---
schema_version: "1"
id: e7d536cb499372855189659fbd9233571cadab5ed9cddda96376add83696d43d
title: Use an External Provider Data Source for Federated Search
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/ai/264-0-0/search_define_federated_search.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ai.search_define_federated_search.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: b907cd5eb18e011c851a8e99d48a653488740b82d0b09f7b98ebc353445c9723
description: Let users search in your Salesforce org and access data from an external search provider. Salesforce supports external search providers that support the OpenSearch standard.
products:
  - Cross Cloud
release: "264"
---
# Use an External Provider Data Source for Federated Search

Let users search in your Salesforce org and access data from an external search provider. Salesforce supports external search providers that support the OpenSearch standard.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small permission">
        <colgroup>
          <col style="width:49.01960784313725%">
          <col style="width:50.98039215686274%">
        </colgroup>
        <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
          <tr class="">
            <th scope="colgroup" class="slds-cell-wrap" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;vertical-align:top;" id="d27642e27">User Permissions Needed</th>
          </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="User Permissions Needed" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d27642e27 ">To create and edit an external data source:</td>
            <td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d27642e27 ">Customize Application</td>
          </tr>
        </tbody>
      </table>

Salesforce has partnered with Docurated and Swiftype to make it easy to connect external search providers to Salesforce. Using these partner’s services, you can search through the external repositories they serve—for example, Dropbox, Confluence, and SharePoint. If you use external data sources managed by Docurated, Swiftype, or Squirro, work with them to set up their service as an external search provider.

1. From Setup, in the Quick Find Box, enter External Data Sources, and then select **External Data Sources**.
2. Select **New External Data Source** and set the following options.
    
    <table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small ">
            <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
              <tr><th class="slds-cell-wrap" scope="col" id="d27642e57">Field</th>
              <th class="slds-cell-wrap" scope="col" id="d27642e59">Description</th>
            </tr></thead>
            <tbody><tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">External Data Source</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">A user-friendly name for the data source that’s displayed in the Salesforce user
                interface.</td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">Name</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">A unique identifier used to refer to the external data source definition through the
                API. This field auto-populates with the same name as <strong class="uicontrol">External Data
                  Source</strong> when you click in the field.</td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">Type</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">Select <strong class="uicontrol">Federated Search: OpenSearch</strong>.</td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">OpenSearchDescription URL</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">URL to point to the OpenSearchDescription of the external data source provider. The
                OpenSearch description is located in the OpenSearch section of the search engine
                documentation. Include the entire URL, including https://. <div class="slds-box slds-box_x-small slds-theme_shade slds-m-top_medium slds-m-bottom_medium">
                  <div class="slds-media slds-media_responsive">
                    <div class="slds-media__figure"><span class="slds-icon_container slds-icon_container_circle slds-icon-note-tip"><img style="margin-bottom:0;" src="https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-ai-search-264-0-0-production-enus/6a28c936-3b68-4186-bc09-7ab905f33ef3/images/icon_tip.png" alt="Tip"></span></div>
                    <div class="slds-media__body" style="padding-top:.5rem;padding-bottom:.5rem;"><span class="slds-text-title_caps">Tip</span> If this option
                      isn’t available, contact Salesforce.</div>
                  </div>
                </div>
              </td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">Connection Timeout</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">Number of seconds to wait for a response from the external system before timing out,
                up to 120 seconds. The default is 20 seconds. Use this field to limit the wait time for
                external data to load into your org. Depending on the connection to the external system and
                its availability, retrieving data can take a long time.</td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">Search results visible to all profiles</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">Makes external search results visible to all profiles during the initial setup. If
                you clear this option or it appears disabled, you can manually set which profiles get search
                results.</td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">Certificate</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">Associate the authentication certificate to the external data source.</td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">Identity Type</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">The identity type used to authenticate to the external data source.<ul>
                  <li>If you don’t need authentication, select <strong class="uicontrol">Anonymous</strong>.</li>
                  <li>If you need authentication, select <strong class="uicontrol">Named Principal</strong>.</li>
                </ul>
              </td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">Authentication Protocol</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">The protocol required to access the external data source.<ul>
                  <li>If you selected <strong class="uicontrol">Anonymous</strong> for <strong class="uicontrol">Identity
                      Type</strong>, select <strong class="uicontrol">No Authentication</strong>.</li>
                  <li>If you selected <strong class="uicontrol">Named Principal</strong> for <strong class="uicontrol">Identity
                      Type</strong>, select <strong class="uicontrol">OAuth 2.0</strong> and complete the additional
                    fields.</li>
                </ul>
              </td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">Authentication Provider</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">Look up the name of the OpenID Connect Authentication Provider that you added.
              </td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">Scope</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">Autofills to Search.</td>
            </tr>
            <tr class="">
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Field" headers="d27642e57"><strong class="uicontrol">Start Authentication Flow</strong></td>
              <td class="slds-cell-wrap" data-label="Description" headers="d27642e59">Select to start the authentication process.</td>
            </tr>
          </tbody></table>
3. Save your work.
4. To ensure that the external data source connects correctly, click **Validate and Sync**.
5. To create the Salesforce external object and a custom field for each table column that’s compatible with a Salesforce metadata field type, select the tables and click **Sync**. You can’t create an external object manually.

Next, customize external objects and fields. Configure the external object label, search result layout, page layout, and field-level security to ensure visibility to individual fields. However, don’t change the name of the external object. A custom tab isn’t required for the external object to appear in search results. If you created a custom tab, the source could show up both under External Results and in the list of objects.

#### See Also

- [Federated Search Considerations](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ai.search_federated_considerations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "When setting up federated search, familiarize yourself with the nice-to-knows and limitations.")
- [Federated Search in Lightning Experience](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ai.search_results_federated_search.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Understand how users see and interact with external search results in Lightning Experience.")
- [Report on External Documents Attached to Cases](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=analytics.search_external_attach_case_report.htm&type=5&language=en_US)