Microsoft SharePoint Online external content connector

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Microsoft SharePoint Online external content connector

    The Microsoft SharePoint Online external content connector enables ServiceNow customers to retrieve pages and metadata from Microsoft SharePoint Online sites, making this content searchable within AI Search applications. It supports scheduled or on-demand content and user permission crawls, feeding updated data to AI Search for indexing. The indexed data is stored in a connector-specific source, allowing search administrators to create searchable sources and link them to search profiles.

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    Key Features

    • Content Retrieval: The connector extracts primarily static page content and metadata (such as title, author, and modification date) from SharePoint Site Pages stored as .aspx files, using the SharePoint REST API.
    • Limitations on Dynamic Content: Because the connector cannot impersonate user sessions, it cannot render or capture dynamic web part content fully, so some page content may be partially or not retrievable.
    • Security and Permissions: User permission crawls update security principals for accurate access control in search results.
    • Configuration Requirements: Setup involves registering an OAuth 2.0 app in Microsoft Entra, granting FullControl SharePoint API permissions, and creating a public/private key pair for secure API access.
    • Crawl Scope Control: Administrators can specify which sites and content types to include or exclude during crawls to tailor indexing.

    Practical Considerations

    • Estimate your SharePoint document volume beforehand to configure appropriate crawl scopes.
    • Understand that the connector primarily retrieves content stored in metadata fields, so pages heavily reliant on dynamic web parts may not be fully indexed.
    • Use the SharePoint REST API to preview the retrievable portion of page content before configuring your connector.

    Next Steps

    • Register and configure the OAuth 2.0 application and permissions in Microsoft Entra.
    • Create and configure the Microsoft SharePoint Online external content connector in ServiceNow.
    • Set crawl schedules and filters based on your organization’s content indexing needs.
    • Run content and user permission crawls to populate AI Search with up-to-date SharePoint content and security information.

    The Microsoft SharePoint Online external content connector retrieves pages from sites in your Microsoft SharePoint Online source system and makes their content and metadata searchable in AI Search applications.

    Connector administrators can run or schedule content crawls to retrieve updated content and access permissions from your source system, or user permission crawls to retrieve updated security principals from your source system. Both types of crawl feed their data to AI Search for indexing.

    The indexed content and metadata are stored as records in a connector-specific indexed source. Search administrators can create search sources from this indexed source and link them to search profiles to make the indexed records searchable in AI Search applications.

    Microsoft SharePoint Online static and dynamic page content

    Microsoft SharePoint Online pages built primarily with static text content authored in the Microsoft SharePoint Online editor produce searchable content that more closely matches what users see in a web browser. By contrast, pages that rely on dynamic web parts may not contain all of the content that users see in a web browser.

    Microsoft SharePoint Online pages are stored as .aspx files in a site's Site Pages library. These files can include static content in their CanvasContent1 and WikiFields metadata fields, but they can also include scripts that call a server-side engine to dynamically render viewable content at request time. The exact content rendered depends on user context, permissions, and web parts loaded as part of the page request.

    Rendering a page's full viewable content requires an authenticated user session. The Microsoft SharePoint Online connector can't impersonate a user to trigger this rendering process. As a result, the connector cannot capture the final HTML output that a web browser would display.

    For each page retrieved, the Microsoft SharePoint Online connector queries the SharePoint REST API's _api/web/lists('<list-id>')/items(<item-id>) endpoint to access the page's underlying list item. Via this API endpoint, the connector retrieves content primarily from the page's CanvasContent1 and WikiFields metadata fields, and also captures the page's other metadata fields such as title, author, and modification date where available. Page content stored exclusively in dynamic web parts may be retrieved only partially or not at all, since that content doesn't exist in the list item metadata.

    To learn how to view the portion of a page's content that can be retrieved using the Microsoft SharePoint Online connector, see View retrievable page content using the Microsoft SharePoint Online REST API.