Step 1. Launch Aspire and open the Content Source Management Page

Launch Aspire (if it's not already running). See:

• Launch Control
• Browse to: http://localhost:50505. For details on using the Aspire Content Source Management page, please refer to Admin UI Overview

Step 2. Add a new SharePoint Online Content Source

To specify exactly what shared folder to crawl, we will need to create a new "Content Source".

To create a new content source:

1. From the Content Source , click on "Add Source" button.
2. Click on "SharePoint Online Connector".

Step 2a. Specify Basic Information

In the "General" tab in the Content Source Configuration window, specify basic information for the content source:

1. Enter a content source name in the "Name" field. 
   1. This is any useful name which you decide is a good name for the source. It will be displayed in the content source page, in error messages, etc.
2. Click on the Scheduled pulldown list and select one of the following: Manually, Periodically, Daily, Weekly or Advanced.
   1. Aspire can automatically schedule content sources to be crawled on a set schedule, such as once a day, several times a week, or periodically (every N minutes or hours).For the purposes of this tutorial, you may want to select Manually and then set up a regular crawling schedule later.
3. Click on the Action pulldown list to select one of the following: Start, Stop, Pause, or Resume.
   1. This is the action that will be performed for that specific schedule.
4. Click on the Crawl pulldown list and select one of the following: Incremental, Full, Real Time, or Cache Groups.
   1. This will be the type of crawl to execute for that specific schedule.
      

After selecting a Scheduled, specify the details, if applicable:

• Manually: No additional options.
• Periodically: Specify the "Run every:" options by entering the number of "hours" and "minutes."
• Daily: Specify the "Start time:" by clicking on the hours and minutes drop-down lists and selecting options.
• Weekly: Specify the "Start time:" by clicking on the hours and minutes drop-down lists and selecting options, then clicking on the day checkboxes to specify days of the week to run the crawl.
• Advanced: Enter a custom CRON Expression (e.g. 0 0 0 ? * *)

Step 2b. Specify the Connector Information

In the "Connector" tab, specify the connection information to crawl SharePoint Online.

1. Specify if you want to provide urls through a seeds file by selecting Use seeds file.
2. Specify the path to the seeds file if previously selected.
3. Enter the SharePoint URL you want to crawl.
4. Click Add New to specify additional urls.
5. Enter the account info for the crawl user (username and password) or select Use Azure Authentication to configure the Client Id, tenant, certificate and private key.
6. Check on the other options as needed:
   1. Use Aspire Snapshots for incrementals: uses the Aspire data provider to store incremental crawl information
   2. Crawl Attachments: crawl list item attachments. (e.g. Documents attached to an Event or a Task).
   3. Index Containers: index sites, lists and folders. If unchecked, only list items and attachments will be indexed.
   4. Scan Excluded Items: specify if containers should still be scanned even if there are excluded or not included through patterns.
   5. Add SharePoint public groups: autmatically add SharePoint public groups to acls (i.e. Everyone, Everyone except external users).
7. Specify request connection properties as needed under Request Properties.
8. Specify include and exclude patterns.  It is important to note that if the root urls don't match the include/exclude patterns the Scan Excluded Items option should be selected, otherwise the crawl won't return any items.
9. Specify if Azure AD groups should be used for group expansion.  An Azure AD service component should be previously configured in Aspire.
10. Specify text extraction, hierarchy caching and group expansion settings.

Step 2c. Specify Workflow Information

In the "Workflow" tab, specify the workflow steps for the jobs that come out of the crawl. Drag and drop rules to determine which steps should an item follow after being crawled. This rules could be where to publish the document or transformations needed on the data before sending it to a search engine. See Workflow for more information.

1. For the purpose of this tutorial, drag and drop the Publish To File rule found under the Publishers tab to the onPublish Workflow tree.
   1. Specify a Name and Description for the Publisher.
   2. Click Add.

After completing this steps click on the Save then Done and you'll be sent back to the Home Page.

Step 3: Initiate a Full Crawl

Now that the content source is set up, the crawl can be initiated by clicking the "Full Crawl" button.

Step 4: Initiate an Incremental Crawl

If you only want to process content updates from the SharePoint Online (documents which are added, modified, or removed), then click on the "Incremental" button instead of the "Full" button. The SharePoint Online connector will automatically identify only changes which have occurred since the last crawl.

If this is the first time that the connector has crawled, the action of the "Incremental" button depends on the exact method of change discovery. It may perform the same action as a "Full" crawl crawling everything, or it may not crawl anything. Thereafter, the Incremental button will only crawl updates.