In this article, we'll connect a Microsoft SharePoint site so its news posts display on your OptiSigns screens.
- What you'll need
- Which connection method to use
- How it works
- Setting Up the App
- (Optional) Set up a Service Principal, or reuse the one you have
- Test the connection
- Appearance settings
- Post settings
- Licensing
- Troubleshooting
Put your intranet on the wall. SharePoint News reads the news posts already published on a Microsoft SharePoint site and displays them on your screens, refreshing on its own as your team publishes.
What you'll need
- An OptiSigns account on the Standard plan or above.
- A Microsoft SharePoint site with news posts on it
- The site URL, in the form
https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/YourSite - Service Principal method only: An Azure Service Principal saved (or ability to be created) in OptiSigns, and administrator access to the Azure Portal to grant it permission to read SharePoint
Which connection method to use
SharePoint News offers two ways to connect, and you choose between them in the app itself under Choose Authentication Method.
- Direct Login Method - This connects you through a single person's Microsoft Account. This is best for getting started quickly, or a single SharePoint site that one person owns.
- Service Principle Method - This connects you through a Service Principal, which is an application belonging to a larger organization. This is best for anything long-lived or needing security permissions, and allows your site to keep working even if staff change roles, change passwords, or leave.
IMPORTANT |
| Direct Login is selected by default. If you want the Service Principal method, you must switch to it — and setting it up is done by a Microsoft tenant administrator, not by an individual user. If you do not administer your organisation's Microsoft tenant, send this article to whoever does. |
How it works
OptiSigns reads your SharePoint site through the Microsoft Graph API. With a Service Principal, it connects as a dedicated application identity in your Microsoft tenant rather than as any one person's account. With Direct Login, it connects as the person who signed in.
The permissions involved are read-only in both cases. OptiSigns never writes to SharePoint, never posts, and never changes a file. It just lets you display them on your digital signs.
Setting Up the App
In OptiSigns, go to Files/Assets, select Apps:
Choose SharePoint News.
Give the news wall a Name, then paste the SharePoint Site URL. It must be the address of the site itself, not of a page or a post inside it:
https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/YourSite
To find it, open the site in your browser and copy the address up to and including the site name, discarding anything after it.
NOTE |
There is no site picker — the pasted URL is the only way to choose a site. This is deliberate: under the Sites.Selected permission most organizations use, the app is not allowed to list the sites in your tenant at all. |
Under Choose Authentication Method, pick Direct Login or Use Service Principal.
If you chose Direct Login
Select Sign in with Microsoft and complete the Microsoft sign-in. Once connected, the button
changes to Authorized with Microsoft as
The news wall then reads SharePoint as that person. It keeps working until that account's password or sign-in policy changes, at which point the app asks you to reconnect.
| NOTE |
| Sign in with an account that can already open the site. Direct Login grants OptiSigns no access the person does not already have. |
Skip to Test the connection.
If you chose Use Service Principal
Continue reading.
(Optional) Set up a Service Principal, or reuse one you have
A Service Principal is an Azure app registration saved to your OptiSigns account.
To create one:
- Copy its Application (client) ID and Directory (tenant) ID.
- Create a client secret
- Save it in OptiSigns under Settings → Integrations → Power BI → Add Azure Service Principal
This is the same for any OptiSigns Service Principal integration. See How to Set Up a Power BI Service Principal for Use in OptiSigns for more.
Follow the sections Create an Entra App in Microsoft Azure and Authenticating OptiSigns via Service Principal in that article, then return here.
| TIP |
|
If your organization already uses a Service Principal for Power BI, reuse it. The integration list in SharePoint News offers every Azure Service Principal saved on the account, whatever it was originally created for. You only need to add the SharePoint permission below. NOTE: Skip the Power BI article's Enable Power BI Service Admin Settings and Add the Service Principal to a Workspace sections. Those configure Power BI itself and are not needed for SharePoint. Note also that SharePoint News is available on Standard and above, not Enterprise only. |
Next, give that Service Principal permission to read SharePoint.
In the Azure Portal, open your app registration, go to API permissions, select Add a permission, choose Microsoft Graph, then Application permissions.
Add either of these, depending on what your organization's policy allows:
| Permission | What it grants |
|---|---|
Sites.Selected |
Read only the specific sites you later grant access to. The narrower option — prefer it if your policy allows. |
Sites.Read.All |
Read any SharePoint site in the tenant. |
| NOTE |
If you choose Sites.Selected, the permission alone is not enough — the application must also be granted access to the particular site you want to display, which your Microsoft administrator does per site. Without it, Test Connection reports that the Service Principal authenticated but has no access to that site. |
Still on API permissions, select Grant admin consent for <your organization>. The Status column must read Granted before the connection will work.
