Register remote event receiver (RER) with CSOM

I'm currently working on a provider hosted SharePoint 2013 app. The aim is to build a self provisioning app by making use of the client side object model  (csom).

In an old fashion way, provisioning of site columns, content types, lists... was done with declarative coding. Unfortunately, declarative host web provisioning isn't possible. Luckily for us developers, the OfficeAMS contributors are working hard on building nice extension methods to speed up SharePoint development. 

in the following example I'm provisioning the host web during the AppInstalled event.

• creating a new list
• binding the remote event receiver to the newly created list

The remote event receiver is a .svc service hosted on the remote web of the provider hosted app. In my example I'm using Azure.

	//do not forget to reference officeams.core (http://officeams.codeplex.com) dll to call extension methods.
	//create settingslist
	hostWebClientContext.Web.AddList(100, new Guid("00bfea71-de22-43b2-a848-c05709900100"), "Settings", false);
	//get settings list
	var settingsList = hostWebClientContext.Web.GetListByTitle("Settings");
	//prepare eventreceiver binding
	var eventReceivers = settingsList.EventReceivers;
	hostWebClientContext.Load(eventReceivers);
	hostWebClientContext.ExecuteQuery();
	//since this code example is running in a web service class during AppInstalled event,
	//we can get the remoteweb url from the WebOperationContext
	//remoteWebUrl will result in: "yourServiceBusName.servicebus.windows.net"
	var remoteWebUrl = string.Empty;
	if(null != WebOperationContext.Current)
	remoteWebUrl = WebOperationContext.Current.IncomingRequest.Headers["Host"];
	//little trick to be able to debug our event receiver
	#if DEBUG
	remoteWebUrl = String.Format("https://{0}/3458491647/3050950848/obj/f44563bb-02a0-4a5b-b2da-737023b5a03e", remoteWebUrl);
	#endif
	var settingsRerAdded = new EventReceiverDefinitionCreationInformation
	{
	ReceiverUrl = String.Format("{0}{1}", remoteWebUrl, "SettingsEvents.svc"),
	ReceiverName = "SettingsEventReceiverAdded",
	Synchronization = EventReceiverSynchronization.Synchronous,
	SequenceNumber = 10000,
	EventType = EventReceiverType.ItemAdded
	};
	settingsList.EventReceivers.Add(settingsRerAdded);
	settingsList.Update();
	hostWebClientContext.Load(settingsList.EventReceivers);
	hostWebClientContext.ExecuteQuery();

view raw create list and bind remote event receiver.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

In fact, binding the RER isn't rocket science, but since the ReceiverUrl property is set to the absolute address of the .svc we won't be able to debug this thing. If we want to debug a remote event receiver hosted on Azure we have to make use of an azure service bus.

This is why I'm using the #if DEBUG directives of visual studio. If in debug mode, I'm overwriting the absolute .svc url in the following format:
https://server.servicebus.windows.net/computer/account/obj/guid/EventReceiver.svc 

This raises the question, what are the computer, account and guid parameters in this URL? I figured out these values by opening the .debugapp package that is generated by visual studio during debugging.

While debugging you can find this package in the debug folder of your project.
Extract this .debugapp package and open the AppManifest.xml file in a text editor.
The InstalledEventEndpoint contains all the values your are looking for.

	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
	<!--Created:cb85b80c-f585-40ff-8bfc-12ff4d0e34a9-->
	<App xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/2012/app/manifest" Name="YourAppName" ProductID="{6b1a2b10-c511-4484-a0f2-d8d247e1c3e7}" Version="1.6.0.8" SharePointMinVersion="15.0.0.0">
	<Properties>
	<Title>YourAppName</Title>
	<StartPage>https://localhost:44303/Pages/Default.aspx?{StandardTokens}&amp;SPHostTitle={HostTitle}</StartPage>
	<UpgradedEventEndpoint>https://YourServiceBus.servicebus.windows.net/3458491647/3050950848/obj/f44563bb-02a0-4a5b-b2da-737023b5a03e/Services/AppEventReceiver.svc</UpgradedEventEndpoint>
	<InstalledEventEndpoint>https://YourServiceBus.servicebus.windows.net/3458491647/3050950848/obj/f44563bb-02a0-4a5b-b2da-737023b5a03e/Services/AppEventReceiver.svc</InstalledEventEndpoint>
	</Properties>
	<AppPrincipal>
	<AutoDeployedWebApplication>
	<DebugInfo ClientSecret="" AppUrl="" />
	</AutoDeployedWebApplication>
	</AppPrincipal>
	<AppPermissionRequests AllowAppOnlyPolicy="true">
	<AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/content/sitecollection" Right="FullControl" />
	<AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/social/tenant" Right="FullControl" />
	<AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/content/tenant" Right="FullControl" />
	<AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/taxonomy" Right="Write" />
	<AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/content/sitecollection/web" Right="FullControl" />
	</AppPermissionRequests>
	</App>

view raw AppManifest.xml hosted with ❤ by GitHub