This guide is self-contained — every permission and scope required is listed in the steps below. For why each permission is needed, the trade-offs between permission models, and the full security and permission-propagation details, see Permissions & Security - SharePoint.

Prerequisites

Who you need to be

• A Microsoft Entra user with Admin Access

• Ability to grant admin consent to the registered application — or access to a Global Admin who can do this on your behalf

• If you plan to use Sites.Selected instead of Full Control: a user with Full Control access on each SharePoint site you want to grant (see Additional steps for Sites.Selected below)

Step 1 — Prepare SharePoint

Credentials you will need from the source

• Application (Client) ID

• Directory (Tenant) ID

• Tenant name

• Certificate private key (azure_app.key)

• Certificate (azure_app.crt)

1. Go to the Azure portal and sign in with your Azure account.

2. Search for and navigate to the App registrations service. 

3. Click New registration to register a new application.

   

4. Provide a name for your app, and optionally select the supported account types (e.g., single tenant, multi-tenant) based on your Entra ID setup.

5. Click Register to create the app registration.

6. After registration completes, you're redirected to the app's overview page. Note the Application (client) ID and Directory (Tenant) ID — you'll need them later.

   

7. Create a certificate and private key. For example, run:

   openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout azure_app.key -out azure_app.crt

   

8. Enter your tenant's details when prompted (optional — can be left blank). This generates two files:

   • azure_app.crt — uploaded to both Azure and the Simpplr admin panel

   • azure_app.key — uploaded to the Simpplr admin panel only

   Store both files somewhere safe and secure.

9. In the app registration, go to Manage → Certificates & secrets and select Upload certificate.

10. Upload the certificate you created in the previous step (azure_app.crt). 
    

11. Go to Manage → API permissions and click Add a permission. 
    

12. Select Microsoft Graph as the API, then Application permissions, and add the following permissions (see Permissions & Security - SharePoint for why each is needed):

    • Sites.Read.All

    • Files.Read.All

    • GroupMember.Read.All

    • User.Read.All

    • Either Sites.FullControl.All or Sites.Selected, depending on the permission model you chose

    

13. Repeat the same steps to add the SharePoint API permissions:

    • Sites.Read.All

    • Either Sites.FullControl.All or Sites.Selected, depending on the permission model you chose

    

14. Click Grant admin consent for the app. This requires administrative privileges.

    

15. To find your tenant name, go to Microsoft Entra ID in the Azure portal and locate the primary domain on the overview page (e.g., simpplr.onmicrosoft.com — the tenant name is simpplr).
    
    

Additional steps for Sites.Selected

Complete these steps only if you chose the Sites.Selected permission model instead of Full Control. The user running these steps needs Full Control access on the sites being granted.

1. Open the Microsoft Graph Explorer and sign in as a user with admin access and full control permissions on the SharePoint sites you want to grant.

2. Search for a site by keyword to find its site ID:

   GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites?select=webUrl,Id&$search="<Site Name>*"

   This returns a list of matching sites, including each site's Id. 
   

3. Using the retrieved siteId, grant your application access to the site:

   POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/<siteId>/permissions

   { "roles": ["fullcontrol"], "grantedToIdentities": [ { "application": { "id": "<App_Client_ID>", "displayName": "<App_Display_Name>" } } ] }
   

4. Repeat for every site you want the connector to access. Sites not granted here will not be indexed — see Step 3 below to configure matching site filters in Simpplr.

Step 2 — Add SharePoint as a source in Simpplr Enterprise Search Admin Panel

1. In Simpplr, go to: Manage features → Enterprise search → Add source. 
   

2. Search for and select Microsoft SharePoint. 
   

3. Enter a Connection Name for this instance.

4. Enter the authentication details, and select the Certificate toggle as the authentication method:

   • Tenant ID

   • Tenant Name — the primary domain prefix from Microsoft Entra ID (e.g., simpplr.onmicrosoft.com → tenant name is simpplr)

   • Client ID

   • Auth Method — Certificate

   • Certificate Key — full contents of azure_app.key, including the begin/end private key lines

   • Certificate Secret — full contents of azure_app.crt, including the begin/end certificate lines

   To copy certificate file contents exactly: on Windows CMD use type azure_app.key; on Linux, PowerShell, or Mac use cat azure_app.key.
   
   

5. Click Save and confirm.

Step 3 — Add filters and ingestion scope

Filters control which content gets indexed. All filters are optional — if none are set, all accessible content is indexed.

1. Configure object types to sync — choose which object types to include: Sites, Pages, Files. Simpplr syncs only the selected object types; unselected types are omitted entirely. 
   

2. Configure site-based filters — mandatory if you configured credentials using Sites.Selected instead of Sites.FullControl.All.

   • Include specific sites: index only content belonging to selected sites (by link or ID).

   • Exclude specific sites: skip content belonging to selected sites (by link or ID).

   

3. Configure common filters (exclusion only):

   • File extension (e.g., exclude .zip, .exe)

   • File size above a specified threshold

   • Document age (e.g., exclude files older than a specified date)

    

4. Configure Audience filtering (optional) — restrict the connector to specific Simpplr audiences, by including or excluding audiences. Only members of included audiences will be able to find this content in Enterprise Search. If left unset, all users with access can search this content.

   

5. Click Save and sync — this saves the configuration and initiates the first full sync.

   Alternatively, click Exit to save and resume setup later. To start the sync manually, go to Enterprise Search → SharePoint → Status and click Sync now.

Step 4 — Verify the sync

1. Monitor progress at: Enterprise Search → SharePoint → Status.

2. The dashboard shows sync status, total items indexed, and any errors.

   

What success looks like:

• Shortly after starting the sync, the status shows In progress and the item count begins increasing.

• When the initial full sync completes, the status shows Success and SharePoint results appear in Enterprise Search for users with access.

• Initial full sync duration depends on content volume — large tenants can take several hours or even days.

If the sync stays in Pending, fails, or completes with far fewer items than expected, see Troubleshooting - Enterprise Search Connectors.