Unable to get a Special Folder by name using the GraphServiceClient.

[MaxxDelusional]

Problem:

According to the docs, the request for a special folder should be GET /me/drive/special/{name}, however, there is no way to construct this path using the Graph SDK.

What I tried:

This does not work, because DriveRequestBuilder does not contain a definition for Special.

var result = await graphClient.Me.Drive.Special["approot"].GetAsync();

This will not work, because the slash will become url encoded.

var result = await graphClient.Me.Drives["special/approot"].GetAsync();

The C# example in the docs say to do this.

var result = await graphClient.Drives["{drive-id}"].Special["{driveItem-id}"].GetAsync();

But there is no drive-id to specify. Attempting to use null or empty string as the drive id created an invalid request url.

BaseGraphServiceClient does not contain a DriveRequestBuilder so we can't do something like this.

var result = graphClient.Drive.Special["approot"].GetAsync();

Potential Workaround:

The only way I have found to get the drive is by specifying the entire url, but clearly this is not ideal.

var result = await graphClient.Me.Drive
    .WithUrl("https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/drive/special/approot")
    .GetAsync();

Side Question: Is there a way to get the baseUrl from an instance of GraphServiceClient? Or any way to build a url with a relative path?

Suggestion:

Add SpecialRequestBuilder to DriveRequestBuilder or add handling for null drive-id in DrivesRequestBuilder.

The docs should also be updated, as the current C# example doesn't work. (You shouldn't need a drive-id, but the docs say to specify one).

[andrueastman]

Thanks for raising this @MaxxDelusional

Aside from the workaround suggested, you can pull in the drive Id as below.

            var myDrive = await graphClient.Me.Drive.GetAsync();
            var result = await graphClient.Drives[myDrive.Id].Special["approot"].GetAsync();

This is covered in a section of the docs at the link as to why the requestbuilders are not present due to large API surface increasing the SDK to a very large size.

https://github.com/microsoftgraph/msgraph-sdk-dotnet/blob/main/docs/upgrade-to-v5.md#drive-item-paths

[MaxxDelusional]

It seems weird to make an extra call to the Graph API, just to grab a value that isn't actually needed, but I understand the desire to keep the SDK as small as possible.

If there was a way to provide a relative url to the WithUrl method, that would be ideal.

I tried this, but it's not supported.

var result = await graphClient.Me.Drive
    .WithUrl("{+baseurl}/drive/special/approot")
    .GetAsync();

[andrueastman]

If there was a way to provide a relative url to the WithUrl method, that would be ideal.

At the moment you can't pass a relative url. You can however use the BaseUrl property in the request adapter to make a request as below.

var result = await graphClient.Me.Drive
    .WithUrl($"{graphClient.RequestAdapter.BaseUrl}/drive/special/approot")
    .GetAsync();