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Summary of SharePoint Online Search Connector prerequisites
The ServiceNow SharePoint Online Search Connector (SPOC) enables employees to search and discover Microsoft SharePoint content directly within the ServiceNow employee experience, enhancing productivity through better search and discovery.It supports multiple channels such as Employee Service Management, Service Portal, Now Mobile app, and Virtual Agent, and integrates with ServiceNow AI Search to improve search relevance and personalization.Note that starting with the Yokohama release, SPOC is hidden and no longer activated on new instances but continues to be supported during its deprecation phase.
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Required Plugins and Setup
Activate the following plugins and apps:
Employee Center Pro
Microsoft SharePoint spoke
AI Search spoke
Microsoft Entra ID spoke
Ensure the AI Search engine is enabled (SPOC is compatible only with AI Search, not Zing search).
The External Content for the AI Search plugin requires a ServiceNow subscription.
Microsoft Entra ID spoke setup, along with Graph and REST connection configurations, are necessary to connect ServiceNow with the Microsoft SharePoint tenant.
Content and Permissions Supported
Supported content types include various Office files (e.g., DOCX, PPTX, XLSX), ASPX, PDF, HTML, and text files, with a maximum file size of 25 MB.
Supported languages are English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and German.
SPOC reads users only from the Microsoft 365 Members group and does not pull user data from Active Directory.
Supports site permissions for “Everyone except external users.”
Administrative Enhancements for Control and Governance
Flexible permission settings allow selecting from Sites.FullControl.All, Sites.Read.All, or Sites.Selected during connector configuration.
Selective indexing lets administrators exclude specific sites or subsites (e.g., those with confidential information) from search indexing.
Indexing can be limited to published versions of files to ensure employees access only finalized content, not drafts.
For existing connectors without these enhancements, admins must delete and recreate the connector with the updated settings.
Additional Considerations
Only one SharePoint instance can be connected to a single ServiceNow instance at a time.
For details about the deprecation process and further setup instructions, refer to the ServiceNow knowledge base articles on External Content Connectors and the deprecation notice.
The ServiceNowSharePoint Online Search Connector offers a consumer-grade search configuration to manage your information resources.
Important:
Starting with the Yokohama release, SharePoint Online Search Connector is being prepared for future deprecation. It is hidden and no longer activated on new instances but continue to be supported. For deprecation details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support knowledge base.
For detailed instructions on how to get started with External Content Connectors, see
As search is the key to productivity, SharePoint Online Search Connector (SPOC) helps your employees to search and discover content from the ServiceNow employee experience.
How SharePoint Online Search Connector works
Here’s an overview of how SharePoint Online Search Connector works:Figure 1. SPOC overview
Use the SharePoint Online Search Connector to:
Create better search and discovery experiences for the Microsoft SharePoint content, confirming that your employees can quickly find the information they need.
Enable support across multiple channels like Employee Service Management, Service Portal, Now Mobile app, and Virtual Agent.
Integrate with the ServiceNow®AI Search for improved relevance and personalization.
Search and find relevant information and drive business outcomes.
Required plugins
Activate the following plugins and apps:
Employee Center Pro
Microsoft SharePoint spoke
AI Search spoke
Microsoft Entra ID spoke
Verify that the AI Search engine is enabled. External Content for the AI Search plugin (com.glide.ais.external_content) must have a ServiceNow subscription.
The SharePoint Online Search Connector is only compatible with the AI Search engine, not with the Zing search engine.
The content types supported by the AI Search engine, such as, DOTX, HTM, XLSX, DOT, PPTM, DOCX, PPTX, TXT, PDF, POT, PPT, POTX, DOC, HTML, and XLS are supported in SharePoint Online Search Connector along with ASPX.
The AI Search file size up to 25 MB is applicable.
The languages supported are English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and German.
SharePoint Online Search Connector supports SharePoint groups The groups are Members, Owners, and Visitors. The groups have different
permission levels.
Members: Can edit a document residing in the site.
Owners: Can create, edit, and delete documents residing in the site.
Visitors: Can read a document residing in the site.
SharePoint Online Search Connector is enabled to read users from the Microsoft 365 groups.
Note:
It only reads and pulls data from the Microsoft 365Members group.
SharePoint Online Search Connector doesn’t read users from your Active directory.
As an admin, you can use the following enhancements for more flexibility and control:
Flexible permissions: Select the Sites.FullControl.All, Sites.Read.All, or Sites.Selected permissions while configuring the
connector.
Selective indexing: Index sites and subsites selectively by excluding some URLs and subsites, which have confidential information.
Index published versions: Control and limit the indexing only to the published files, confirming employees access the verified and finalized versions and not the drafts or unfinished
documents.
Note:
If you have an existing connector without these enhancements, delete the existing connector, create a new connector, specify the URLs for indexing and exclusion, and define the site permissions for
more effective content control and governance.
Two SharePoint instances cannot be connected to one ServiceNow instance simultaneously.
The Microsoft Entra ID spoke setup is required along with the Graph and REST connection setups to connect your ServiceNow instance to a Microsoft SharePoint tenant.
