Box Windows V2 SDK

Windows .NET SDK for V2 of the Box API that is usable from the following frameworks:

• .NET Framework 4.5
• .NET Core 1.0 or above

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2017
• .NET Core SDK (if running .NET Core samples)

Quick Start

Installation

Install the SDK using Nuget

PM> Install-Package Box.V2

If you want to use .NET Core

PM> Install-Package Box.V2.Core

If you haven't already created an app in Box go to https://developer.box.com/ and click 'Sign Up'

Authentication

Using a Developer Token (generate one in your app admin console; they last for 60 minutes)

var config = new BoxConfig(<Client_Id>, <Client_Secret>, new Uri("http://localhost"));
var session = new OAuthSession(<Developer_Token>, "NOT_NEEDED", 3600, "bearer");
client = new BoxClient(config, session);

Using with Box Platform Developer or Box Platform Enterprise

When to Use Box Platform (Enterprise and Developer)

Box Platform Enterprise This represents your application within a Box enterprise. Use this type of authentication if you are trying to: Store content at the application level rather than at the individual user level. Access any user and make as-user api calls to impersonate a user. Apply Enterprise features such as: managing and applying retention policies, using metadata object, and accessing Events endpoint of the content api.

Box Platform Developer Box account that belongs to your Box Platform application, this is different from an end-user of Box. These accounts do not have an associated login and can only be accessed through the Box API. Use this type of authentication if you are trying to: Have Box content management functionalities in an external-facing app - customer portal Provide access to content stored in Box to internal users who do not have Box Managed User accounts. Allow Box Managed Users to share and collaboration with external users via Box applications

Configure

var boxConfig = new BoxConfig(<Client_Id>, <Client_Secret>, <Enterprise_Id>, <Private_Key>, <JWT_Private_Key_Password>, <JWT_Public_Key_Id>);
var boxJWT = new BoxJWTAuth(boxConfig);

Authenticate

var adminToken = boxJWT.AdminToken(); //valid for 60 minutes so should be cached and re-used
var adminClient = boxJWT.AdminClient(adminToken);

Create an App User

//NOTE: you must set IsPlatformAccessOnly=true for an App User
var userRequest = new BoxUserRequest() { Name = "test appuser", IsPlatformAccessOnly = true };
var appUser = await adminClient.UsersManager.CreateEnterpriseUserAsync(userRequest);

//get a user client
var userToken = boxJWT.UserToken(appUser.Id); //valid for 60 minutes so should be cached and re-used
var userClient = boxJWT.UserClient(userToken, appUser.Id);

//for example, look up the app user's details
var userDetails = await userClient.UsersManager.GetCurrentUserInformationAsync();

Using with OAuth2

When to Use Box Integration (Oauth 2.0)

Oauth 2.0 requires user to log in to Box and grant your application permission to access files and folders. This is a three-legged authentication process to allow managed user and external users to interact.

Configure

Set your configuration parameters and initialize the client:

var config = new BoxConfig(<Client_Id>, <Client_Secret>, <Redirect_Uri>);
var client = new BoxClient(config);

Authenticate

Bundled with the SDK are sample applications for both Windows 8 and Windows Phone which include sample OAuth2 Workflows. The authentication workflow is a 2-step process that first retrieves an Auth Code and then exchanges it for an Access/Refresh Token

Windows 8

string authCode = await OAuth2Sample.GetAuthCode(config.AuthCodeUri, new Uri(config.RedirectUri));
await client.Auth.AuthenticateAsync(authCode);

Windows Phone

// Ensure the OAuth2Sample control is placed at the root level of the application page xaml and named "oAuth2Sample"
// Subscribe to the received call back 
oAuth2Sample.AuthCodeReceived += async (s, e) =>
{
    var auth = s as OAuth2Sample;
    await client.Auth.AuthenticateAsync(auth.AuthCode);
};
// Navigate and show the login page
oauth.GetAuthCode(config.AuthCodeUri, config.RedirectUri);

Other (ASP.NET)

Alternatively, a completely custom OAuth2 authentication process can be used in place of the provided workflows, for example, in a custom web application. In this scenario, a fully formed OAuthSession object should be passed in when instantiating the BoxClient.

