Box
On This Page
- 1 Overview
- 2 Create Connection
- 3 Features and Limitations
- 3.1 Files and Folders
- 3.2 Account Map
- 3.3 Box Comments
- 3.4 Box Notes
- 3.4.1 Job Behavior
- 3.4.2 Supported Box Notes Features
- 3.4.3 Unsupported Box Notes Features
- 3.5 Character Sanitization
- 3.6 File Size Limits
- 3.7 Folder Size Limits
- 3.8 Group Maps
- 3.9 Invalid Characters and Spaces
- 3.10 Owner Permissions
- 3.11 Path Lengths
- 3.12 Server System Clock
- 3.13 Shared Links
- 3.14 Version Preservation
- 4 Create Connection Using REST API
- 5 Box Connection | API Job Configuration Examples
Overview
The Box connector in DryvIQ allows you to analyze, migrate, copy, and synchronize files to your Box account from cloud storage repositories and on-premise network file shares. The first step is to create the Box connection by providing the connection information required for DryvIQ to connect to the server. The connector can be created using a standard Box account or a Box Service Account.
Please refer to Box Service Account for information regarding how to create a Box Service Account connection.
Even though simulation mode doesn’t move data, Box will identify activity on accounts during simulation mode. Therefore, your Box administrator should turn off Box security notifications when Box is the source connector on copy jobs or when Box is used in sync jobs. This prevents users from getting security notifications about activity on their accounts.
Create Connection
Select Connections > Add connection.
Select Box as the platform on the Add connection modal.
Enter the connection information. Reference the table below for details about each field.
Select Sign in with Box.
On the Box Customer Log In modal, enter the Email Address and Password required to log in to the Box account and select Authorize.
Select Grant access to Box when prompted to authorize the connection.
You will see a "Connection test succeeded" message on the Add connection modal. (If you don't see this message, repeat the sign in and authorization steps above.)
Select Done to finish creating the connection.
Add Connection Modal - Box
Field | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
Display as | Enter the display name for the connection. If you will be creating multiple connections, ensure the name readily identifies the connection. The name displays in the application, and you can use it to search for the connection and filter lists. If you do not add a display name, the connection will automatically be named using the account owner's name. For example, Box (John Doe). If it will be useful for you to reference the connection by account, you should use the default name. | Optional |
User type | Required | |
Connect as standard user | Select this option to create a standard connection to access a user's files and folders. This is the default selection. | |
Connect as account administrator | Select this option to create an administrator connection. This requires administrator privileges and grants access to all accounts within the organization. This option is often used along with impersonation to simplify transferring multiple user accounts. When connected as an administrator, the first level of folders will be user names. | |
Platform API client credentials | Required | |
Use the system default client credentials | Select this option to use the default DryvIQ client application. | |
Use custom client credentials | Select this option to use custom client credentials provided by your administrator. When selected, two additional fields will be available to enter the credentials. Your administrator can use the information provided in the following link to obtain the credentials: Box Documentation - Setting up a JWT app. | |
Client ID | This field displays only when you select Use custom client credentials. This value will be provided by your administrator. Your administrator can use the information provided in the following link to obtain the credentials: Box Documentation - Setting up a JWT app. | Optional |
Client Secret | This field displays only when you select Use custom client credentials. This value will be provided by your administrator. Your administrator can use the information provided in the following link to obtain the credentials: Box Documentation - Setting up a JWT app. | Optional |
Behavior When Deleting Items | Select the type of delete DryvIQ should perform when deleting items: Permanent or Soft. Soft delete is the default delete behavior; however, Permanent is the recommended behavior. A soft delete marks items as a deleted. You can still access them to restore or permanently delete the items. A permanent delete removes the items. This delete is not reversible. | Optional |
Box Customer Log In
Grant Access to Box
Connection Test Succeeded
Features and Limitations
Platforms all have unique features and limitations. DryvIQ’s transfer engine manages these differences between platforms and allows you to configure actions based on Job Policies and Behaviors. Utilize the Platform Comparison tool to see how your integration platforms may interact regarding features and limitations.
Files and Folders
Below is list of Box's supported and unsupported features as well as additional file/folder restrictions. The information below the tables provides additional details about supported and unsupported features as well as best practices when using this connector.
Supported Features | Unsupported Features | Other Features/Limitations |
|---|---|---|
Invalid characters: \ / | ||
| File size maximum: Varies | |
| Path length maximum: n/a | |
| Segment path length: 255 | |
| No leading spaces in file name/folder names | |
| No trailing spaces in folder names, file names, or file extensions | |
No non-printable characters | ||
Box has download limitations for the number of folders and files contained in one folder. Please consult Box documentation for further details. | ||
Box accounts that do not have administrator-level access cannot remove group permissions on files during a job transfer. | ||
Google document types natively created on Box can be moved and will maintain formatting. However, they will have the native Google file extensions (.gdoc, .gsheet, etc.). | ||
The maximum tag size in Box is 255 characters. You can enter more characters than the maximum, but Box will truncate it down to 255 characters. |
Account Map
DryvIQ will use an account’s email address as its username so the account can be automatically mapped when selecting “map by username” during account map creation.
Box Comments
DryvIQ does not support transferring Box comments from folders and files.
Box Notes
DryvIQ offers the option to convert Box Notes when migrating to other platforms. The Allow Rendition option can be enabled on the Behaviors page when creating a new job.
When enabled, Box Notes will be transferred to the destination as .docx files.
When disabled, Box Notes will be transferred to the destination in .JSON format.
Job Behavior
The job will handle Box Notes in the following way to ensure job performance.
The first job run will pick up all box notes.
