Microsoft Graph Connectors with Microsoft Search

In the February SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop, it was announced that two new Graph Connectors were released for Atlassian Confluence and Jira. Microsoft Search is powerful on its own as it indexes all Microsoft 365 data, thereby enabling this data to be searchable by users, but with two new Graph Connectors, the ability to search has become more powerful as third-party data can now be indexed, searched, and displayed in the Microsoft Search results. The Graph Connector for Confluence cloud will now index Confluence pages and blogs from Microsoft Search endpoints, such as SharePoint, Office.com, Bing, and others, making them searchable. The Graph Connector for Jira cloud will index Jira issues and tickets, allowing this data to be searchable for users.

Graph Connectors connect platforms so data can be shared seamlessly and smoothly. Microsoft provides 9 Graph Connectors while partners provide over 100 and there are many more that have been custom built to suit an organization’s needs.

Microsoft Graph Connectors – Microsoft

Microsoft Graph Connectors will allow you to connect with the following data sources:

  1. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
  2. Azure DevOps*
  3. Azure SQL and Microsoft SQL Server
  4. Confluence Cloud
  5. Confluence On-Premises*
  6. Enterprise Websites
  7. MediaWiki
  8. File Share
  9. Oracle SQL
  10. Salesforce
  11. ServiceNow Knowledge
  12. ServiceNow Catalog*

          * As of March 2022, these Graph Connectors are only available in preview.  

Brief descriptions of these Graph Connectors can be found in the Microsoft Graph Connectors Gallery. Additional information and instructions are located in the Setup Overview document which will assist when the comes time to connect one of these data sources to your tenant.

Microsoft Graph Connectors – Partners

Partners who have created a connector are listed in the Microsoft Graph Connectors Gallery with a short description of the connector plus a link to their website is included. Partners will be able to answer any questions or inquiries direct.   

Microsoft Graph Connectors – Building Your Own  

If your preference is to build your connector, you can do so by reading Build Your First Custom Microsoft Graph Connector which provides a step-by-step approach to build your first connector. Greater detail for developers can be found in the documentation on building connectors at the Microsoft Graph Connectors Overview.

Configuring and Managing Microsoft Graph Connectors

Both managing and configuring the Graph Connectors are accomplished through the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre and under the Connections tab.  

Search results can be customized and configured for Graph Connectors by managing:

  1. Search Verticals: the results appearing on the search result page under the tabs will be based on specific types of sources or from select sources. These are managed on two levels. The first is the organizational level where search results initiated from a SharePoint start page, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Search in Bing. The second is at the site level where search results are initiated from a SharePoint site.
  2. Search Result Types: on the search results page, Graph Connectors content will be displayed in a layout that is designed by using result types.
  3. Search Result Layouts: the custom vertical result layout can be designed by implementing the layout designer. You can either start by choosing a pre-configured template that meets the requirements, edit a pre-configured template by either modifying text, adding or removing text, and adding or removing images, or choose a blank template to design your customized layout.
  4. Result Clusters: these are results grouped based on the configuration of the search vertical and allow users to discover third-party content in one location from their All tab and default view in SharePoint, Office.com, and Microsoft Search in Bing.
  5. Custom Filters: two types of filters allow users to refine their query for greater refined results. Out-of-the-box filters include the default search filters Files, All, News, and Images. Custom filters are added to custom search verticals at both organization and site levels.  

With Microsoft Graph Connectors, the power of Search has been exponentially increased through the inclusion of indexed data from third parties. Users can now search across many more resources, gather more information, increase knowledge, work more collaboratively, and make better-informed decisions.   

Modern Search in SharePoint Online: The User Experience

What is Modern Search? SharePoint Online users will experience Modern Search, which is Microsoft search in SharePoint (the classic search experience). Modern Search results, generated from the insights of Microsoft Graph, are relevant to each user whereas Classic Search generates results that are geared more towards the organization.  With Modern Search, daily tasks are simplified by relevant content curation for users. For example, users can easily find the correct version of a document to edit, a document that is being worked on collaboratively, or even a presentation to continue editing.

Let’s take a step back and review Microsoft Search. Microsoft Search brings together the action of searching the web and work as one experience on any device and on any browser. Microsoft Search brings the right information, at the right time to the user, including people, groups, conversations, locations, resources and tools, files, and SharePoint sites. Microsoft Search is powerful and the safest way to share information across an organization. In our article, Microsoft Search and SharePoint Search, we delve deeper into the relationship between the two.

