Azure Graph API 😇

Introduction

 

In this article, you will learn about Azure Graph API and its services. 

 

Prerequisites 

 

Before we start learning what Azure Graph API is, we should have:

• Basic knowledge of cloud computing and its services
• Basic knowledge of Microsoft Azure
• Basic knowledge of Office 365

Introduction of Azure Graph API

 

Before we jump into learning the Graph API, let's look at an overview of Microsoft Graph.

 

Microsoft Office 365 is a collection of services provided by Microsoft as part of the software as a service (SaaS) to the users. It consists of a suite of products like SharePoint Online, sway, stream, flow, Microsoft office products, etc.

 

Image Source – Microsoft Docs

 

Microsoft Graph is the gateway to data and intelligence in the Microsoft 365 platform. Microsoft graph has integration with all of office 365 products and provides a unified way to access the data in Office 365, windows 10 and enterprise mobility + security. Microsoft Graph API exposes the REST API and client libraries to quickly access the data in Office 365 platform. Microsoft Graph helps in numerous applications like where we need to fetch the profile information of the user, scan the outlook calendars, integrating data of multiple products of Office 365 platforms, etc.

 

Image Source – Microsoft Docs

 

Microsoft Graph consists of three main components who facilitates the access of data and together they power the Office 365,

1. Microsoft Graph API
   It is the most popular buzz word in the world nowadays. It provides a single endpoint to access the information from Microsoft office 365 services. The endpoint is ‘https://graph.microsoft.com’.
   
   
2. Microsoft Graph Data Connect
   It provides different tools to secure and scalable delivery of the Microsoft Graph data to Azure data source. In short, it has a new way to interact with the data which is available through the Graph API.
   
   
3. Microsoft Graph Connector
   The connector is used in incoming direction, delivering external data into Microsoft Graph services and applications and enhancing customer experiences.

Microsoft Graph API

 

Microsoft Graph API is a RESTful web API that enables us to access the Microsoft cloud services resources. The resource can be an entity or complex type, like the user, group, drive site, etc. It supports HTTP request method to determine the request and process it like below,

 

{HTTP method} https://graph.microsoft.com/{version}/{resource}?{query-parameters}

 

A. {HTTP method} - The HTTP method to request to Microsoft Graph.

B. {version} - The version of the Microsoft Graph API your application is using. Microsoft Graph currently supports two versions: v1.0 and beta.

C. {resource} - The resource in Microsoft Graph that you're referencing.

D. {query-parameters} - Optional OData query options or REST method parameters that customize the response.

 

After the request is processed, then the system provides a response which includes, status code (success/failure), response message (data) and next link (if a lot of data then use pages to fetch next data).

 

If you want to try the sample requests for the Graph API, then please check out this URL of a graph explorer and run the requests.

 

Next - Use Azure AD Graph API

 

References

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/active-directory-graph-api
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/use-the-api
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/overview
• https://docs.microsoft.com/bs-latn-ba/azure/active-directory/develop/active-directory-graph-api-quickstart
• https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/graph

Conclusion

 

In this article, we have learned the overview of Azure Graph API. Keep Learning