Beginner lost in vocabulary - seeking a way to create folders programmatically

Copper Contributor

Greetings.

 

I'm looking for a way to programmatically create a set of folders in a document library. I have no training or background in SharePoint or Teams. I'm trying to help out my organization while I have some unoccupied time.

 

I have found several online examples of using a triggering a Flow using a Power App to create a folder - but every one I find seems to be bound to a particular SharePoint site at the time of creation, and I need to be able to execute this behavior frequently as new sites are created.

 

As per the subject line, a major frustration is the vocabulary. I'm having trouble finding rigorous definitions of Flows and Power Apps, so I might be asking for the wrong thing - or even in the wrong place. It an ideal world, the entire automated process would include or even be launched from Teams.  

 

I think the creation of a "team" in Teams creates a "site" in SharePoint, and the creation of a "channel" in the team creates a "document library" in SharePoint, which can be accessed as a "Folder" via OneDrive. I might be wrong on any or all of those points and don't know where to go to prove it one way or the other. 

 

All clues welcome. Thanks for your time.

2 Replies

Hi there, let me see if I can help a bit

 

Microsoft Teams uses SharePoint to store documents.

- When a Microsoft Team is created, a SharePoint site is created to store documents for that Team

- Each Channel in the Team has a Folder in the 'Documents' library (default library) of that SharePoint site

 

Power Automate is used to create Flows. A Flow is a workflow, that triggers either manually or when an event of some type occurs e.g. a new document is added to a Document Library, an email is recieved, a List item is created or modified etc (there are hundreds of triggers for different applications)

 

The Folder creation Flow you mention is usually associated with a specific Library. If you want to create a set of folders each time a new SharePoint Site is created then you can use a Site Design Script to run a Workflow when the Site is created. 

 

Microsoft provides lots of free training material here: Microsoft Learn | Microsoft Docs

 

I hope that helps a little.

 

 

 

I hope this helps.

@Steve Knutson 

It does help, and I thank you for it.

I am now going to express frustration, which is directed at the situation in which I find myself. and not at you - nor do I expect you to provide answers! I hope people will give answers and opinions, but I can't demand them. 

 

I also frankly welcome opinions along the lines of "You're going about this entirely the wrong way", because right now it looks to me that the answer to how to start with MS 365 is "Have a completely different background"

 

Some specifics:

 

 - is it a 'Library' called 'Documents', a 'Document Library' called 'Documents', or something else?

- Does that answer vary between SharePoint versions, and how do I determine what version I'm using?

 - are 'files' and 'Documents' interchangeable terms? Is an executable program a 'Document' if it is stored in a 'Library'? Is a 'folder' in a 'Library' exactly analogous to a folder in a folder on an NTFS filesystem?

 - I investigated Site Design Scripts and it looked promising at first - but then I found no verbs for creating folders. I did find information on getting more functionality by calling Flows (but then we're right back to figuring out how flows can be created that are not bound to Sites) and PnP (yet another mystery, which in turn depends on PowerShell Core, which is a further mystery)

- I followed the link to Microsoft Learn, took the Learning Path quiz, and told it I was a beginner interested in Teams and Microsoft 365. I got a suggested path full of Azure. The intro to Azure tells me that it's cloud based and can do many things, but does not in any way mention why my interest in Teams and MS 365 means I should study Azure.

 

Thanks to all who tolerate this free-form rambling.