connector fields.

5. Create the Connection in Workato

Go to the SharePoint connector in Workato
Choose Authentication: Client Credentials (Certificate)
Fill in:
- Client ID (from Azure)
- Tenant ID (from Azure)
- Certificate = contents of your .crt
- Private Key = from .pfx or exported .pem
- SharePoint Site Name or URL

Click Save and run a test — if everything above was done right, you should be connected.

Re: Sharepoint App Connection Question

JKelty — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 15:33:03 GMT

Thanks for this information. I am having a similar issue. I find when I try to set up the SharePoint connector that I do not have this "Client Credentials (Certificate)" option you mentioned. I see only "Authorization code grant" and "Client credentials," both of which are wanting me to log in using my email or phone even though I'm setting up an application account.

Re: Sharepoint App Connection Question

Bhagya_pola — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 17:04:29 GMT

Hello @JKelty

When I mentioned Client Credentials (Certificate) in my previous reply, I was specifically referring to the Client Credentials authentication type, the certificate was mentioned only for reference.

Yes, even after completing all the setup steps, you still need to sign in to establish a successful connection.
Just to add, since the SharePoint connection uses OAuth 2.0, the refresh token is handled internally once you sign in.

Re: Sharepoint App Connection Question

prasanna-k — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 09:43:58 GMT

Thanks, The Share-point Client Credentials doc is not updated, but you shared with us correctly and in simple manner.
From my perspective, we should have to minimize the application-level permissions from Sites.read.all to Sites.selected, as Sites.read.all carries lot broader access.