New-MgSiteList Documentation Example is Incorrect

[12Knocksinna]

Describe the bug

The documentation for creating a new SharePoint site list in https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.graph.sites/new-mgsitelist?view=graph-powershell-1.0&WT.mc_id=M365-MVP-9501 is incorrect and fails with a "New-MgSiteList_Create: Unable to determine type of provided column definition." The problem appears to have been around for a long time and people report being unable to use the cmdlet in Stack Overflow and other sites (here's an example: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/78712970/new-mgsitelist-unable-to-determine-type-of-provided-column-definition).

Expected behavior

The New-MgSiteList cmdlet should just work.

How to reproduce

Execute the New-MgSiteList example as documented. It won't work.

New-MgSiteList_Create:
Line |
20 | New-MgSiteList -SiteId $site.Id -BodyParameter $params
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Unable to determine type of provided column definition

Status: 400 (BadRequest)
ErrorCode: invalidRequest
Date: 2024-08-12T16:27:30

Headers:
Cache-Control : no-store, no-cache
Vary : Accept-Encoding
Strict-Transport-Security : max-age=31536000
request-id : b48f920f-198e-4504-bee3-9232c2c43850
client-request-id : f74ee450-f234-464c-932e-3dccf3ba495e
x-ms-ags-diagnostic : {"ServerInfo":{"DataCenter":"North Europe","Slice":"E","Ring":"4","ScaleUnit":"011","RoleInstance":"DB1PEPF000508A1"}}
Date : Mon, 12 Aug 2024 16:27:30 GMT

SDK Version

2.21

Latest version known to work for scenario above?

Never, as far as I can see

Known Workarounds

Use the Graph request.

$Uri = ("https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/{0}/Lists" -f $Site.Id)
invoke-MgGraphRequest -Uri $Uri -Method POST -Body $NewListParameters

Name Value

---

@odata.context https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/$metadata#sites('office365itpros.sharepoint.com%2Cbf887032-2619-44a2-a8b0-2b9cfb1cf701%2Ce95c0fd7-42a6-4bd8-808f-e4683035ed6e')/l…
description Contacts to add to User Address Book
list {[template, contacts], [hidden, False], [contentTypesEnabled, False]}
@odata.etag 4d117719-cd95-4047-b911-a1159446c949,10
createdDateTime 12/08/2024 16:31:59
lastModifiedDateTime 12/08/2024 16:32:00
createdBy {[user, System.Collections.Hashtable]}
parentReference {[siteId, office365itpros.sharepoint.com,bf887032-2619-44a2-a8b0-2b9cfb1cf701,e95c0fd7-42a6-4bd8-808f-e4683035ed6e]}
webUrl https://office365itpros.com/sites/Office365News/Lists/Organizational%20Contacts
name Organizational Contacts
id 4d117719-cd95-4047-b911-a1159446c949
eTag 4d117719-cd95-4047-b911-a1159446c949,10
displayName Organizational Contacts