Delta job runs use Box native event detection to identify changes. Since Box doesn’t support native event detection for Box Notes, Box Notes files will be ignored. There may be exceptions where Box reports changes to Box Notes. When this occurs, the job will pick up the changes.
If you want to migrate updated Box Notes, you will need to perform a soft reset on the job. The job will perform a full crawl of the content, which will migrate the updated Box Notes. This is recommended at the end of a job to ensure all Box Notes updates are transferred.
Supported Box Notes Features
Heading 1
Heading 2
Heading 3
Body
Bold
Italics
Underline
Strikethrough
Font Sizes 9 thru 21
Text Color
Text Highlight
Alight Left, Center, Right and Justify
Check list
Bullet list
Numbered List
Uploaded image from computer
Image via Box link
Table
Divider Line
Code Block
Block Quote
Unsupported Box Notes Features
Preview image via link. Preview images are not supported when converting Box Notes to .docx files since there is not enough information available for DryvIQ to download the image.
Call Out
Table of Contents
Edits to the .docx file on the destination are not transferred to the original Box Note on the source for sync jobs.
Character Sanitization
DryvIQ will sanitize file names that contain combined Unicode characters by replacing the characters with an underscore (_).
File Size Limits
The maximum file size limit for uploads to Box can be between 250 MB to 150 GB depending on your Box account. There is no maximum file size limit coded with DryvIQ. Instead, DryvIQ will evaluate the user profile and retrieve the max_upload_size parameter when the Box connection is created. DryvIQ will respect the limit provided as the maximum file size for this connection. See Box's Understand the Maximum File Size You Can Upload to Box support document for more information.
Folder Size Limits
Box limits folder contents to 15,000 files, but recommended no more than 10,000 files to ensure performance. DryvIQ follows the 10,000 file limit per folder. If a folder has more than 10,000 items, DryvIQ will flag it with the error, “The path exceeds the maximum number of 10,000 children.” Refer to the Box Support forum for more information about Box subfolder limits.
Group Maps
When creating a group map where Box is the destination, you must provide the Box ID in order for the map to work.
Invalid Characters and Spaces
DryvIQ verifies file and folder names to identify unsupported characters based on the platform. It then replaces invalid characters with an underscore (_) so the files and folders can be transferred.
The logic includes leading and trailing spaces in file and folder names. DryvIQ replaces the space rather than trimming it because trimming the space could cause duplicate file names. Adding the underscore ensures the name remains unique.
Owner Permissions
DryvIQ doesn’t expose owner permissions when migrating from Box. When the account running the job is the owner of the content but the user map between that account and the destination account don’t match, DryvIQ won’t grant privileges to the audit trail creator, so the owner will not be able to access the content.
Path Lengths
Box does not impose restrictions for the total path length.
Segment path lengths are limited to 255 character. Segments are delimited by a forward slash (/). For example, <max 255 characters>/<max 255 characters>.
Server System Clock
Your Box connection from DryvIQ will fail to make a successful connection if the DryvIQ server system clock time is ahead of the Box platform time because the access token will be expired by the time it is returned from Box. Therefore, you must ensure the time on the server running DryvIQ is set to the same time as the Box platform or, preferably, a minute or two behind.
The Box platform uses UNIX time; you can find the UNIX timestamp by visiting https://www.unixtimestamp.com/. Enter the current UTC time of the DryvIQ server on this site to get the UNIX time of Box and the application server.
You can find the current UTC time by doing a simple Internet search for "current UTC time" or by visiting timeanddate.com.
UNIX Timestamp Converter
Shared Links
When transferring from Box, DryvIQ will filter out links shared to specific users and log an entry in the audit log that the shared links were not preserved due to the global sharing policy.
Version Preservation
Each Box account type is limited to the maximum number of file versions that can be accessed. This means that while the UI shows as many versions as you upload, you can only access a certain number of versions. In addition to the default version maximum, account administrators can set the maximum number of file versions to save and track for the account. Both the default file version maximum and any custom version settings added to the Box account affect version transfers. Please refer to Box’s version history documentation to understand the version limitations of your account.
Create Connection Using REST API
The following GET will return a Box login link. Use the link to complete logging into the account and to grant DryvIQ access to the account.
Create New Box Connection | Connect As Standard User
GET {{url}}v1/connections/platforms/box/new
Create New Box Connection | Connect as Account Administrator
GET {{url}}v1/connections/platforms/box/new?admin_mode=1Box Connection | API Job Configuration Examples
Path Example: Box connection created as standard user, no impersonation
Connect as a Box user. The path relates to my source content.
POST {{url}}v1/jobs |
|---|
{
"name":"Simple Job",
"kind": "transfer",
"transfer": {
"transfer_type": "copy",
"source": {
"connection": { "id": "{{Box_connection_AsStandardUser_sourceID}}" },
"target": {
"path": "/sourceFolder"
}
},
"destination": {
"connection": { "id": "{{OneDriveForBusiness_connection_destinationID}}" },
"target": {
"path": "/Documents/destinationFolder"
}
},
"simulation_mode": false
},
"schedule": {
"mode": "manual"
},
"stop_policy": {
"on_success": 5,
"on_failure": 5,
"on_execute": 25
},
"category": {
"name": "Report {Name}"
}
} |
Path Example: Box Connection Created as Standard User with Impersonation
As a Box administrator, impersonate a user in the system where the path relates to their content. This requires administrator privileges to use the impersonation feature, such as administrator or co-administrator.
POST {{url}}v1/jobs |
|---|
Path Example: Box Connection created as an Account Administrator
Connect as an account administrator. The path must include the user of the content you are transferring. If impersonation is used for this scenario, permissions will be ignored.
POST {{url}}v1/jobs |
|---|