By default, both search experiences are enabled. Even though both search experiences implement the same search index to find results, users will experience the different search experiences based on where they are searching from (the launch portal). Users will experience the Classic Search on publishing sites, in the Search Center, and on classic site teams. The Modern Search experience for users will be found on the SharePoint home page, hub sites, communication sites, and modern team sites. A visual cue as to which search is being experienced is the location of the Microsoft search box, which appears in the header bar at the top of SharePoint plus it produces customized content for the user for both Modern and Microsoft Search.

One of the key features of Modern Search is the ability to get back to a previous task quickly and easily. This is done by providing a list of results based on recent activities in Office 365 and they appear in relevant order within the search box, even before any typing begins for the search. As the user types, the search box will update the suggestions automatically. Finding shared files that are used for collaboration are easily searched, discovered, and displayed with the application of advanced query understanding.

Another useful and intelligent feature of Modern Search is the simplicity of placing your cursor inside the search box and then pressing Enter to discover new information. By doing this, the search results will bring the most relevant information to the user. The results are based on the user’s previous activity in Office 365 with the most relevant at the top. Without leaving Search, the user has the capability to explore results to assess if the information is relevant and what they are looking for before accessing it.

Modern Search is dynamic. Leveraging AI, the relevant content harvested will grow, and as the user utilized Modern Search, the more relevant and the more accurate the results will become.  Not only will the content grow over time, but the set of content types that users search for will also dynamically grow, continually evolving to meet each user’s needs.

As a search administrator, Microsoft search can be used to promote information and answers that are targeted to specific groups or teams. Promoted information or answers may include resource tools to complete tasks, policies, company benefits, collective agreements, and more. By showing relevant content, it promotes the successful completion of tasks amongst teams.

Modern Search offers the user a personalized experience with a great user interface, all without the need of it being configured by a search administrator. Rather, any search administration applies to Microsoft Search across all apps.

One key point that differentiates the Classic Search from the Modern Search is that Classic Search can be customized to curate organization-focussed content. The search administrator, by adding custom refiners, can produce customized content on the search results page. On the other hand, the Modern Search experience cannot be customized but it can be tailored so users can find relevant content easily while meeting the needs of the organization.

To customize the Classic Search experience, you would access the SharePoint Admin Center but for Microsoft Search, access would be through the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre. Even though customizing and tailoring are done through two different admin centres, certain aspects of the Classic Search settings will have an impact on the Modern Search experience. Details and explanations of these impacts are discussed in our article Microsoft Search and SharePoint Search.

With Modern Search in SharePoint Online, collaboration on the go is extremely portable. Modern Search is fully mobile-friendly, displaying result pages that fit onto any portable device screen.

Without a doubt, users will have an exceptional experience with Microsoft Search and with Modern Search in SharePoint Online. Which search experience users will have is totally dependent upon their organization’s use of classic or modern sites.

In our next article, Modern Search in SharePoint Online: The Search Administrator, we will review the differences between Modern Search and Classic Search along with the impacts of planning and/or migrating to Modern Search from classic sites.

Modern Search in SharePoint Online: The Search Administrator

In our previous article, Modern Search in SharePoint Online: The User Experience, we explained how the Modern Search experience provides powerful search capabilities for users to curate relevant, important, and personalized content to the user while the Microsoft, or Classic, Search experience provides organization-specific information.

From an administration point of view, deciding when to use which one of the search experiences is a consideration when planning the implementation of Modern Search. Both search experiences require content that has been indexed but because Modern Search uses the same index as Classic Search, nothing is required to be done if your organization is already using Classic Search. Additionally, the modern search boxes are defaulted to appear on the SharePoint homepage and modern sites, eliminating the need for configuration by a search administrator.

There are two options when it comes to the launching portal into different search experiences. Where to launch the portal from is directly related to the end goal of what is being achieved. Launching from the Search Centre will provide different results than from the SharePoint homepage.

Launching from the Search Centre (Classic Search) will allow custom refiners and search verticals for organization-specific content. This also provides the ability to display organization-specific content results differently than other content for it to stand out. The second method of launching is from the SharePoint home page and this can be done by encouraging and promoting users to use the SharePoint start page to initiate Microsoft Search (Modern Search in SharePoint Online). By launching from the SharePoint home page, content delivered will be user-specific.

