Microsoft 365 Integrations: Setup Guide

 

 

Introduction

Connect Showell with Microsoft SharePoint, OneDrive or TeamsDrive*, to streamline content management and ensure your sales team always has the latest materials at their fingertips. With this integration, you can create linkages that automatically sync your Microsoft content into Showell, eliminating the need for manual uploads and keeping everything up to date.

Why sync Showell with Microsoft SharePoint, OneDrive or TeamsDrive?

• Always Up-to-Date Content: Any changes in your integrations automatically reflect in Showell, ensuring your team works with the latest versions
• Save Time & Reduce Manual Work: No more downloading and re-uploading files. Sync once and let the integration handle the rest
• Organized & Accessible: Keep your sales materials structured and easily accessible in Showell while maintaining your existing Microsoft Cloud setup
• Seamless Collaboration: Work across teams with confidence, knowing that everyone has access to the right files at the right time
• Enhanced Office File Viewing: By default, Showell converts Office files into PDFs for fast, reliable, and consistent viewing across devices. For supported Office files synced from SharePoint or OneDrive, users can also use the MS365 Office File Viewer switch in the file’s top navigation bar to open the document in Excel, PowerPoint, or Word. This helps preserve PowerPoint animations, embedded videos, and interactive Excel navigation.

In this article, we'll walk you through how to set up the Microsoft SharePoint, OneDrive or TeamsDrive integration, create linkages, and manage your synced content.

 

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MS365 Office File Viewer

By default, Showell converts Office files into PDFs. This provides a fast, reliable, and consistent viewing experience across devices and platforms.

With the MS365 Office File Viewer, users can choose how they want to view supported Office documents directly in Showell. A simple switch in the top navigation bar of the file lets users open the document in its dedicated Microsoft 365 viewer, such as Excel, PowerPoint, or Word.

This is especially useful when you want to preserve the full Office experience. For example:

• PowerPoint presentations keep animations and embedded videos.

• Excel files remain interactive, so users can navigate spreadsheets more naturally.

This gives users the best of both worlds: fast and consistent PDF viewing by default, with the option to switch to the full Microsoft 365 viewing experience whenever it is available.

💡 The MS365 Office File Viewer is currently available only for Office files that are synced from Microsoft 365 cloud storage into Showell through a SharePoint or OneDrive integration.

 

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Create Dedicated Integration Users

💡 This step is particularly advisable for Professional or Enterprise Workspaces that manage a substantial number of users.

Create separate user accounts specifically for the integration. These accounts act as the bridge between SharePoint, OneDrive, TeamsDrive, and Showell.

Using a dedicated integration user helps keep the connection stable, simplifies access management, and prevents the integration from depending on a personal employee account.

For most organizations, a dedicated Microsoft 365 integration user is the recommended starting point. This user should be owned and managed by IT, have access only to the required sites, libraries, and folders, and use read-only permissions unless read + write access is explicitly needed.

• Create a Dedicated Integration User in SharePoint/OneDrive/TeamsDrive
• Conditional Access & Service Accounts (Enterprise environments)
• Create a Dedicated Integration User in Showell

Create a Dedicated Integration User in SharePoint/OneDrive/TeamsDrive

• Example Account Name: Companyname_Admin or showell.sync@yourdomain.com.
• Access Rights: Grant read-only access unless read + write access is specifically needed for specific sites or libraries.
• When authorizing the connection between Showell and Microsoft, Sign in with this User Account

Set Up Access to Sites, Libraries, and Folders

Ensure the integration user has access to all required SharePoint sites, document libraries, and folders.

1. Permissions Settings:
   • If using a new SharePoint site, assign the integration user read + write access.
   • For existing sites, ensure the integration user has read access at a minimum.
2. Set Up Access:
   1. Navigate to the SharePoint site or OneDrive folder.
   2. Click “Share” or adjust permissions via “Site Settings”.
   3. Add the integration user’s email and set permissions to "Read" or "Read + Write" as needed.

Conditional Access & Service Accounts (Enterprise environments)

If your organization uses Microsoft Entra ID Conditional Access policies, background synchronization may be affected. This is because Showell synchronizes Microsoft 365 content in the background, without a user actively signing in each time.

Examples of Conditional Access policies that can affect synchronization include:

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

• Compliant or hybrid-joined device requirements

• Approved client app requirements

• Sign-in frequency policies

• Token protection

• Risk-based policies and Identity Protection triggers

• Location-based restrictions

• Continuous Access Evaluation revocations

For most organizations, a dedicated Microsoft 365 integration user is sufficient. This user signs in during the authorization process, and Showell uses the granted access to synchronize content in the background.

