Stack Overflow Microsoft Graph connector
The Stack Overflow Graph connector allows your organization to index questions and answers from Stack Overflow. After you configure the connector, end users can search for these posts from Stack Overflow in Microsoft Copilot and from any Microsoft Search client.
This article is for Microsoft 365 administrators or anyone who configures, runs, and monitors a Stack Overflow Graph connector.
Note
The Stack Overflow Graph connector is in preview. If you wish to get early access to try it, sign up using this form.
Capabilities
- Index Stack Overflow questions and answers.
- Allow your users to ask technical questions about your company's code and processes using Copilot. Examples:
- What are the best practices for handling large datasets in our CRM software?
- What are the differences between using REST and GraphQL for our API services?
- How can we improve the load time of our customer-facing web applications?
- Use Semantic search in Copilot to enable users to find relevant content based on keywords, personal preferences, and social connections.
- The Stack Overflow Graph Connector supports Stack Overflow for Teams Business and Enterprise.
Limitations
- The connector doesn't support private teams in Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise.
Prerequisites
- You must be a search admin for your organization's Microsoft 365 tenant.
- To create a new connection, use your organization's Stack Overflow Instance URL.
- For Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise, the instance URL is the home page URL, typically
https://stackoverflow.<company_name>.com. - For Stack Overflow for Teams Business, use the API URL, which usually looks like
https://api.stackoverflowteams.com/v3/teams/<company_name>.
- For Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise, the instance URL is the home page URL, typically
Get Started
1. Display name
A display name is used to identify each citation in Copilot, helping users easily recognize the associated file or item. Display name also signifies trusted content. Display name is also used as a content source filter. A default value is present for this field, but you can customize it to a name that users in your organization recognize.
2. Stack Overflow URL
Use your organization's Stack Overflow Instance URL. For Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise, this will be the home page URL, typically https://stackoverflow.<company_name>.com. For Stack Overflow for Teams Business, use the API URL, which usually looks like https://api.stackoverflowteams.com/v3/teams/<company_name>.
3. Authentication Type
To authenticate and sync content from Stack Overflow, choose one of the two supported methods:
- If you use Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise, select OAuth. To learn more about authentication and authorization in Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise, click here.
- If you use Stack Overflow for Teams Business, select Basic authentication. To learn more about Stack Overflow for Teams Business, click here.
4. Roll out to limited audience
Deploy this connection to a limited user base if you want to validate it in Copilot and other Search surfaces before expanding the rollout to a broader audience. To know more about limited rollout, see staged rollout.
At this point, you're ready to create the connection for Stack Overflow. You can click on the "Create" button to publish your connection and index posts from your Stack Overflow account.
Custom Setup
Custom setup is for admins who want to edit the default values for settings. Once you click on the 'Custom Setup' option, you see three other tabs: Users, Content, and Sync.
Users
Access Permissions
Currently, questions and answers from your organization’s Stack Overflow instance are indexed. All the data indexed using the Stack Overflow connector is visible to all Microsoft 365 users in your tenant, accessible through Microsoft Search or Copilot.
Content
Manage properties
Here, you can add or remove available properties from your Stack Overflow data source, assign a schema to the property (define whether a property is searchable, queryable, retrievable, or refinable), change the semantic label and add an alias to the property. Properties that are selected by default are listed below:
| Source Property | Semantic Label | Description | Schema |
|---|---|---|---|
| BestAnswerAuthorId | ID of the best answer | Retrieve | |
| BestAnswerAuthorName | Name of the author who provided the best answer | Retrieve, Search | |
| BestAnswerBody | Best answer content | Retrieve, Search | |
| BestAnswerCreatedAt | Date when the best answer was created | Query, Refine, Retrieve | |
| CreationDate | Created date time | Date when the post was created (question was asked) | Query, Refine, Retrieve |
| LastActivityDate | Last modified date time | Date when the post was last modified | Query, Refine, Retrieve |
| Link | URL | Link to the question in Stack Overflow | Retrieve, Search |
| OwnerDisplayName | Created by | Name of the post author | Query, Retrieve, Search |
| OwnerUserId | ID of the person who posted the question | Retrieve | |
| QuestionBody | Question content | Query, Retrieve, Search | |
| QuestionId | ID of the question | Query, Retrieve | |
| Score | Score value of the question | Retrieve | |
| Tags | List of Tags that were added to a post | Query, Refine, Retrieve | |
| Title | Title | Post title | Query, Retrieve, Search |
Sync
The refresh interval determines how often your data is synced between the data source and the Graph connector index. There are two types of refresh intervals - full crawl and incremental crawl. For more information, see refresh settings.
Troubleshooting
After publishing your connection, you can review the status under the Data Sources tab in the admin center. To learn how to make updates and deletions, see Manage your connector.
If you have issues or want to provide feedback, contact Microsoft Graph | Support.