Now pick your Service Principal from Select the Service Principal Integration.
| NOTE |
| Integrations belong to a Teamspace. The list shows the Service Principals saved on the team that owns this news wall — if yours is missing, check which team you created it on. When the team has none saved, the app shows Set up a Service Principal integration for this team instead of the list, and Save stays disabled. |
Test the connection
Select Test Connection, beside the SharePoint Site URL field. A green tick on the button means OptiSigns reached the site and could read its posts; a warning triangle means it could not. Resolve any error before saving — the messages are listed under Troubleshooting.
Save, then add the news wall to a playlist or assign it to a screen as you would any other app.
Appearance settings
Open the Appearance section of the configuration dialog.
- Display Mode - Choose your display mode. Decide between Default, Single Post, or Modern layout.
- Theme - Choose between Light, Dark, or Custom themes. Choosing Custom will add numerous options that let you change the colors on your theme.
-
Font Size - Choose your Font Size. Default is 20, Custom lets you choose.
- Show QR Code - When checked, will show a QR code linking to the full post on SharePoint.
- Show Banner Image - When checked, will show each post's banner image.
- Company Logo - Lets you upload your company logo to be shown alongside each post.
| NOTE |
| Two of the color pickers depend on Display Mode as well as Theme. Accent Colour is hidden in Single Post, and Secondary Color is hidden in both Single Post and Modern. |
Post settings
Open the Post Settings section.
- Number of Posts - Choose how many total posts the asset will cycle through.
- Max Age of Posts - Choose how old the posts that can display will be.
- Post Duration - Shows how long each post will stay on the screen before cycling to another post.
Under Advanced, Refresh Interval sets how often OptiSigns checks SharePoint for new posts, in seconds (default 3600 — once an hour).
Troubleshooting and FAQs
Here, we'll go over error messages you might receive when trying to set up SharePoint on OptiSigns. What they mean, and how to solve them.
"Connected — no posts yet; new ones appear automatically."
The connection works, but the site has no news posts. Publish one in SharePoint and it will appear on the next refresh.
"Connected — all N posts are older than the 30-day Max Age; none will show. Raise Max Age of Posts."
The connection works, but every post is older than the Max Age of Posts setting. Raise it under Post Settings. On the screen itself this shows as "No SharePoint posts from the last 30 days are currently available."
"Connected — news list unavailable right now; it retries automatically."
A temporary SharePoint problem. No action needed.
"The Service Principal authenticated, but does not have access to that site. Ask your Microsoft admin to grant it access to this specific SharePoint site."
The application identity is valid but was never granted access to this particular site. This is the expected result of using Sites.Selected without also granting site access. Make sure your admin account within Azure has access to the requested SharePoint site.
"This Microsoft account does not have access to that SharePoint site."
The Direct Login equivalent of the message above. Sign in with an account that can open the site.
"An administrator has not granted this app permission to read SharePoint. Ask your Microsoft admin to grant consent."
Admin consent has not been completed. In Azure, open API permissions, select Grant admin consent, and confirm the Status column reads Granted.
"This app is not authorised in your Microsoft tenant. Ask your Microsoft admin to grant consent."
Same cause as above. The application has not been consented for your organization.
"That SharePoint site could not be found. Check the URL — it should look like https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/YourSite"
Check the URL. A link to a page or a post inside the site will not work.
"The Service Principal client secret is incorrect. Check the secret VALUE (not the secret ID) in the Integrations page."
Check that you entered the secret Value and not the Secret ID. If you no longer have the Value, create a new secret in Azure and update the integration.
"The Service Principal client secret has expired. Create a new secret in Azure and update the integration."
Azure client secrets expire on the date set when they were created. This means you need to refresh your client secret within the Service Principal.
"The Service Principal application was not found in this Microsoft tenant. Check the Client ID and Tenant ID."
Check both against the app registration's overview page in Azure.
"The Microsoft tenant ID is not valid. Check the Tenant ID in the Integrations page."
Check the Tenant ID on the integration.
"The Microsoft sign-in for this app has expired. Please reconnect the Microsoft account."
A Direct Login connection has lapsed. Microsoft refresh tokens expire after about 90 days idle, or sooner if the password or sign-in policy changed. Open the app and sign in again.
"Microsoft now requires multi-factor authentication for this account. Please reconnect the Microsoft account."
Your organization enabled MFA for the signed-in account. Reconnect it, or switch this news wall to a Service Principal, which is not subject to interactive MFA.
"Microsoft is rate-limiting requests for this tenant. This usually clears on its own."
This means that too many requests have been sent to the Microsoft tenant recently, and it is being overloaded. No action needed.
That’s all!
OptiSigns is the leader in digital signage software. If you have any additional questions, concerns or any feedback about OptiSigns, feel free to reach out to our support team at support@optisigns.com.