Introduction
Box is a Cloud Enterprise file sharing and storage platform. The Records365 Box Connector allows you to manage your organization’s content in Box user accounts with Records365, including all the powerful lifecycle management features you expect – from Classification to Disposal.
The Records365 Box Connector requires an additional subscription. If you would like to inquire about subscribing, or you believe your organization has subscribed and the connector is missing from the Gallery please Contact Support.
Architecture
Records365 leverages a Box Enterprise App for authorization to seamlessly manage your enterprise content, without interfering with the familiar user interfaces and integrations that Box offers.
Prerequisites
A Box account that has Two-factor authentication or Single Sign On enabled
A Box Admin user account
A Box developer account
To allow Records365 to manage content in Box it needs to be the given the appropriate authorization. You perform this setup in Box by creating and authorizing a Box Enterprise App. Once authorized, Records365 can authenticate to Box using OAuth 2.0 with JWT as shown below. Once all the necessary authorization steps have been carried out a JSON file will be available for download from the Box site, this file will contain all the required details to configure a Box connector in Records365.
Provision
- Login into the Box Developer site using the Admin user.
- From the My Apps dashboard click Create New App.
- Select the Enterprise Integration app type.
- For the Authentication Method select the OAuth 2.0 with JWT (Server Authentication) option.
- Give the App an appropriate name and click Create App.
Configure
The App now needs to be configured so that it has required access levels.
- From the Box Developer site navigate to the My Apps dashboard.
- Click through the newly created app.
- Select the Configuration navigation item, and configure the Application Access, Application Scopes and Advanced Features as shown below.
- From the Add and Manage Public Keys section click Generate a Public/Private Keypair.
- At the prompt, download the presented JSON file and save it for later.
Authorization
After configuring the App, authorization must be granted in the Admin console.
- Log in to Box and select Admin Console at the top of the screen.
- Go to the Enterprise Settings or Business Settings and click on Apps.
- Within the Custom Applications section, choose Authorize New App.
- Enter the API key for the app you would like to enable, which can be found in the downloaded JSON file from the Configure step with the label client_id. This will display the requested Applications Scopes and User Access Level that determines which users the app has control over. These determine what permissions an Application receives in the enterprise and which sets of users an application may access and modify.
- Once Authorized, the app will be enabled.
Role Required
To Add Connector Details you need to be assigned to the Application Administrator role in Records365.
Records Managers have read-only access to the Connector Details page.
To Link your Box Account you need to be a Box Administrator.
Add Connector
Now that we have gathered the necessary authorization for Box, we can configure the Records365 Box Connector.
- Navigate to Records365 and click on the Settings icon in the top right hand corner.
- Click on Add Connector and select the Box Connector in the Gallery.
- Click Add.
- After creating the Box connector instance you will be redirected to the Connector Details page. Here we will connect to the Box Enterprise Account and determine how to manage it.
Configuring the Box Connector
Once a connector instance has been created we need to configure it so that it knows which box account to manage and how that content is aggregated in Records365. You will need details collected in the Provision setup.
- Now that we have added a Box connector instance we need to link it to a Box account. From the Connector Settings page click Choose File and select the file the downloaded json from the Configure step.
- Click Link Account. This process may take a few minutes to provision all the necessary components.
- Set the Aggregation Level
- Top Most Folder – All content in the users’ Box account will be contained within the All Files folder.
- Lowest Level Folder – Content will be contained in the lowest level folder this would refer to folder directly above the content being submitted
This should be selected in consultation with the Records Management function of your organization, because once the aggregation level is set and the Connector is Enabled for the first time, it cannot be modified.
- Under Advanced Options you can set the Originating Organization, this will allow content being submitted by this connector instance to be tagged with the name of the organization being managed.
- Once all the settings have been updated click on Save in the top right hand corner of the page.
- A success message will appear once the connector is added successfully.
Connectors are Disabled by default. This means no content will be submitted from the connector until the connector is Enabled. Before enabling a Connector, ensure that all rules have been set up first otherwise your records will be uncategorized. To complete the rules setup refer to Rules.
- Once you are ready to begin managing records from this connector in Records365, click Enable.
Box Metadata Templates
The Box Connector supports the Metadata Template feature of Box. This means all custom metadata you have associated with your files in Box will be ingested by Records365.
You can find out more about the Metadata Templates feature here.
Records365 will display all Box template based metadata in the following format templatename:metadatafieldname.
You can use these template based fields throughout Records365, in places such as:
- Our powerful Advanced Search feature, where you can create queries to search on your records in a timely fashion.
- Rules to assign categories to your records
- File Plan to drive retention for your records.