Microsoft Search with Service Now Graph Connector

Introduction 

 

Microsoft Search shows the content that your organization has stored in the Microsoft 365 Tenant or indexed through connectors.

 

Service Now knowledge-base articles can also be visible to all users within your organization. After you complete the connector configuration, end users can search for those articles from any Microsoft Search client. 

 

In this article, we'll understand how to index the "Service Now " knowledge base article using Graph Connector in Microsoft Search Results. 

 

License Requirements

 

To view data from connectors in your search results, users must have one of the following Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscriptions:

• Microsoft 365 or Office 365 Enterprise E3 or E5
• Microsoft 365 or Office 365 Education A3 or A5

Let's start with the configuration steps.

 

Step 1 - Navigate to Connectors

1. Go to Microsoft 365 admin center.
2. In the navigation pane, go to Settings.
3. Select > Microsoft Search.
4. Select > Connectors
5. Select > + Add

 

 

Step 2 - Select Azure DevOps as a Data Source

 

Microsoft has seven connectors available to connect with an external data source and several partners released connectors to connect with an external data source.

 

 

Step 3 - Fill connection name details

• Name (mandatory)
• Connection Id (mandatory)
• Description (optional)

 

Step 4 - Configure settings

 

To connect ServiceNow data, you need your organization's ServiceNow instance URL.

 

Your organization’s ServiceNow instance URL typically looks like https://<your-organization-domain>.service-now.com

 

To authenticate and sync content from ServiceNow, choose one of two supported methods:

1. Basic authentication
2. OAuth (recommended)

Note

For demo purposes, I used basic authentication.

 

To create a service now instance, you need to follow this link.

 

 

Step 5 - Configure Data

 

Select a project in the organization to crawl

 

Edit properties, if more properties need to added, click preview > next to proceed.

 

 

Step 6 - Manage Schema

 

You can choose which column can be set as Querable, Searchable & Retrieve. It is the same standard schema configuration as SharePoint Search.

 

 

Step 7 - Manage Search Permissions

 

You can choose to use the ACLs specified in the full crawl screen, or you can override them to make your content visible to everyone.

 

 

Step 8 - Content Refresh Settings

 

You can configure the incremental and full refresh intervals.

 

 

Step 9 - Review connection and complete

 

All defined configurations can be reviewed and modified here. Once it's complete, click Finish to proceed.

 

 

 

Step 10 - Review connection and complete

 

Wait for a couple of minutes and the connection content will full crawl. The connection state will also change from Publishing to Ready. Once the connection state is ready, two actions need to be performed in sequence:

1. Create Result Source.

2. Create Vertical.

 

Result Type

 

A search result type is a rule that causes distinct kinds of search results to be displayed in different ways. It consists of the following:

• One or more conditions to compare each search result against, such as the content source of the search result.
• A result layout to use for search results that meet the conditions. The resulting layout controls the way that all results that meet the conditions appear and behave on a search results page.

Step 11 - Result Type Section

 

Once you select create result type, follow the simple steps to follow a naming convention. Enter the result type name

 

Step 12 - Result Type Content Source

 

Select the appropriate content source so that crawled or configured data can be mapped properly.

 

 

Step 13 - Design Layout

 

These are the important steps to design your layout or adaptive rich card, which will be rendered into search results.

 

Once you click "Launch Layout Designer", it will navigate to https://searchlayoutdesigner.azurewebsites.net/

 

 

Step 14 - Search Layout Designer

 

Select a blank layout and design the required card.

 

Copy content from the Layout Payload editor and paste it into step no. 13.

 

 

Layout payload editor added to the GitHub link here

 

Review the result type configuration and proceed to Vertical creation to map with defined result type.

 

Manage Vertical

 

Verticals make it easier for users to find the information that they have permission to see.

 

You can add search verticals that are relevant to your organization. These will appear on the Microsoft Search results page in SharePoint, Office, and Bing.

 

Before you start, make sure that the connector has been indexed. This can take up to 48 hours, depending on the file size.

 

You can’t create a vertical for content that resides in SharePoint.

 

There are three basic steps to add a vertical:

1. Create the vertical. In this step, you define the vertical’s name, content source, and scope of the content to search.
2. Define what the results for this vertical will look like.
3. Enable the vertical (to be displayed) from the vertical list page.

Step 15 - Create Vertical

 

In the navigation pane, go to custom connector and then select the Verticals Link.

 

To add a vertical, select Add, or to edit a vertical, select it in the list.

 

Remember that verticals are created in a disabled state. They must be enabled before users can see them.

 

 

Step 17 - Connect Vertical with Content Source

 

 

Add the required Query section as it is an optional section. Proceed to review, Add, and Enable vertical via the following screens.

 

Outcome

 

Service Now Data Screen Shot

 

 

Finally, we receive the Output in Microsoft Search

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed and learned something new in this article. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next article!