Create a Box external content connector

Create an external content connector to retrieve searchable content and security principals from your Box source system.

Before you begin

A source system administrator must have already configured your Box source system to allow access by the Box external content connector. For details on configuring these settings in the source system, see Configure Box for external content indexing.

Role required: sn_ext_conn.xcc_admin

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > External Content Connectors > External Content Admin Home.
2. If prompted, select Switch scope to switch to the External Content Connectors Admin scope.
   You must be in this scope to create or edit external content connectors.
3. In the Connectors section, select New.
4. On the Choose source page, select the Box tile, then select Next.
5. On the Connection settings page, fill in the connection settings.

   Table 1. Connection settings

   Connection setting	Description
   Connector name	Unique name for this Box external content connector.
   Admin account email	Email address for a Box administrator account. As an example, you might enter [e-mail]. If you don't know the administrator account email address to use, ask your Box administrator for it.
   Public Key ID	ID string for the public key that your Box administrator uploaded in the OAuth 2.0 application in the Box developer console. As an example, you might enter pf257ezq. If you don't know the public key ID string to use, ask your Box administrator for it.
   Passphrase	Passphrase for the encrypted private key file specified in Encrypted private key file. If you don't have the passphrase for the encrypted private key file, ask your Box administrator for it.
   Encrypted private key file	PKCS#8-format encrypted private key file. If you don't have the encrypted private key file, ask your Box administrator for it.
   Service account JSON file	JSON-format file containing configuration settings for the Box external content connector's OAuth 2.0 application in the Box developer console. If you don't have this JSON settings file, ask your Box administrator for it.

6. Save and validate your connection settings by selecting Validate Connection.
   Note:

   If validation of your connection settings fails, the system shows an error message. Verify your connection settings to ensure they're correct. If permissions required by the connector are missing or incorrectly configured in the source system, a warning message appears showing the permissions that must be corrected. Provide the information from this message to your source system administrator.
7. After your connection settings are validated, select Next.
8. On the Crawl settings page, modify any default crawl settings that you want to override for this connector, then select Next.
   If you want to skip this step for now, select Skip instead of Next. You can modify the crawl settings for this connector from the External Content Admin Home page. For details on this procedure and the available crawl settings, see Configure crawl settings for a Box external content connector.
9. On the User permission settings page, modify any default user permission settings that you want to override for this connector.
   If you want to skip this step for now, select Skip instead of Next. You can modify the user permission settings for this connector from the External Content Admin Home page. For details on this procedure and user permission settings, see Configure user permission settings for an external content connector.
10. On the Create crawl page, create a content crawl for this connector by selecting a crawl scope (if supported) and any desired options, then select Next.
    If you want to skip this step for now, select Skip instead of Next. You can create and run crawls for this connector from the External Content Admin Home page. For details on creating content crawls, see Create a content crawl for an external content connector.
11. On the Connect search profile page, use the Connect to search profile field and Add button to add any search profiles that you want to connect this external content connector's default search source to, then select Save.
    If you want to skip this step for now, select Skip instead of Next. You can connect search sources for this connector to search profiles from the External Content Admin Home page. For details on connecting an external content connector to search profiles, see Connect an external content connector to a search profile.

Result

Your new external content connector appears in the Connectors list on the External Content Admin Home page.

What to do next

To retrieve searchable content and security principals with your new connector, you must configure and run content and user mapping crawls for it. You can modify your new connector's crawl settings and create crawls for it from the External Content Admin Home page even if you skipped these steps during connector creation.

• To learn how to configure your new connector's crawl settings, see Configure crawl settings for a Box external content connector.
• For details on creating crawls for your new connector, see Create a content crawl for an external content connector and Create a user permission crawl for an external content connector.

To make content crawled by your new connector searchable in portals and search applications, you must link one of its search sources to the search profile used by each portal or search application. You can use the connector's default search source or create your own custom search sources.

Default search source

By default, the system creates a search source that includes all content from your external content connector's indexed source.

Custom search sources

You can create your own search sources with filters to specify which content from the connector's indexed source is searchable. To view the connector's indexed source, navigate to All > AI Search > AI Search Index > Indexed Sources. For information about creating search sources, see Search sources in AI Search.

You can link connector search sources to search profiles from the External Content Admin Home page. For details on this procedure, see Connect an external content connector to a search profile.