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Elastic Outlook connector reference

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Elastic Outlook connector reference

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The Elastic Outlook connector is built with the Elastic connector framework and is available as a self-managed connector client.

Native connector reference (managed service)

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View reference for the native connector reference (managed service).

Availability and prerequisites

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This connector is available as a native connector (managed service) in Elastic Cloud.

This connector is compatible with Elastic versions 8.13.0+.

To use this connector, satisfy all native connector requirements.

Create a Outlook connector

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Use the UI
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To create a new Outlook connector:

  1. Navigate to the Search → Connectors page in the Kibana UI.
  2. Follow the instructions to create a new native Outlook connector.

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

Use the API
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You can use the Elasticsearch Create connector API to create a new native Outlook connector.

For example:

PUT _connector/<my-outlook-connector>
{
  "index_name": "<my-elasticsearch-index>",
  "name": "Content synced from Outlook",
  "service_type": "outlook",
  "is_native": "true"
}
You’ll also need to create an API key for the connector to use.

The user needs the cluster privileges manage_api_key, manage_connector and write_connector_secrets to generate API keys programmatically.

To create an API key for the connector:

  1. Run the following command, replacing values where indicated. Note the id and encoded return values from the response:

    POST /_security/api_key
{
  "name": "<connector_name>-connector-api-key",
  "role_descriptors": {
    "<connector_name>-connector-role": {
      "cluster": [
        "monitor",
        "manage_connector"
      ],
      "indices": [
        {
          "names": [
            "<index_name>",
            ".search-acl-filter-<index_name>",
            ".elastic-connectors*"
          ],
          "privileges": [
            "all"
          ],
          "allow_restricted_indices": false
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

  2. Use the encoded value to store a connector secret, and note the id return value from this response:

    POST _connector/_secret
{
  "value": <encoded_api_key>
}

  3. Use the API key id and the connector secret id to update the connector:

    PUT /_connector/<connector_id>/_api_key_id
{
  "api_key_id": "<API key id>",
  "api_key_secret_id": "<secret id>"
}

Refer to the Elasticsearch API documentation for details of all available Connector APIs.

Usage

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To use this connector as a native connector in Elastic Cloud, use the Connectors workflow in the Kibana UI.

To create a new Outlook connector:

  1. Navigate to Search → Connectors page in the Kibana UI.
  2. Select the New Native Connector button.
  3. Select the Outlook connector.

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

Connecting to Outlook

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Outlook connector supports both cloud (Office365 Outlook) and on-premises (Exchange Server) platforms.

Connect to Exchange Server
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In order to connect to Exchange server, the connector fetches Active Directory users with the help of ldap3 python library.

Connect to Office365 Outlook (Outlook Cloud)
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To integrate with the Outlook connector using Azure, follow these steps to create and configure an Azure application:

  1. Navigate to the Azure Portal and log in using your credentials.
  2. Click on App registrations to register a new application.
  3. Navigate to the Overview tab. Make a note of the Client ID and Tenant ID.
  4. Click on the Certificates & secrets tab and create a new client secret. Keep this secret handy.

  5. Go to the API permissions tab.

    • Click on "Add permissions."
    • Choose "APIs my organization uses."
    • Search for and select "Office 365 Exchange Online."
    • Add the full_access_as_app application permission.

You can now use the Client ID, Tenant ID, and Client Secret you’ve noted to configure the Outlook connector.

Configuration

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Outlook data source (required)
Dropdown to determine Outlook platform type: outlook_cloud or outlook_server. Default value is outlook_cloud.
Tenant ID
Required if data source is outlook_cloud. The Tenant ID for the Azure account hosting the Outlook instance.
Client ID
Required if data source is outlook_cloud. The Client ID to authenticate with Outlook instance.
Client Secret Value
Required if data source is outlook_cloud. The Client Secret value to authenticate with Outlook instance.
Exchange Server
Required if data source is outlook_server. IP address to connect with Exchange server. Example: 127.0.0.1
Active Directory Server
Required if data source is outlook_server. IP address to fetch users from Exchange Active Directory to fetch data. Example: 127.0.0.1
Exchange server username
Required if data source is outlook_server. Username to authenticate with Exchange server.
Exchange server password
Required if data source is outlook_server. Password to authenticate with Exchange server.
Exchange server domain name
Required if data source is outlook_server. Domain name for Exchange server users such as gmail.com or exchange.local.
Enable SSL
Whether SSL verification will be enabled. Default value is False. Note: This configuration is applicable for Outlook Server only.
SSL certificate

Required if ssl is enabled. Content of SSL certificate. Example certificate: 

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIID+jCCAuKgAwIBAgIGAJJMzlxLMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMHoxCzAJBgNVBAYT
...
7RhLQyWn2u00L7/9Omw=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Note: This configuration is applicable for Outlook Server only.

