Add or Edit a Generic REST API Source

If not already in the Add/Edit a Generic REST API Source panel, go to the panel:

• To add a source, in the main menu, under Content, select Sources > Add Source button > Generic REST API.

  OR

• To edit a source, in the main menu, under Content, select Sources > source row > Edit in the Action bar.

In the Configuration tab, enter appropriate values for the available parameters:

• Source name

  A descriptive name for your source content. The name must be under 255 characters (not already in use for another source in this organization).

• Character optical recognition (OCR)

  Check this box if you want Coveo Cloud to extract text from image files and/or PDF files containing images (see Enable Optical Character Recognition). OCR-extracted text is processed as item data, meaning that it is fully searchable and will appear in the item Quick View (see Search Result Quick View).

  Since the OCR feature is available at an extra charge, you must first contact Coveo Sales to add this feature to your organization license. You can then enable it for your source.

• Index

  When adding a source, if you have more than one logical (non-Elasticsearch) index in your organization, select the index in which the retrieved content will be stored (see Leverage Multiple Coveo Indexes). If your organization only has one index, this drop-down menu is not visible and you have no decision to make.

  • To add a source storing content in an index different than default, you need the View access level on the Logical Index domain (see Privilege Management and Logical Indexes Domain).

  • Once the source is added, you cannot switch to a different index.

• Content security

  Select who can see items from this source in a search interface that includes this source in its scope (see Content Security):

  • Shared: Everyone

  • Private: Only you, when you are authenticated to the search interface with the identity with which you created the source.

In the Authentication section, all parameters are optional. Fill the appropriate boxes depending on the authentication type used by the source you want to make searchable.

• If your source uses a HTTP, Basic, Kerberos, or NTLM authentication protocol, enter the Username and Password of the account with which you want to crawl the source. This fills the username and password fields in your source JSON configuration. The account of which you enter the credentials must have access to all the content that you want to make searchable.

  If the repository allows it, it is recommended to use a dedicated crawling account instead of your own account.

• If your source uses the OAuth 2.0 authentication protocol, enter your content source Client ID, Client secret and Refresh token in the corresponding boxes.

• If your source uses an API key to authenticate, enter it in the API key box.

• If your source does not require authentication, leave all boxes empty.

In the Content to Include section, in the JSON configuration box, enter your source JSON configuration (see Generic REST API Source Reference and Generic REST API Source Tutorial).

1. In the Access Level column, select View or Edit for each available group.
2. On the left-hand side of the tab, if available, click Groups or API Keys to switch lists.

Optionally, consider editing or adding mappings (see Adding and Managing Source Mappings).

Click Add Source/Save to add/save your source configuration.

If you selected the Create an API key check box:

1. In the Your Key dialog box that appears, click Copy to copy the API key value to the clipboard, and click OK.

   The Your Key dialog box appears only once and is the only place where you can see and copy the key value.

   If you fail to copy (or lose) the key value, the workaround is to manually create a new API key by selecting only the View and Edit check boxes for the Sources privileges of the Content service (see Add an API Key). In this case, you should also disable or delete the original unused API key (see Disable/Enable an API Key or Delete an API Key).

   An API key is an alphanumeric string that looks like the following:

   xx7fdcf07a-85af-446f-8992-6cd2d5ecc53c

   The key appears in the administration console API Access page and its name is your source name followed by API key.

2. Paste the API key value with the source name to a safe location of your choice so you can later securely communicate this information to the person who manages the crawling process.

Optionally, review the source refresh schedule.

By default, your Generic REST API source is rescanned daily to make your source content changes searchable (additions, modifications, or deletions) (see Refresh VS Rescan VS Rebuild). If your content changes very frequently, consider decreasing the refresh time interval (such as every hour or every few hours) to optimize resource consumption (see Edit a Source Schedule).

While writing your JSON configuration, you may have decided to populate fields that are not Coveo Cloud V2 default fields. If you have not already created these fields for another source, you must create them in the Fields page before building your source (see Add or Edit Fields and Field Origins).

Ensure that your source maps correctly all the fields to populate (see Adding and Managing Source Mappings). If a field does not have a mapping, you must create one.

In the Sources page, you must click Start initial build or Start required rebuild in the source Status column to add the source content or make your changes effective, respectively.

Once the source is built or rebuilt, you can review its content in the content browser (see Content Browser - Page).