Coveo external source - anonymous users denied

Question

We are using the Coveo Cloud edition, and I've added an external data source to the index. I see the results in the context browser in the admin tool, but not on the search page after adding the CoveoForSitecore.componentsOptions.externalSources.push('source'); command (I do see the source in the headers of the REST call).

When I look at an item in the content browser, under Permissions, it says anonymous users are denied. I set the source security to "shared" when I created it, and there's no authentication on the site (it's publicly browsable). I don't see anywhere to tell it that anonymous users are allowed (my Sitecore items say anonymous users are allowed as I'd expect).

I figure it's a setting somewhere, but I'm not seeing where to change it, whether it's in the cloud admin or something I need to add to the code of the search page.

Answer 1

I'm not sure if security is the problem here. Actually having Anonymous Denied on External Sources is normal, since it will by default fall on the Email Security Provider.

So your external Shared source should have the *@* identity Allowed.

On the Sitecore side, Coveo for Sitecore will send security in the Expended Security Provider which falls back on the Email Security Provider. So in brief, all Coveo for Sitecore identities (aka all Sitecore user and roles) are in the *@* group so they do not need the external content to be Anonymous allowed.

This said, apart from security and the externalSources property, you also need to check the filters on your page.

I would suggest to open the Network tab and look for the aq and cq parameters. Then paste them in the Content Browser and see if your external content is returned. If not, then your filter is the problem.