Document level security

Toggle to enable Document level security (DLS). When enabled:

  • Full syncs will fetch access control lists for each document and store them in the _allow_access_control field.
  • Access control syncs fetch users' access control lists and store them in a separate index.

Content Extraction

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Refer to Content extraction in the official docs.

Documents and syncs

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The connector syncs the following objects and entities:

  • Mails

    • Inbox Mails
    • Sent Mails
    • Archive Mails
    • Junk Mails
  • Contacts
  • Calendar Events
  • Tasks

  • Attachments

    • Mail Attachments
    • Task Attachments
    • Calendar Attachments
  • Content from files bigger than 10 MB won’t be extracted. (Self-managed connectors can use the self-managed local extraction service to handle larger binary files.)
  • Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elastic Deployment.
Sync types
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Full syncs are supported by default for all connectors.

This connector also supports incremental syncs.

Document level security

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Document level security (DLS) enables you to restrict access to documents based on a user’s permissions. Refer to configuration on this page for how to enable DLS for this connector.

Refer to DLS in Search Applications to learn how to ingest data from a connector with DLS enabled, when building a search application. The example uses SharePoint Online as the data source, but the same steps apply to every connector.

Sync rules

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Basic sync rules are identical for all connectors and are available by default.

Advanced Sync Rules

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Advanced sync rules are not available for this connector in the present version.

Connector Client operations

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End-to-end Testing
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Note: End-to-end testing is not available in the current version of the connector.

Known issues
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There are currently no known issues for this connector. Refer to Known issues for a list of known issues for all connectors.

Troubleshooting

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See Troubleshooting.

Security

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See Security.

Framework and source

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This connector is written in Python using the Elastic connector framework.

View the source code for this connector (branch 8.15, compatible with Elastic 8.15).

Connector client reference (self-managed)

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View reference for the connector client reference (self-managed).

Availability and prerequisites

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This connector is available as a self-managed connector client. To use this connector, satisfy all connector client prerequisites.

Create a Outlook connector

edit
Use the UI
edit

To create a new Outlook connector:

  1. Navigate to the Search → Connectors page in the Kibana UI.
  2. Follow the instructions to create a new Outlook connector client.

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

Use the API
edit

You can use the Elasticsearch Create connector API to create a new self-managed Outlook connector client.

For example:

PUT _connector/my-outlook-connector
{
  "index_name": "my-elasticsearch-index",
  "name": "Content synced from Outlook",
  "service_type": "outlook"
}
You’ll also need to create an API key for the connector to use.

The user needs the cluster privileges manage_api_key, manage_connector and write_connector_secrets to generate API keys programmatically.

To create an API key for the connector:

  1. Run the following command, replacing values where indicated. Note the encoded return values from the response:

    POST /_security/api_key
{
  "name": "<connector_name>-connector-api-key",
  "role_descriptors": {
    "<connector_name>-connector-role": {
      "cluster": [
        "monitor",
        "manage_connector"
      ],
      "indices": [
        {
          "names": [
            "<index_name>",
            ".search-acl-filter-<index_name>",
            ".elastic-connectors*"
          ],
          "privileges": [
            "all"
          ],
          "allow_restricted_indices": false
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}
  2. Update your config.yml file with the API key encoded value.

Refer to the Elasticsearch API documentation for details of all available Connector APIs.

Usage

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To use this connector as a connector client, use the Outlook tile from the connectors list OR Customized connector workflow.

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

Connecting to Outlook

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Outlook connector supports both cloud (Office365 Outlook) and on-premises (Exchange Server) platforms.

Connect to Exchange Server
edit

In order to connect to Exchange server, the connector fetches Active Directory users with the help of ldap3 python library.

Connect to Office365 Outlook (Outlook Cloud)
edit

To integrate with the Outlook connector using Azure, follow these steps to create and configure an Azure application:

  1. Navigate to the Azure Portal and log in using your credentials.
  2. Click on App registrations to register a new application.
  3. Navigate to the Overview tab. Make a note of the Client ID and Tenant ID.
  4. Click on the Certificates & secrets tab and create a new client secret. Keep this secret handy.

  5. Go to the API permissions tab.

    • Click on "Add permissions."
    • Choose "APIs my organization uses."
    • Search for and select "Office 365 Exchange Online."
    • Add the full_access_as_app application permission.

You can now use the Client ID, Tenant ID, and Client Secret you’ve noted to configure the Outlook connector.

