SharePoint Pages

SharePoint Pages is SharePoint’s article publishing platform and a frequently encountered Source for Answer Engine. This article explores some detail about how Pages are indexed and the nuances of SharePoint’s publishing system.

Indexing

Rendering

SharePoint Pages consist of webparts (.webp) which can compose both richtext (html) and active (js) components as well as widgets and other features that SharePoint provides authors. SharePoint provides a subset of these items over its API, and there are many inconsistencies between what a user would see and what Answer Engine can access when indexing SharePoint Pages. 

SharePoint Pages can also contain SharePoint Lists, references to Files, and other content hosted elsewhere in SharePoint. In these cases, we recommend indexing the original content rather than the Page, as in this case the Page typically serves as a shortcut and adds little value to the client’s index.

Publishing Workflow

SharePoint has a series of states in its publishing workflow. These states are fixed (i.e. every SharePoint has them) although some states might be optional per-site. These states are mapped to whether or not they appear in the index based on their visibility in SharePoint to an average user.