Microsoft SharePoint Online external content connector

Release version: Yokohama

Updated August 4, 2025

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 and make this content searchable within AI Search applications. It supports both content crawls, which update indexed content and access permissions, and user permission crawls, which update security principals. Indexed data is stored in a connector-specific source that can be linked to search profiles for enhanced searchability.

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Key Features

Content Retrieval: The connector fetches static page content primarily from CanvasContent1 and WikiFields metadata fields via the SharePoint REST API. Dynamic content rendered by web parts may be only partially retrieved because it depends on user context and authentication, which the connector cannot impersonate.
Content and Metadata Indexing: Content and metadata such as title, author, and modification date are indexed, enabling comprehensive search capabilities.
Crawl Management: Administrators can run or schedule content and permission crawls, specify crawl scopes by selecting sites, and apply inclusion or exclusion filters to control indexed content.
Security Configuration: Requires registering an OAuth 2.0 application in Microsoft Entra admin center with FullControl permissions on targeted SharePoint sites to allow the connector to access and crawl content securely.
Key Pair Generation: A public/private key pair must be generated and the public key extracted in X.509 format to configure API access for the connector.

Practical Guidance for ServiceNow Customers

Assess Document Volume: Estimate total and per-site document counts in SharePoint Online to configure effective crawl scopes.
Configure OAuth and Permissions: Properly register and grant permissions to the OAuth 2.0 app in Microsoft Entra to ensure the connector can access the necessary SharePoint content.
Create and Manage Connector: Set up the external content connector in ServiceNow, specifying crawl settings and filters to tailor the indexing to your organizational needs.
Understand Content Limitations: Recognize that the connector captures primarily static content; dynamic page elements rendered only at request time may not be fully indexed.

Expected Outcomes

By implementing the Microsoft SharePoint Online external content connector, ServiceNow customers can achieve enhanced search capabilities across their SharePoint Online content within AI Search applications. This integration ensures that static page content and metadata are discoverable, while maintaining secure and controlled access through Microsoft Entra configurations. Although dynamic content may be partially indexed, the connector provides a reliable method to index the majority of SharePoint page content and associated metadata efficiently.

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.

Search 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.