Content, sync & limitations - custom connector

Content types

JSON records (Amazon S3)

Each JSON record is a .json object stored in a configured Amazon S3 bucket, containing exactly one JSON object (not an array). In this release, every record is mapped using a single fixed default document mapping.

Fields synced

• id — Record identifier from the JSON payload's id field. Indexed for full-text search.

• title — From the JSON payload's title field. Indexed for full-text search; displayed as the result title.

• description — From the JSON payload's description field. Indexed for full-text search and used as the search excerpt/snippet; also used for Smart Answers.

• created_at — From the JSON payload's created_at field. Displayed in result metadata.

• updated_at — From the JSON payload's updated_at field. Displayed in result metadata.

• author_email — From the JSON payload's author_email field. Displayed in result metadata.

• url — From the JSON payload's url field. Used to generate the result link.

For fields to populate correctly, your JSON objects should expose these field names directly (identity mapping — the source field name matches the search field name in this release).

In this initial release (V1), only the canonical fields listed above are indexed — there is no option to add extra fields beyond this fixed set. Customer-configurable object types, fields, and presentation mapping are planned for a future release.

Applicable filters

File extension, file size, and document age filters shown in the connector's advanced configuration screen are not applied to Amazon S3 content in this release — see Known limitations.

PDF articles (SharePoint Online)

Each PDF article is a .pdf file stored in a configured SharePoint Online site, downloaded and text-extracted by the connector, then parsed by the specified mapper into a searchable article. Non-PDF files are ignored.

Fields synced

• id — The PDF file name without its extension (for example, 12345.pdf → 12345). Used as the record identifier; users can find articles by this ID.

• title — The first non-empty line of the extracted PDF text. Indexed for full-text search and autocomplete; displayed as the result title.

• body — The remaining extracted PDF text after the title line. Indexed for full-text search; used for Smart Answers.

• url (optional) — Built from the configured URL prefix plus the PDF file name, if a URL prefix was set during field mapping. Used to generate the result link (for example, pointing to a knowledge-base article page instead of the SharePoint file). If no URL prefix is configured, no click-through URL is indexed.

Applicable filters

Sync frequency

Incremental sync

Amazon S3: Not available in this release. Content changes in Amazon S3 are only picked up at the next full sync.

SharePoint Online: Captures content created, updated, or deleted since the last sync. After the initial full sync, the connector runs incremental syncs every hour, using SharePoint's delta query to detect new, updated, and deleted PDF files in the configured sites.

Per-item permission changes are not applicable — this connector does not sync permissions for any source type (see Permissions & Security - Custom Connector).

Full sync

A full sync re-indexes all accessible content in the connector's configured scope (buckets, or SharePoint sites). It runs automatically once daily for both source types, and can also be triggered manually from the connector Status page.

For Amazon S3, full sync is currently the only sync mechanism — every daily run re-reads the configured buckets in full. For SharePoint Online, full sync complements the hourly incremental sync and is useful for reconciling any drift.

Full syncs on buckets or sites with a large number of files may take longer to complete; incremental syncs (SharePoint Online only) resume automatically once a full sync completes.

Permission sync

Not applicable. This connector does not sync users, groups, or permissions for either Amazon S3 or SharePoint Online. All indexed content is visible to any Simpplr user with access to this connector; use Audiences to control visibility instead.

Known limitations

• Source permissions not synced for either source type — all indexed content is visible to any Simpplr user with access to this connector. Use Simpplr Audience settings to scope which users can access this connector.

• Amazon S3: only .json objects containing a single JSON object are indexed. Objects that are not valid JSON, or that contain a JSON array instead of an object, are skipped without failing the sync.

• Amazon S3: incremental sync is not available in this release — content changes are only reflected at the next scheduled or manually triggered full sync (daily by default).

• Amazon S3: field mapping in this release is a single fixed default mapping (id, title, description, created_at, updated_at, author_email, url). Admin-defined object types, custom fields, and presentation mapping are planned for a future release.

• SharePoint Online: only PDF files are indexed. Other file types (for example, Word or Excel documents) in the configured sites are not indexed.

• SharePoint Online: PDF files larger than 10 MB are skipped and not indexed — they will not appear in search.

• SharePoint Online: field mapping uses a single parser (oracle_kb_v1) that derives the article's identity, title, and body purely from the PDF file name and its extracted text (first line = title, remainder = body). Content quality depends on the PDF having a consistent, predictable structure.

• SharePoint Online: the “Preservation Hold Library” system library is always skipped and not indexed.