Configuration

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data_source
(required) Dropdown to determine Outlook platform type: outlook_cloud or outlook_server. Default value is outlook_cloud.
tenant_id
(required if data source is outlook_cloud) The Tenant ID for the Azure account hosting the Outlook instance.
client_id
(required if data source is outlook_cloud) The Client ID to authenticate with Outlook instance.
client_secret
(required if data source is outlook_cloud) The Client Secret value to authenticate with Outlook instance.
exchange_server
(required if data source is outlook_server) IP address to connect with Exchange server. Example: 127.0.0.1
active_directory_server
(required if data source is outlook_server) IP address to fetch users from Exchange Active Directory to fetch data. Example: 127.0.0.1
username
(required if data source is outlook_server) Username to authenticate with Exchange server.
password
(required if data source is outlook_server) Password to authenticate with Exchange server.
domain
(required if data source is outlook_server) Domain name for Exchange server users such as gmail.com or exchange.local.
ssl_enabled
Whether SSL verification will be enabled. Default value is False. Note: This configuration is applicable for Outlook Server only.
ssl_ca

(required if ssl is enabled) Content of SSL certificate. Example certificate: 

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIID+jCCAuKgAwIBAgIGAJJMzlxLMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMHoxCzAJBgNVBAYT
...
7RhLQyWn2u00L7/9Omw=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
use_text_extraction_service
Use self-hosted content extraction service. Default value is False.
document_level_security

Toggle to enable Document level security (DLS). When enabled:

  • Full syncs will fetch access control lists for each document and store them in the _allow_access_control field.
  • Access control syncs fetch users' access control lists and store them in a separate index.

Note: This configuration is applicable for Outlook Server only.

Deployment using Docker

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You can deploy the Outlook connector as a self-managed connector client using Docker. Follow these instructions.

Step 1: Download sample configuration file

Download the sample configuration file. You can either download it manually or run the following command:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/connectors/main/config.yml.example --output ~/connectors-config/config.yml

Remember to update the --output argument value if your directory name is different, or you want to use a different config file name.

Step 2: Update the configuration file for your self-managed connector

Update the configuration file with the following settings to match your environment:

  • elasticsearch.host
  • elasticsearch.api_key
  • connectors

If you’re running the connector service against a Dockerized version of Elasticsearch and Kibana, your config file will look like this:

# When connecting to your cloud deployment you should edit the host value
elasticsearch.host: http://host.docker.internal:9200
elasticsearch.api_key: <ELASTICSEARCH_API_KEY>

connectors:
  -
    connector_id: <CONNECTOR_ID_FROM_KIBANA>
    service_type: outlook
    api_key: <CONNECTOR_API_KEY_FROM_KIBANA> # Optional. If not provided, the connector will use the elasticsearch.api_key instead

Using the elasticsearch.api_key is the recommended authentication method. However, you can also use elasticsearch.username and elasticsearch.password to authenticate with your Elasticsearch instance.

Note: You can change other default configurations by simply uncommenting specific settings in the configuration file and modifying their values.

Step 3: Run the Docker image

Run the Docker image with the Connector Service using the following command:

docker run \
-v ~/connectors-config:/config \
--network "elastic" \
--tty \
--rm \
docker.elastic.co/enterprise-search/elastic-connectors:8.15.5.0 \
/app/bin/elastic-ingest \
-c /config/config.yml

Refer to DOCKER.md in the elastic/connectors repo for more details.

Find all available Docker images in the official registry.

We also have a quickstart self-managed option using Docker Compose, so you can spin up all required services at once: Elasticsearch, Kibana, and the connectors service. Refer to this README in the elastic/connectors repo for more information.

Content Extraction

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Refer to Content extraction in the official docs.

Documents and syncs

edit

The connector syncs the following objects and entities:

  • Mails

    • Inbox Mails
    • Sent Mails
    • Archive Mails
    • Junk Mails
  • Contacts
  • Calendar Events
  • Tasks

  • Attachments

    • Mail Attachments
    • Task Attachments
    • Calendar Attachments
  • Content from files bigger than 10 MB won’t be extracted by default. You can use the self-managed local extraction service to handle larger binary files.
  • Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elastic Deployment.
Sync types
edit

Full syncs are supported by default for all connectors.

This connector also supports incremental syncs.

Document level security

edit

Document level security (DLS) enables you to restrict access to documents based on a user’s permissions. Refer to configuration on this page for how to enable DLS for this connector.

Refer to DLS in Search Applications to learn how to ingest data from a connector with DLS enabled, when building a search application. The example uses SharePoint Online as the data source, but the same steps apply to every connector.

Sync rules

edit

Basic sync rules are identical for all connectors and are available by default.

Advanced Sync Rules

edit

Advanced sync rules are not available for this connector in the present version.

Connector Client operations

edit
End-to-end Testing
edit

Note: End-to-end testing is not available in the current version of the connector.

Known issues
edit

There are currently no known issues for this connector. Refer to Known issues for a list of known issues for all connectors.

Troubleshooting

edit

See Troubleshooting.

Security

edit

See Security.

Framework and source

edit

This connector is included in the Elastic connector framework.

View the source code for this connector (branch 8.15, compatible with Elastic 8.15).

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