Query the Cortex Search service with Snowflake Connector for SharePoint¶

Note

The Snowflake Connector for SharePoint is subject to the Connector Terms.

You can use the Cortex Search service to build chat and search applications to chat with or query your documents in SharePoint.

After you install and configure the Snowflake Connector for SharePoint and it begins ingesting content from Sharepoint, you can query the Cortex Search service. For more information about using Cortex Search, see Query a Cortex Search service.

Filter responses¶

To restrict responses from the Cortex Search service to documents that a specific user has access to in SharePoint, you can specify a filter containing the user ID or email address of the user when you query Cortex Search. For example, filter.@contains.user_ids or filter.@contains.user_emails. The name of the Cortex Search service created by the connector is search_service in the schema Cortex.

Run the following SQL code in a SQL worksheet to query the Cortex Search service with files ingested from your SharePoint site.

Replace the following:

application_instance_name: Name of your database and connector application instance.
user_emailID: Email ID of the user who you want to filter the responses for.
your_question: The question that you want to get responses for.
number_of_results: Maximum number of results to return in the response. The maximum value is 1000 and the default value is 10.

SELECT PARSE_JSON(
  SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX.SEARCH_PREVIEW(
    '<application_instance_name>.cortex.search_service',
      '{
        "query": "<your_question>",
         "columns": ["chunk", "web_url"],
         "filter": {"@contains": {"user_emails": "<user_emailID>"} },
         "limit": <number_of_results>
       }'
   )
)['results'] AS results

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Here’s a complete list of values that you can enter for columns:

Column name	Type	Description
`full_name`	String	A full path to the file from the Sharepoint site documents root. Example: `folder_1/folder_2/file_name.pdf`.
`web_url`	String	A URL that displays an original Sharepoint file in a browser.
`last_modified_date_time`	String	Date and time when the item was most recently modified.
`chunk`	String	A piece of text from the document that matched the Cortex Search query.
`user_ids`	Array	An array of Microsoft 365 user IDs that have access to the document. It also includes user IDs from all the Microsoft 365 groups that are assigned to the document. To find a specific user ID, see Get a user.
`user_emails`	Array	An array of Microsoft 365 user email IDs that have access to the document. It also includes user email IDs from all the Microsoft 365 groups that are assigned to the document.

Example: Query an AI assistant for human resources (HR) information¶

You can use Cortex Search to query an AI assistant for employees to chat with the latest versions of HR information, such as onboarding, code of conduct, team processes, and organization policies. Using response filters, you can also allow HR team members to query employee contracts while adhering to access controls configured in SharePoint.

Run the following in a SQL worksheet to query the Cortex Search service with files ingested from SharePoint. Select the database as your application instance name and schema as Cortex.

Replace the following:

application_instance_name: Name of your database and connector application instance.
user_emailID: Email ID of the user who you want to filter the responses for.

SELECT PARSE_JSON(
     SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX.SEARCH_PREVIEW(
          '<application_instance_name>.cortex.search_service',
          '{
             "query": "What is my vacation carry over policy?",
             "columns": ["chunk", "web_url"],
             "filter": {"@contains": {"user_emails": "<user_emailID>"} },
             "limit": 1
          }'
     )
 )['results'] AS results

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Run the following code in a Python worksheet to query the Cortex Search service with files ingested from SharePoint. Ensure that you add the snowflake.core package to your database.

Replace the following:

application_instance_name: Name of your database and connector application instance.
user_emailID: Email ID of the user who you want to filter the responses for.

import snowflake.snowpark as snowpark
from snowflake.snowpark import Session
from snowflake.core import Root

def main(session: snowpark.Session):

   root = Root(session)

   # fetch service
   my_service = (root
     .databases["<application_instance_name>"]
     .schemas["cortex"]
     .cortex_search_services["search_service"]
   )

   # query service
   resp = my_service.search(
     query="What is my vacation carry over policy?",
     columns = ["chunk", "web_url"],
     filter = {"@contains": {"user_emails": "<user_emailID>"} },
     limit=1
   )
   return (resp.to_json())

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Execute the following code in a command line interface to query the Cortex Search service with files ingested from your SharePoint. You will need to authentication through key pair authentication and OAuth to access the Snowflake REST APIs. For more information, see Rest API and Authenticating Snowflake REST APIs with Snowflake.

Replace the following:

application_instance_name: Name of your database and connector application instance.
account_url: Your Snowflake account URL. For instructions on finding your account URL, see Finding the organization and account name for an account.

curl --location "https://<account_url>/api/v2/databases/<application_instance_name>/schemas/cortex/cortex-search-services/search_service" \
     --header 'X-Snowflake-Authorization-Token-Type: KEYPAIR_JWT' \
     --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     --header 'Accept: application/json' \
     --header "Authorization: Bearer <CORTEX_SEARCH_JWT>" \
     --data '{
         "query": "What is my vacation carry over policy?",
         "columns": ["chunk", "web_url"],
         "limit": 1
     }'

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Sample response:

{
  "results" : [ {
  "web_url" : "https://<domain>.sharepoint.com/sites/<site_name>/<path_to_file>",
  "chunk" : "Answer to the question asked."
  } ]
}

Next steps¶

Manage the Snowflake Connector for SharePoint.