User Profiles

Interact with SharePoint user profiles via the User Profile Service: view profile properties, manage followers, explore social features, and access OneDrive URLs.

---

Prerequisites

Requirement	Description	Reference
Read access to user profiles	Required to view profile properties. User context needed for follow/social features.	SharePoint admin roles

---

How the User Profile Service works

graph TD
    site["User Profile Service\n(tenant-wide)"]
    props["Profile Properties\ndepartment, skills,\nmanager, photo"]
    social["Social Features\nfollowing, followers,\ntrending tags"]
    onedrive["OneDrive URL\npersonal site link"]

    site --> props
    site --> social
    site --> onedrive
    props --> user["User A"]
    props --> user2["User B"]
    social --> follows["A follows B"]
    social --> trending["#tags"]

The User Profile Service is a tenant-level service that stores user metadata separately from site permissions. It is accessed via ctx.people_manager for profile properties, social operations, and profile picture / property updates.

---

Examples

Profile properties

Operation	File	Required role	API reference
Get profile properties (readable summary)	get_properties.py	Read access	People REST API
Export curated profile properties to CSV	export.py	Read access	People REST API
Set a profile property (single / multi-valued)	set_profile_property.py	Manage profiles	People REST API
Set the current user's profile picture	set_profile_picture.py	Manage profiles	People REST API
Get trending tags	get_trending_tags.py	Read access	People REST API
Get the OneDrive URL for a user	get_onedrive_url.py	Read access	People REST API

Social (following)

Operation	File	Required role	API reference
List followers / people followed	followers.py	User context	People REST API
Follow or unfollow a user	follow_user.py	User context	People REST API
Check if following a user	am_i_following.py	User context	People REST API

---

Quick start

from office365.sharepoint.client_context import ClientContext

ctx = ClientContext("https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/team").with_client_certificate(
    "contoso.onmicrosoft.com", client_id="client_id", thumbprint="thumbprint", cert_path="./cert.pem"
)

# Get current user's profile properties
props = ctx.people_manager.get_properties_for(ctx.web.current_user).execute_query()
print(f"Display name: {props.display_name}")
print(f"Department: {props.department}")
print(f"Skills: {props.skills}")

# Get trending tags (note: the API takes the context)
tags = ctx.people_manager.get_trending_tags(ctx).execute_query()
for tag in tags.items:
    print(f"  #{tag.name}  ({tag.count})")

---

API reference

• SharePoint People REST API