---
title: Create a basic public Web source
slug: '79'
canonical_url: https://docs.coveo.com/en/79/
collection: index-content
source_format: adoc
---
# Create a basic public Web source
A Web [source](https://docs.coveo.com/en/246/) typically crawls the content of a single website, starting from the specified URLs, and then recursively following any hyperlink it finds in pages to discover the entire site.
By default, a Web source schedule is set to rescan the website at midnight everyday.
For details on Web sources, see [Add a Web source](https://docs.coveo.com/en/malf0160/).

This page explains how to create a basic public Web source using Coveo's Source API.
Alternatively, you can [create a Web source through the Coveo Administration Console](https://docs.coveo.com/en/malf0160#add-a-web-source).

Use the [Create a source from simple configuration](https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/docs?urls.primaryName=Source#/Sources/rest_organizations_paramId_sources_post) operation to create a basic public Web source in a [Coveo organization](https://docs.coveo.com/en/185/).

**Request template**

```http
POST https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/rest/organizations/<MyOrganizationId>/sources HTTP/1.1

Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json
Authorization: Bearer <MyAccessToken>
```

**Payload**

```json
{
  "sourceType": "WEB2",
  "name": <MyWebSourceName>,
  "sourceVisibility": "SHARED",
  "urls": [
    <MyURL>*
  ]
}
```

> **Note**
>
> This introductory article explains how create a `SHARED` (public) Web source, which is why the `sourceType` property is set to `WEB2` and the `sourceVisibility` property is set to `SHARED` in the above request template.
> 
> The [Coveo Platform](https://docs.coveo.com/en/186/) allows you to create sources based on [various other connectors](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1702#choosing-the-right-connector) with different [`sourceType` values](https://docs.coveo.com/en/100/).
> It also supports three different types of source visibility: `PRIVATE` (specific users and groups), `SHARED` (everyone), and `SECURED` (based on the repository's permission system).
> See [Content security](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1779/) for details on this topic.

In the request path:

* Replace `<MyOrganizationId>` with your [organization ID](https://docs.coveo.com/en/148/).

In the `Authorization` HTTP header:

* Replace `<MyAccessToken>` with an access token that grants [privileges](https://docs.coveo.com/en/228/) to edit sources (that is, the **Edit all** access level on the [**Sources** domain](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1707#sources-domain)) in the target Coveo organization.
See [Create an API key](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1718#create-an-api-key) and [Manage privileges](https://docs.coveo.com/en/3151/) for details on API key privileges.
You may also want to read more about the [Get the privileges of an access token](https://docs.coveo.com/en/109/) and [Get your Coveo access token](https://docs.coveo.com/en/123/) API calls.

In the request body:

* Replace `<MyWebSourceName>` with a meaningful `name` property value.
You can't change the name of a source once it has been created, so make sure the name you choose fits the content you intend to index with that source.

* Replace `<MyURL>*` with one or more `urls` from which to start crawling the pages to index with your source.

> **Leading practice**
>
> Although you can provide more than one value in the `urls` array, you should normally only index one website per Web source.

The body of a successful response (`201 Created`) contains information about the source you just created.
The `id` property value is important, as it's a required parameter in many Coveo REST API operations.
You can always [retrieve this value](https://docs.coveo.com/en/3390#copy-a-source-name-or-id) later.

## Sample request

**Creating a basic public Web source**

```http
POST https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/rest/organizations/mycoveocloudv2organizationg8tp8wu3/sources HTTP/1.1

Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json
Authorization: Bearer **********-****-****-****-************
```

**Payload**

```json
{
  "sourceType": "WEB2",
  "name": "My web source",
  "sourceVisibility": "SHARED",
  "urls": [
    "http://www.example.com/"
  ]
}
```

**Successful response - 201 Created**

```json
{
  "sourceType": "WEB2",
  "id": "mycoveocloudv2organizationg8tp8wu3-xtyq5ljb65btzsx2miknabccru",
  "name": "My web source",
  "owner": "asmith@example.com",
  "sourceVisibility": "SHARED",
  "information": {
    ...
  },
  ...
}
```