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 retrieval of pages from your SharePoint Online source system, making content and metadata searchable within AI Search applications. It allows administrators to schedule content and user permission crawls for updated content and security principals, respectively, feeding this data into AI Search for indexing.

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    Key Features

    • Crawling Capabilities: The connector supports content crawls for updated content and user permission crawls for security principals, which are essential for maintaining accurate search indexing.
    • Search Indexing: Indexed content is stored in a connector-specific indexed source, which can be linked to search profiles to enhance searchability in AI Search applications.
    • Dynamic and Static Content Handling: The connector retrieves static content effectively but may struggle with dynamic web parts, which may result in incomplete content retrieval.
    • API Integration: Utilizes the SharePoint REST API to access content from the underlying list items, fetching metadata like title, author, and modification date.

    Key Outcomes

    By implementing the Microsoft SharePoint Online external content connector, customers can:

    • Improve the searchability of SharePoint content in AI Search applications.
    • Ensure accurate indexing of content through scheduled crawls.
    • Understand the scope of documents in their SharePoint environment to set appropriate crawl settings.
    • Manage permissions and access for a more secure and efficient content retrieval process.

    Next Steps

    • Estimate document volumes in your SharePoint Online system to inform crawl scope settings.
    • Create a public/private key pair for API access configuration.
    • Register an OAuth 2.0 application in Microsoft Entra for connector access.
    • Configure site permissions to enable the connector's crawling capabilities.
    • Define specific sites and content filters for efficient crawls.

    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.