OAuthSession session = // Create session from custom implementation
var client = new BoxClient(config, session);

Using With App Token Auth (Box View)

Box View uses App Token Auth, where the app generated long-lived access tokens that are used directly in place of any authentication calls to the API. To use this method of aythentication, simply create a client with only the API key and access token provided:

var config = new BoxConfig(<API_KEY>, "", new Uri("http://localhost"));
var session = new OAuthSession(<PRIMARY OR SECONDARY TOKEN>, "NOT_NEEDED", 3600, "bearer");
client = new BoxClient(config, session);

Examples

Get Folder Items

// Get root folder with default properties
var items = await client.FoldersManager.GetFolderItemsAsync("0", 500);

Get File Information

BoxFile f = await client.FilesManager.GetInformationAsync(fileId);

Update a Files Information

// Create request object with new property values
BoxFileRequest request = new BoxFileRequest()
{
    Id = fileId,
    Name = "NewName",
    Description = "New Description"
};
BoxFile f = await client.FilesManager.UpdateInformationAsync(request );

Upload a New File

BoxFile newFile;

// Create request object with name and parent folder the file should be uploaded to
using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(@"C:\\example.pdf", FileMode.Open))
{
	BoxFileRequest req = new BoxFileRequest()
	{
		Name = "example.pdf",
		Parent = new BoxRequestEntity() { Id = "0" }
	};
	newFile = await client.FilesManager.UploadAsync(req, stream);
}

Upload a New File with Content MD5 hash

BoxFile newFile;

// Create request object with name and parent folder the file should be uploaded to
using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(@"C:\\example.pdf", FileMode.Open))
using (SHA1 sha1 = SHA1.Create())
{
	BoxFileRequest req = new BoxFileRequest()
	{
		Name = "example.pdf",
		Parent = new BoxRequestEntity() { Id = "0" }
	};
	
	byte[] md5Bytes = sha1.ComputeHash(fs);
	
	newFile = await client.FilesManager.UploadAsync(req, stream, contentMD5: md5Bytes);
}

Perform Preflight Check for a new file upload

try
{
	var req = new BoxPreflightCheckRequest() { 
	    Name = "example.pdf", 
	    Parent = new BoxRequestEntity() { Id = "0" },
	    Size = 10000 //set the size if known, otherwise don't set (i.e. for a stream)
	};
											 
	//exception will be thrown if name collision or storage limit would be exceeded by upload									 
	await userClient.FilesManager.PreflightCheck(req);
}
catch (BoxPreflightCheckConflictException<BoxFile> bex)
{
	//Handle file name collision error	
}
catch (BoxException bex)
{
	//Handle storage limit error 
}

Perform Preflight Check for a new version of file

try
{
	var req = new BoxPreflightCheckRequest() { Size=10926 };
	
	//exception will be thrown if storage limit would be exceeded by uploading new version of file
        await userClient.FilesManager.PreflightCheckNewVersion(existingFile.Id, req);		 
}
catch (BoxException bex)
{
	//Handle storage limit error
}

Download a File

Stream stream = await client.FilesManager.DownloadStreamAsync(fileId);

Get Temporary Download Uri for a file

This method will retrieve a temporary (15 minute) Uri for a file that can be used, for example, to send as a redirect to a browser, causing the browser to download the file directly from Box.

var downloadUri = await client.FilesManager.GetDownloadUriAsync(fileId);

Search using Metadata

var filter = new 
{ 
	someKey = "blah", 
	expiresOn = new {gt = new DateTime(2015,1,1), 
			 lt = new DateTime(2015,9,1)},
	count = new {gt = 5, lt = 10},
	option = "value1"
};

var mdFilter = new BoxMetadataFilterRequest() 
{ 
	TemplateKey = "yourTemplate", 
	Scope = "enterprise", 
	Filters = filter 
};