Debug output

Click to expand log

```

New-MgSiteList -SiteId $site.Id -BodyParameter $params -debug
DEBUG: [CmdletBeginProcessing]: - New-MgSiteList begin processing with parameterSet 'Create'.
DEBUG: [Authentication]: - AuthType: 'Delegated', TokenCredentialType: 'InteractiveBrowser', ContextScope: 'CurrentUser', AppName: 'Microsoft Graph Command Line Tools'.
DEBUG: [Authentication]: - Scopes: [AccessReview.Read.All, Agreement.Read.All, Analytics.Read, APIConnectors.Read.All, Application.Read.All, Application.ReadWrite.All, AppRoleAssignment.ReadWrite.All, AuditLog.Read.All, AuditLogsQuery.Read.All, Calendars.Read, Calendars.ReadWrite, Channel.ReadBasic.All, ChannelMessage.Read.All, ChannelMessage.ReadWrite, ChannelMessage.Send, ChannelSettings.Read.All, ChannelSettings.ReadWrite.All, Chat.Create, Chat.ManageDeletion.All, Chat.ReadWrite, Community.ReadWrite.All, Contacts.ReadWrite, CrossTenantUserProfileSharing.Read, CrossTenantUserProfileSharing.Read.All, DelegatedPermissionGrant.ReadWrite.All, DeviceManagementManagedDevices.Read.All, Directory.AccessAsUser.All, Directory.Read.All, Directory.ReadWrite.All, DirectoryRecommendations.Read.All, Domain.Read.All, eDiscovery.Read.All, email, EntitlementManagement.Read.All, Group.Read.All, Group.ReadWrite.All, GroupMember.Read.All, GroupMember.ReadWrite.All, IdentityProvider.Read.All, IdentityProvider.ReadWrite.All, IdentityRiskyUser.Read.All, IdentityRiskyUser.ReadWrite.All, IdentityUserFlow.Read.All, InformationProtectionPolicy.Read, Mail.Read, Mail.ReadWrite, Mail.Send, Mail.Send.Shared, MailboxSettings.ReadWrite, Notes.Create, OnlineMeetingArtifact.Read.All, OnlineMeetings.Read, openid, Organization.Read.All, PeopleSettings.Read.All, PeopleSettings.ReadWrite.All, Place.Read.All, Policy.Read.All, Policy.Read.PermissionGrant, Policy.ReadWrite.ApplicationConfiguration, Policy.ReadWrite.AuthenticationMethod, Policy.ReadWrite.ConditionalAccess, POP.AccessAsUser.All, PrivilegedAccess.Read.AzureAD, PrivilegedAccess.Read.AzureResources, profile, RecordsManagement.Read.All, Reports.Read.All, ReportSettings.ReadWrite.All, RoleAssignmentSchedule.Read.Directory, RoleAssignmentSchedule.ReadWrite.Directory, RoleEligibilitySchedule.Read.Directory, RoleManagement.Read.All, RoleManagement.Read.Directory, SecurityActions.ReadWrite.All, SecurityEvents.Read.All, SecurityEvents.ReadWrite.All, ServiceHealth.Read.All, ServiceMessage.Read.All, SharePointTenantSettings.ReadWrite.All, Sites.FullControl.All, Sites.Manage.All, Sites.Read.All, Sites.ReadWrite.All, Tasks.Read, Tasks.ReadWrite, Team.ReadBasic.All, TeamMember.Read.All, TeamSettings.Read.All, TeamsTab.Read.All, TeamworkTag.ReadWrite, User.Read, User.Read.All, User.ReadBasic.All, User.ReadWrite, User.ReadWrite.All, UserActivity.ReadWrite.CreatedByApp, UserAuthenticationMethod.Read.All, UserAuthenticationMethod.ReadWrite.All, User-ConvertToInternal.ReadWrite.All, VirtualEvent.Read, WindowsUpdates.Read.All].

Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Performing the operation "New-MgSiteList_Create" on target "Call remote 'POST /sites/{site-id}/lists' operation".
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"): y
DEBUG: ============================ HTTP REQUEST ============================

HTTP Method:
POST

Absolute Uri:
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/office365itpros.sharepoint.com%2Cbf887032-2619-44a2-a8b0-2b9cfb1cf701%2Ce95c0fd7-42a6-4bd8-808f-e4683035ed6e/lists

Headers:
FeatureFlag : 00000043
Cache-Control : no-store, no-cache
User-Agent : Mozilla/5.0,(Windows NT 10.0; Microsoft Windows 10.0.22631; en-IE),PowerShell/7.4.4
Accept-Encoding : gzip
SdkVersion : graph-powershell/2.21.0
client-request-id : 0f58e2ac-bb5d-4080-8463-024ac792b078

Body:
{
"displayName": "Books",
"columns": [
{
"name": "Author"
},
{
"name": "PageCount"
}
],
"list": {
"template": "genericList"
}
}

DEBUG: ============================ HTTP RESPONSE ============================

Status Code:
BadRequest

Headers:
Cache-Control : no-store, no-cache
Vary : Accept-Encoding
Strict-Transport-Security : max-age=31536000
request-id : 153b3898-6bad-4290-b66a-4c734e1514e2
client-request-id : 0f58e2ac-bb5d-4080-8463-024ac792b078
x-ms-ags-diagnostic : {"ServerInfo":{"DataCenter":"North Europe","Slice":"E","Ring":"4","ScaleUnit":"011","RoleInstance":"DB1PEPF00043F22"}}
Date : Mon, 12 Aug 2024 16:29:09 GMT

Body:
{
"error": {
"code": "invalidRequest",
"message": "Unable to determine type of provided column definition",
"innerError": {
"date": "2024-08-12T16:29:09",
"request-id": "153b3898-6bad-4290-b66a-4c734e1514e2",
"client-request-id": "0f58e2ac-bb5d-4080-8463-024ac792b078"
}
}
}

New-MgSiteList_Create: Unable to determine type of provided column definition

Status: 400 (BadRequest)
ErrorCode: invalidRequest
Date: 2024-08-12T16:29:09

Headers:
Cache-Control : no-store, no-cache
Vary : Accept-Encoding
Strict-Transport-Security : max-age=31536000
request-id : 153b3898-6bad-4290-b66a-4c734e1514e2
client-request-id : 0f58e2ac-bb5d-4080-8463-024ac792b078
x-ms-ags-diagnostic : {"ServerInfo":{"DataCenter":"North Europe","Slice":"E","Ring":"4","ScaleUnit":"011","RoleInstance":"DB1PEPF00043F22"}}
Date : Mon, 12 Aug 2024 16:29:09 GMT

DEBUG: [CmdletEndProcessing]: - New-MgSiteList end processing.

Configuration

No response

Other information

No response

[timayabi2020]

Hi @12Knocksinna thank you for raising this issue. After investigations we realized the request body formulated by the SDKs removes any empty Json object. In comparison to the example provided (See first image below) the empty text and number json objects inside the columns list is missing, yet the API treats them as mandatory properties to be included in the columns definition collection.

The work-around for this is to either use Invoke-MgGraphRequest if you prefer copying the example as it is or ensure that the text and number Json objects are not empty as per the documentation here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/textcolumn?view=graph-rest-1.0 and here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/numbercolumn?view=graph-rest-1.0.
I have tried it, and it works as expected. (See image below).

[timayabi2020]

After doing further checks, this is both a service and documentation issue because by design the SDK does not serialize empty Json objects. Both offline and online help files also derive examples from http examples in the API reference documentation. https://learn.microsoft.com/graph/api/list-create?view=graph-rest-1.0. Unfortunately, we are not best placed to give reasons as to why the service accepts empty json objects and gives an error if the object is completely removed from the request body. Kindly raise an issue here https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/support so that the API owner can respond to it.