Sharepoint REST API to index a column or delete a column and more…

Due to the 5,000 items threshold limitation it can become very frustrating to administrate Sharepoint. For example, if your list has more than 5,000 items, you cannot add an index, delete a lookup/people column, delete the list or the website, and more !

Hopefully some of the operations can be done with REST API, and in my organization the threshold limitation is removed during the night (1am to 4am). By combining a schedule service (like node-schedule) with my library SharepointPlus I can run this admin tasks during the night while my virtual computer is running.

To delete a column

$SP().ajax({
  url:"https://company.com/sharepoint/team/sales/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('My List')/fields/getbytitle('Column To Delete')",
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "IF-MATCH": "*",
    "X-HTTP-Method": "DELETE"
  }
});

To index a column

$SP().ajax({
  url:"https://company.com/sharepoint/team/sales/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('My List')/fields/getbytitle('Column to Index')",
  method: "POST",
  body:JSON.stringify({
    "__metadata":{ type: "SP.Field" },
    "Indexed":true
  }),
  headers: {
    "IF-MATCH": "*",
    "X-HTTP-Method": "MERGE"
  }
})

To delete a list

$SP().ajax({
  url:"https://company.com/sharepoint/team/sales/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('List To Delete')",
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "IF-MATCH": "*",
    "X-HTTP-Method": "DELETE"
  }
})

To delete a list

$SP().ajax({
  url:"https://company.com/sharepoint/team/sales/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('List To Delete')",
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "IF-MATCH": "*",
    "X-HTTP-Method": "DELETE"
  }
})

To delete a site

$SP().ajax({
  url:"https://company.com/sharepoint/team/sales/website_to_delete/_api/web/",
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-HTTP-Method": "DELETE"
  }
})