//currently only one BoxMetadataFilterRequest element is supported; in the future multiple will be supported (hence the List)
var results = await client.SearchManager.SearchAsync(mdFilters: new List<BoxMetadataFilterRequest>() { mdFilter });

Make API calls with As-User

Example 1

If you have an admin token with appropriate permissions, you can make API calls in the context of a managed user. In order to do this you must request Box.com to activate As-User functionality for your API key (see developer site for instructions).

var config = new BoxConfig(<Client_Id>, <Client_Secret>, <Redirect_Uri);
var auth = new OAuthSession(<Your_Access_Token>, <Your_Refresh_Token>, 3600, "bearer");

var userId = "12345678"
var userClient = new BoxClient(config, auth, asUser: userId);

//returns root folder items for the user with ID '12345678'
var items  = await userClient.FoldersManager.GetFolderItemsAsync("0", 500);

Example 2

Using the admin token we can make a call to retrieve all users or a specific user

var boxConfig = new BoxConfig(<Client_Id>, <Client_Secret>, <Enterprise_Id>, <Private_Key>, <JWT_Private_Key_Password>, <JWT_Public_Key_Id>);
var boxJWT = new BoxJWTAuth(boxConfig);

var adminToken = boxJWT.AdminToken();
var adminClient = boxJWT.AdminClient(adminToken);

var boxUsers = await adminClient.UsersManager.GetEnterpriseUsersAsync();
List<BoxUser> allBoxUsersList = boxUsers.Entries;

// Display all users with name and id per row
foreach(BoxUser boxUser in allBoxUsersList)
{
	Console.WriteLine("Box User Name: {0} and Box User Id: {1}", boxUser.Name, boxUser.Id);
}

// Get a specific user from allBoxUsersList
var specificBoxUser = allBoxUsersList.Find(u => u.Login == "Specific User Login");
Console.WriteLine("A Specific Box User: {0}", specificBoxUser.Name);

Once we have the specific user we can also find all root folders and folder items

var boxFolderItems = await someUserClient.FoldersManager.GetFolderItemsAsync("0", 100);
List<BoxItem> boxFolderItemsList = boxFolderItems.Entries;

foreach(BoxItem item in boxFolderItemsList)
{
	Console.WriteLine("Item Name: {0}. Item Id: {1}", item.Name, item.Id);
}

Suppressing Notifications

If you are making administrative API calls (that is, your application has “Manage an Enterprise” scope, and the user making the API call is a co-admin with the correct "Edit settings for your company" permission) then you can suppress both email and webhook notifications.

var config = new BoxConfig(<Client_Id>, <Client_Secret>, <Redirect_Uri);
var auth = new OAuthSession(<Your_Access_Token>, <Your_Refresh_Token>, 3600, "bearer");

var adminClient = new BoxClient(config, auth, suppressNotifications: true);

File/Folder Picker

The Box Windows SDK includes a user control that allows developers an easy way to drop in a file and or folder picker in just one line of code

File Picker

<controls:BoxItemPickerLauncher Client="{Binding Client}" />

Folder Picker

<controls:BoxItemPickerLauncher Client="{Binding Client}" ItemPickerType="Folder" />

You can attach an event handler to the ItemSelected event to handle when an Item is selected. Please see sample apps for additional detail on how the controls look and work.

Tests

Unit tests are included that use Moq to simulate network requests and responses. These tests can be found in the Box.V2.Test project

Documentation

Documentation of all classes and methods are provided through the standard <summary></summary> xml tags. The easiest way to view these is through Visual Studio's built in "Object Browser" (VIEW -> Object Browser, or CTRL+W, J).

Other Resources

• SDK Nuget Package: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Box.V2/
• .NET Core SDK Nuget Package: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Box.V2.Core/
• Box Windows SDK Video Tutorial: https://youtu.be/hqko0hxbaXU

Known Issues

Windows 8 Sample OAuth2 uses desktop login screen instead of mobile. Pending fix from platform team.

Copyright and License

Copyright 2018 Box, Inc. All rights reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.