However, in larger or more security-restricted Enterprise environments, it may not always be feasible to authorize the integration with a regular user account, even if that account is dedicated to the integration.

If Conditional Access policies require repeated interactive authentication, background synchronization may be interrupted. In these cases, Showell can support a service account approach using app-only authentication.

Instead of relying on a signed-in user, app-only authentication uses a Microsoft Entra ID App Registration / service principal with application permissions.

This setup requires involvement from your IT or Microsoft 365 administrator. It typically includes creating an App Registration, assigning the required Microsoft Graph application permissions, granting admin consent, and managing a client secret or certificate.

If your organization wants to use this approach, please contact your dedicated Showell CSM or Showell Support for guidance or more in-depth information.

Create a Dedicated Integration User in Showell:

Utilizing a dedicated user account will help ensure that your integration operates seamlessly without any disruptions and remains unaffected by individual user settings.

• Example Account Name: Companyname_Admin or showell.sync@yourdomain.com.
• Access Rights: Assign this user with the Admin role.
• In Showell, sign in with this user account to initiate the authorization process.

 

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Enhance your integration with custom columns/field data

By using custom columns in SharePoint, you can control which files and metadata are synced into Showell.

What we support:

A Keyword column: A keyword you have provided to a file on the SharePoint side, will sync, and be provided to the file's keyword field in Showell.

A Language column: A language-tag you have provided to a file on the SharePoint side, will sync, and will be provided to the file's language field in Showell.

A column for filtering: You have the flexibility to 'tag' specific files that you want to sync with Showell. By using for example a field with options such as 'Value A', 'Value B', or 'Value C', you can choose to synchronize only the files with 'Value A'. This allows you to have greater control over the content that is transferred to Showell.

How To:

1. Create the custom column(s) within SharePoint and give them a name of choice.
   • Do not make multiple fields for one subject (for example: create only 1 field for Keywords instead of multiple).
   • Set the following Type:

     • For keywords and languages, choose either 'Single line of text' or 'Managed Metadata'

     • For filtering purposes, use 'Single line of text' OR 'Yes/No'

1. • Under "More options", check "Allow multiple values"
   • If you are adding a language column, make sure to utilize the two-character language code, based on the ISO 639-1 standard
2. In order to configure and activate the column's data support on Showell's side: Please provide the precise name of these custom columns to your Showell contact person or Showell Support.

 

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1. Authorize the connection between Microsoft* and Showell

*SharePoint, OneDrive or TeamsDrive

1. Open the Showell App for Web and ensure you are logged in with the User Account you want to establish the authorization with.
   • Recommended: do so with your dedicated Showell integration user
2. Click Admin in the side menu > Add-ons > Cloud integrations > Authorize > Continue
3. Begin authorization in the Microsoft 365 environment
   • Recommended: do so with your dedicated Microsoft integration user

💡 Note: If your organization uses service account / app-only authentication, the setup process is different from the standard user-based authorization flow. Please contact your dedicated Showell CSM or Showell Support before starting the setup so we can provide the correct instructions for your IT team.

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2. Manage content linkages: How-to

After authorizing the connection, you can start syncing content between SharePoint, OneDrive or TeamsDrive, and Showell.

Integration Management Page:

• Manage the integration itself
• manage and monitor all connections (linkages)
• Read Step 2A for details

Within a folder:

• Create and Manage individual connections (linkages)
• Read Step 2B for details

 

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2A. Manage content linkages: Integration Management Page

Click Admin in the side menu > Add-ons > Cloud integrations > SharePoint / OneDrive: Manage

1. View the Integrated folder, and its location in Showell
2. See when the folder was last synced. By clicking the '3 dots' you can:
   • Disable the connection: This will not remove the connection, but simply disable it
   • Synchronize: Fetch new or updated files
   • Disconnect from Microsoft 365: Remove the linkage
3. Manage the integration. Click the '3 dots' in the top right corner:
   • Disconnect from Microsoft 365: Fully remove the integration
   • Re-authorize Microsoft 365: If one or more linkages encounter issues, or if you wish to authorize a different User Account, you can select this option to re-establish the connection

 

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2B. Create and manage content linkages: Within a Folder

1. In the Showell App for Web, Open 'Edit'-Mode and navigate to the location where you'd like to sync your content
   • No folders created yet? How to Create and Organize Folders
2. Click the '3 dots'-button in the top right
3. Click on 'Connect Microsoft 365' > Choose the folder you'd like to connect > Click Connect > Continue
4. Once the content is synced, you'll find the following 2 options:
   • Synchronize: Integrated folders sync every hour, but you can manually initiate a sync as needed
   • '3dots'-button > Disconnect: To stop syncing content and remove the connection