Migrating from a classic to a modern site will impact the search experience if you have a customized search. Remember that a classic site has a classic search box while a modern site will have a Microsoft search box. With classic sites, the search box can be customized, such as redirecting to a custom Search Centre to display filtered and formatted results that are organization-specific based on content types. The Microsoft search experience cannot be customized in this fashion and it is recommended to use modern sites if the search box does not need to be customized. This method would provide user-relevant content.

An efficient way for users to search across all sites of an administrative unit is to use a hub site to organize the sites. Hub sites use Microsoft search boxes which means that searches target people, files, news, and sites across all associated sites of that hub. This can also be achieved with the classic search box, but it would be time intensive and not the most efficient method.

On the plus side, Microsoft search can be used in combination with cloud hybrid search. On-premises and online content for cloud hybrid search are indexed in the same index that is accessed for classic and Microsoft search experiences.

Keep in mind when migrating or deciding when to use the Classic Search or Modern Search experiences that the Modern Search experience shows results only from the default result source. If the default result source is changed, then both search experiences are impacted. Likewise, removing a search result, even temporarily, will remove it from both search experiences.

Earlier, we discussed how a search administrator can use Microsoft search to promote information and answers that are targeted to specific groups or teams. For the Classic Search experience, search administrators define the promoted results that provide users with relevant and important content. Unlike the classic search experience, Microsoft Search experience requires the search administrator to use bookmarks to achieve the same result.

Promoted results can be created at an organizational level. At this level, if a user was to search across the whole organization, the promoted results might appear in the All tab on the Microsoft search results page.

As an example, let’s say a user searches from the search box on a hub site. Performing a search from the hub site garnishes results from sites associated with the hub only and will not see any of the promoted results in the All tab. However, if the user had performed the search from the SharePoint home page, then the promoted content may appear on the All tab. If the promoted result was defined and the same content was bookmarked with the same URL, then only the bookmark would appear in the All tab.

As one can see, planning the implementation of Modern Search with Microsoft Search requires a thorough understanding of the relationship between them as well as how sites function, particularly hub sites, classic sites, and modern sites.

Modern Search in SharePoint Online brings personalized content to the user while Classic Search provides the ability for search administrators to customize promoted content that can be targeted to specific groups or teams within the organization. Microsoft is rethinking, redefining, and changing how search is used by combining Modern Search in SharePoint Online, Microsoft Search, and AI.

Microsoft Search and SharePoint Search

Sharing of information and knowledge is the basis for a collaborative environment, but the collaborative environment is only as powerful as the capabilities built into the software that provide the abilities for the user to search for this information. Without strong searching capabilities, navigating to find specific information would be a major struggle, working against the whole premise of collaboration.

Microsoft Search is the powerhouse for bringing together search results from several data sources in Office 365 including SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, Teams, Groups, Yammer, and more. Driven by Bing’s search engine and leveraging AI, Microsoft Search brings data from within your organization and from the web in a single experience. Worry-free security authenticates users to ensure that only users allowed to access corporate content will receive the content by de-identifying search queries and logs, thereby separating these from public Bing search traffic. Microsoft Search is fully customizable allowing you to add your logo, use branding colours, company name, and more. This can all be accessed through the Microsoft 365 admin center.

With Microsoft Search, you have the flexibility to target specific groups of information to be shared with. Finding answers to questions, like troubleshooting, policies resources, can help support wise resourcing and decrease support costs by allowing users to become more independent in finding the answers that they are seeking.

The key admin features of Microsoft Search include the following:

  1. Enterprise Bookmarks: find information including sites and tools within your enterprise;
  2. Enterprise Q&As: here, you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions in your organization;
  3. Import and Export Bookmarks and Q&As: bulk importing, exporting and editing streamlines the creation and updating process;
  4. Location: on a map, locate your organization’s buildings, workspaces, and offices;
  5. Management: create content, configure, and define search keywords and phrases;
  6. Users and Permissions: both the Microsoft Search administrator and the Global Administrator will be able to authorize and add admins to manage the Microsoft Search configuration, editors who can create content, and end-users who can have access to Microsoft Search; and
  7. Analytics: provision of data of how your organization is using Microsoft Search.

What benefits will the end-user receive? These are a few of the key features for end-users:

  1. People: find people, understand their company role, projects they assigned and working on and contact information;
  2. Organizational Charts: a visual depicting a person’s place in the hierarchy of the organization, their peers, management and direct reports;
  3. Files: find relevant and contextual files on SharePoint and OneDrive for Business;
  4. Office 365 Groups: Find a group by its name, or by a member name, explore groups that a person belongs to, and browse shared content;
  5. Resources and Tools: find the information you need with links to internal and external resources;
  6. SharePoint Sites: search a site by name or see results for a group or person;
  7. Teams and Yammer Conversations: from public and group conversations, you can find contextual and relevant results;
  8. Locations: find the address and map results for buildings, campuses and offices; and
  9. First-Run Experience: for first-time users. With an initial sign in to Microsoft Search and Bing, they will receive information about using it including the types of work results they will find when they search.

