SharePoint import settings

The automated SharePoint import copies a folder tree into your offgen Library and keeps it in sync. A small file named offgen.json decides which folders are imported and how. You create and edit it directly in SharePoint. offgen only reads it.

Where: your SharePoint folders, plus Settings → SharePoint → Automated imports at app.offgen.ai · Who: admin task (Owner or Admin role in offgen, and edit rights on the SharePoint folders)

Before you start: your library is connected, and offgen has set up an automated import for your organization. If Automated imports is empty, ask support to set one up.

Quick start

1. In SharePoint, create a file named offgen.json in the top folder you want to import. Its content can be just {}.
2. In Settings → SharePoint, select Check setup on the import.
3. If it says Setup looks good, select Run now.

Where to put the file

Only folders that contain an offgen.json, or sit below a folder that does, are imported. Folders with no offgen.json in themselves or any parent folder are ignored, and the run summary lists them under Ignored. To import a whole tree, put {} in its top folder.

• A file applies to its folder and everything below it.
• A subfolder file only needs the settings that differ. Everything else is inherited from the folders above.
• A subfolder without its own file inherits the settings of the nearest file above it.

Settings

Every setting is optional. The file itself is what opts a folder in.

Settings in a subfolder replace the inherited value. labels is the exception: they are combined.

{
  "$schema": "https://www.offgen.ai/schemas/offgen.schema.json",
  "flat": true,
  "labels": ["Reference"],
  "analysisPrompt": "Use the slide title as the template name."
}

{ "labels": ["Quality"] }

Slides in References/Quality are imported one template per slide, named after their title, with the labels Reference and Quality.

Lock shapes

A locked shape keeps its content exactly as authored, for example a logo, a legal footer, or a fixed chart. Set a default for all shapes, then list the exceptions in except. Exceptions get the opposite of the default.

{
  "locks": {
    "default": "locked",
    "except": ["placeholder:footer"]
  }
}

This locks everything except the footer. With "default": "unlocked", only the listed shapes are locked.

You can select shapes in two ways:

• placeholder:<type> selects a PowerPoint placeholder: title, subtitle, body, footer, header, slideNumber, date, picture, chart, table, object, or media.
• name:<shape name> selects a shape by its name in PowerPoint's selection pane. Upper and lower case do not matter, and * is a wildcard: name:Rectangle*.

If a selector matches no shape on a slide, the import continues and lists it in the run summary. A locks block in a subfolder replaces the inherited block completely.

Recipes

References: one template per slide, named after the slide title

{
  "flat": true,
  "labels": ["Reference"],
  "analysisPrompt": "These slides are client references. Use the slide title as the template name."
}

Frameworks: keep multi-slide files together

{
  "labels": ["Framework"],
  "analysisPrompt": "These slides are reusable frameworks. Describe the slide structure, not the specific project."
}

Icons saved as PNG files

{ "kind": "icon" }

Protect everything except title and body text

{
  "locks": {
    "default": "locked",
    "except": ["placeholder:title", "placeholder:body"]
  }
}

Check before you run

Open Settings → SharePoint in app.offgen.ai and select Check setup on the import. offgen reads every offgen.json, shows the effective configuration for each folder, and lists any problems. Nothing is imported during the check.

When the setup looks good, select Run now or wait for the next scheduled run.

If a file has an error

A folder with an invalid offgen.json is skipped together with all its subfolders, and the reason is reported. offgen never falls back to default settings, because a large import with the wrong settings is hard to undo. Other folders are imported as usual.

Common causes:

• A misspelled setting such as lables. Unknown settings are rejected.
• Comments or a trailing comma. The file must be plain JSON.
• Curly quotes (“ ”) pasted from Word or Outlook. Use straight quotes (").
• A wrong value type, such as "flat": "true" instead of "flat": true.
• A label longer than 60 characters, a prompt longer than 2000 characters, or a file larger than 64 KB.

Fix the file in SharePoint and select Check setup again.

Good to know

• Supported files are .pptx, .pptm, .svg, .png, .jpg, .jpeg, and .webp. Other files are skipped and listed in the run summary.
• Unchanged files are skipped on later runs. An edited slide updates its existing template.
• Renaming or moving a file in SharePoint does not create duplicates.
• When a file is deleted in SharePoint, its Library items are removed after the next complete run. Existing workflows keep working.
• Imported templates are managed in SharePoint. To change one, edit the file in SharePoint; the next run updates the template in offgen.
• A slide that already exists in the library with the same layout and text is skipped and reported.
• A changed analysisPrompt or flat applies to new and edited files only. Changed labels apply on the next run.
• Limits: 1 GB per PowerPoint file, 20 MB per icon or image, 12 folder levels.

Related

• Connect SharePoint: connect the site and pick the document library
• Template library: where the imported slides, icons and images appear
• Lockable elements on offgen.ai