REST API inconsistency: getFolderByServerRelativePath & getFileByServerRelativePath

[salascz]

What type of issue is this?

Question

What SharePoint development model, framework, SDK or API is this about?

SharePoint REST API

Target SharePoint environment

SharePoint Online

What browser(s) / client(s) have you tested

• 💥 Internet Explorer
• 💥 Microsoft Edge
• 💥 Google Chrome
• 💥 FireFox
• 💥 Safari
• mobile (iOS/iPadOS)
• mobile (Android)
• not applicable
• other (enter in the "Additional environment details" area below)

Additional environment details

No response

Issue description

Hello,
I am building a solution generating folders and files structure including a validation if such a name exists in the parent folder.

I am using the /_api/web/getFolderByServerRelativePath call for folders validation. There is a way, how to check if folder exist without an 404 error returned (by selecting the Exists property:
GET <site>/_api/web/getFolderByServerRelativePath(decodedUrl='<folder_url>')?$select=Exists
(the same call without selected Exists property would return error)

However the similar approach does not work for files - it returns an error all the time. (tested with getFolderByServerRelativeUrl and getFileByServerRelativeUrl with same results)

• Is there another way, how to check if file exists without an error returned from the call?
• Do anyone know, why are those calls inconsistent?

Thanks

Thank you for reporting this issue. We will be triaging your incoming issue as soon as possible.

[github-actions]

Thank you for taking the time to file an issue. We periodically archive older or inactive issues as part of our issue management process, which automatically closes them once they are archived.

If you’d like to understand more about why and how we handle archived (closed) issues, please see Our approach to closed issues.

We appreciate your contribution and if this is still an active issue with the latest SPFx versions, please do resubmit the details. We needed to perform a cleanup, so that we can start with a clean table with a new process. We apologize for the inconvenience this might cause.