SharePoint Online provides both a classic and modern search experience. Even though both experiences differ, they have one commonality and that is they use the same search index to find search results. With a modern search experience, your results shown are based on your previous activity in Office 365 and are very personal. Two users can use the same search parameters, but different content will be presented due to previous searches. Visual, intuitive and easy to navigate, the modern search experience provides ease of access and use for your users.

Because the modern search results page is not built with web parts, the modern search experience cannot be customized. However, the classic search experience can be customized and some of these customizations will have a limited impact on the modern experience. The following classic search settings will also apply to the modern search experience:

  1. Search Schema: this determines how content is collected in and retrieved from the search index. This will affect both experiences with the exception of the Sortable, Refinable and Company Name Extraction schemas which only apply to the classic search experience;
  2. Default Result Source: in the modern search experience, the results displayed are from the default result source only. If the default result source is changed in the classic search experience, it will also impact the modern search experience
  3. Remove Search Result: temporarily removing a search result will remove it from both experiences; and
  4. Promoted Result: users in both experiences will see organizational level promoted results. For the modern search experience, users will need to navigate to the All tab on the search results page and have searched across all of SharePoint to see the promoted results.

Whether you use the classic or the modern search experience, it is important to:

  1. Make sure that content can be found. Content will only be searchable once it has been crawled and added to the search index;
  2. Make the search results look amazing. Choose and create the right presentation format so that is it easy for your users to understand, access, and navigate;
  3. Show relevant search results. These can be customized by managing the search schema, query rule, query suggestions, result sources, result types, search dictionaries, authoritative pages, and with the export and import of search settings as well as using query transforms; and
  4. Check your analytics including logs, limits, and reports. These will provide information on whether the crawler has added content to the search index and if users are finding what they are searching for.

This all sounds great, but how does SharePoint Online search work? A simple explanation is that each document’s detailed information is stored within the site columns in the lists and libraries. The search follows this path and is graphically depicted:

  1. Crawling: Search crawls the lists and libraries. Site columns and their values are added to the search index;
  2. Search Index: in the search index, site columns are mapped to manage properties;
  3. Query Entry: the query that the user enters in a Search Box Web Part is sent to the search index; and
  4. Results: matching results are found by the search engine. These are then sent to a search results page and displayed in Web Parts.

By using the power of Bing’s AI search engine, Microsoft Search provides the powerful capability of searching for contextual content across several Office 365 platforms and the web to bring results to your organization and its users. Microsoft Search drives SharePoint Search, thereby providing your users the ability to search for content that is relevant to their projects, knowledge base, and skill sets across platforms and the web. Collaboration has never been easier and intuitive.

Search Web Parts – Collab365 Global Conference

 

Have you heard about the virtual Collab365 Global Conference 2017 that’s streaming online November 1st – 2nd?

Join me and 120 other speakers from around the world who will be bringing you the very latest content around SharePoint, Office 365, Flow, PowerApps, Azure, OneDrive for Business and of course the increasingly popular Microsoft Teams. The event is produced by the Collab365 Community and is entirely free to attend.

Places are limited to 5000 so be quick and register now.

During the conference I'd love you to watch my session which is called : 'Search Web Parts'

Content Search Web Part (CSWP) is one of the great web parts in O365 and on-premises. In this session, Mike will demo how to configure a​nd use the CSWP, and build a dynamic O365 branded portal with CSWP only. In this session, we will review: 1.Creating Queries using Keyword Query Language (KQL) 2.Building dynamic queries 3.Creating and customizing HTML Display Templates​​.​

If you join me, you will learn:

  1. Creating Queries using Keyword Query Language (KQL)
  2. Building dynamic queries
  3. Creating and customizing HTML Display Templates
  4. Building Search Driven Portals

Topic(s):

  1. Office365
  2. SharePoint

Audience :

  1. IT Pro

Time (in UTC) :

  1. Thursday, November 2 2017 5:00 PM

How to attend :

  1. Register here.
  2. At the time listed above go here to watch my session. (you can also add me to your own personal planner from the agenda.
  3. Be ready to take notes!