How to use the MGDC for SharePoint blogs with your favorite AI tools
1. Introduction
The Book of Archimedes is a single PDF that contains all posts in the Microsoft Graph Data Connect for SharePoint blog. This includes 40 articles and nearly 400 pages, which is handy for searching for specific keywords quickly across the many articles.
The PDF is provided as an attachment to the main MGDC for SharePoint article at https://aka.ms/SharePointData. You can also download it directly from Book of Archimedes.
2. Using the Book with Copilot
Beyond searching inside the PDF, you can feed the Book of Archimedes as grounding to your favorite AI tool to get answers to your questions about MGDC for SharePoint. Let's look at an example.
You can use this with Copilot or any AI tool that accepts attached files. In my case, I used https://copilot.cloud.microsoft/ to access my work Copilot, the secure and compliant Copilot integrated with my enterprise account.
I start with the “+” button and then the “add content” button.
Then I used the up-arrow icon to “upload from this device” and selected the local copy of the Book of Archimedes I downloaded earlier.
After that, I added my question as a prompt. I tried “What is Project Archimedes?”
I got a summary of Microsoft Graph Data Connect for SharePoint, including key scenarios. From there, I could ask any question. If the book contains the answer, Copilot will find it for you.
|
Project Archimedes is the early codename for Microsoft Graph Data Connect for SharePoint. This project aims to deliver rich data assets to OneDrive and SharePoint tenants, enabling them to run their own analytics, derive insights from their data, and understand how they use these products. The data is transferred to an Azure account owned by the tenant, where tools like Azure Synapse, Power BI, or Microsoft Fabric can be used to transform this data into insightful reports and dashboards [1]. Key Scenarios of Project Archimedes:
Datasets Provided:
Example Use Cases:
For more detailed information, you can refer to the Book of Archimedes which contains comprehensive guides, FAQs, and step-by-step instructions related to Microsoft Graph Data Connect for SharePoint [1]. |
The more impressive capabilities of Copilot are shown when you ask for something that is not just a direct quote from the Book. For instance, I asked about pricing for a specific scenario: "If a tenant has 1,000 SharePoint sites, how much would it cost to get the SharePoint Sites and SharePoint permissions for that tenant using MGDC?"
|
To estimate the cost of getting the SharePoint Sites and SharePoint Permissions datasets for a tenant using Microsoft Graph Data Connect (MGDC), you can follow these guidelines: Pricing Information:
Estimating Costs:
Example Calculation:For a tenant with 1,000 sites:
Additional Costs:
For more precise estimates, you can sample the dataset to get a total object count without pulling the entire dataset [1]. |
Copilot will also answer questions in other languages. You just ask the question in whatever language you want, and it gets detected… Here’s an example using Brazilian Portuguese. I asked "Quais são os datasets que fazem parte do cenário de segurança?"
|
Os datasets que fazem parte do cenário de segurança no Project Archimedes são:
Esses datasets ajudam a entender se o conteúdo está devidamente protegido, respondendo a perguntas como:
Esses datasets são fundamentais para garantir a segurança e a conformidade dos dados dentro do ambiente do SharePoint e OneDrive [1]. |
3. Using the Book to create a SharePoint agent
You can also use the book to create a SharePoint agent. This will make it easy to ask questions about Microsoft Graph Data Connect for SharePoint without having to upload the PDF every time.
To start, upload the Book of Archimedes to a SharePoint document library.
Next, select the file and use the option to “create an agent”.
That’s it. Your agent is created, and you can start using it immediately.
The agent shows up in the document library as a file with the “.agent” extension. You can simply open that file in SharePoint to run the agent.
Once you open the agent, it offers you a text box to ask questions.
Here is the agent response to “What are the main questions about SharePoint capacity that MGDC for SharePoint can answer?”
|
The Book of Archimedes provides detailed answers to several key questions about SharePoint capacity using Microsoft Graph Data Connect (MGDC). Here are the main questions it addresses: Key Questions about SharePoint Capacity:
Tools and Templates:
Conclusion:The Book of Archimedes provides comprehensive guidance on leveraging MGDC to gather, store, and analyze SharePoint data, ensuring effective data management and security. It is a valuable resource for administrators and developers working with SharePoint and OneDrive data using MGDC 1. Would you like more specific information on any of these questions or tools? 1: <File>Book of Archimedes</File> |
As we did with Copilot, you can also ask any question on a topic addressed in the book. You can also use languages other than English.
You can experiment with editing the agent to rename it, change the description, add more sources, adjust its behavior, offer sample starter prompts, include specific instructions or even customize with Copilot Studio. Just use the option to "edit the agent". You can also share the agent just like you share any file in SharePoint.
You can learn more about SharePoint agents in this YouTube video by Vesa Juvonen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYvK76SVEv4
4. Conclusion
I hope you enjoy using the Book of Archimedes as grounding for your AI tools.
As usual, remember that AI tools may make mistakes and you should always double-check the answers you receive.
There is also a chance that a particular AI tool might not be able to handle a large document like the Book of Archimedes, currently weighing in at around 10MB.
Microsoft