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Intro

Use this connector to pull data files from your Box account into Domo. You can retrieve data files in any of the following file types: CSV, JSON, XLS, XLSX, XML, ZIP, and GZIP. To learn more about the Box API, visit their website. This connector is especially useful when you need to glean data from Excel and CSV reports sent via email. You can upload the reports to a Box folder via email and then use Domo’s Box connector to pull the desired reports from the folder. You connect to your Box account in the Data Center. This topic discusses the fields and menus that are specific to the Box Advanced connector user interface. General information for adding DataSets, setting update schedules, and editing DataSet information is discussed in Adding a DataSet Using a Data Connector.

Primary Use Cases

The Domo Box Advanced connector is great for parsing complicated files with more than one header or footer row. This connector is helpful if you use European date formats, custom delimiters such as a pipe or a hat, or other custom settings in your data files.

Primary Metrics

N/A

Primary Company Roles

N/A

Average Implementation Time

10-20 minutes depending on configuration settings.

Ease of Use (on a 1-to-10 scale with 1 being easiest)

4

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Best Practices

Best practice for using the Box Advanced connector starts with your data. Make sure your files are named well and organized into appropriate folders. Additionally, you’ll want to examine your data files in order to accurately set up the advanced settings. What row does the header start on? Where does the data start? Do you know the format of your date column?

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Prerequisites

To connect to your Box account and create a DataSet, you must have email address and password you use to log into Box.

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Connecting to Your Box Account

This section enumerates the options in the Credentials and Details panes in the Box Advanced Connector page. The components of the other panes in this page, Scheduling and Name & Describe Your DataSet, are universal across most connector types and are discussed in greater length in Adding a DataSet Using a Data Connector.

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Credentials Pane

The Domo Box connector uses OAuth to connect, so there is no need to enter credentials within Domo. Click Connect (or select Add Account if you have existing Box accounts in Domo) to open the Box OAuth screen where you can enter the email address and password associated with your Box account. Once you have entered valid Box credentials, you can use the same account any time you go to create a new Box DataSet. You can manage connector accounts in the Accounts tab in the Data Center. For more information about this tab, see Managing User Accounts for Connectors.

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Details Pane

This pane includes the following fields and menus:

Menu

Description

File Name

Enter the name (or a portion of the name) of the Box file to retrieve.

The connector returns the most recently created or modified file matching the name, based on what you have selected in the Date Field menu.

Match Type

Specify whether the retrieve file starts with or contains the name you have entered in File Name .

File Type

Select the file type for the data file you want to retrieve.

Date Field

Specify whether to retrieve a file based on its creation or last modified date.
This is useful when there are multiple files containing the name you have entered in File Name .

Folder Name or ID

Enter a complete folder name (not case-sensitive) or a Box Folder ID to limit the file search to a specific folder’s root contents.
Subfolders are ignored.

Is the provided input a folder id? Select Yes if you have the entered folder ID.

Sheet Name

Enter the sheet name you want to retrieve from the specified spreadsheet.

Generate the column names

This should be selected as ‘yes’ if the data in Box doesn’t have column names. When ‘yes’, generic column names will automatically be added to the data. By default, the value is set to NO

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Advanced Pane

This pane includes the following fields and menus:

Menu

Description

Header Start

Enter the number for the header row in the DataSet.

Data Start Row

Enter the number for the first data row in the DataSet.

Does your Json text require a line reader?

Select Yes if your JSON text includes multiple lines that should be read.

Should the backslash be escaped?

Select Yes if your JSON text has backslash characters that need to be escaped.

Enter your header tag

Enter the tag for the header in your JSON text.

Enter your data tag

Enter the tag for the data in your JSON.

Enter fields to exclude

Provide a comma separated list of fields you want to exclude from the JSON import.

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Other Panes

For information about the remaining sections of the connector interface, including how to configure scheduling, retry, and update options, see Adding a DataSet Using a Data Connector.

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Troubleshooting

  • Validate that the file was not corrupted when uploaded to Box by downloading from Box and opening in Excel or the proper application for the file type.
  • Box is a worldwide application, and after you upload a file, the servers sync those changes globally. Therefore the file may be available immediately, or it may take up to 30 minutes for Domo to be able to download the file. For best results, give your file 20-40 minutes before you attempt to retrieve it via the connector.
  • Rate limiting may be enforced by Box. The Domo Box connector is aware of this situation and will attempt to recover from any rate limiting situations, but if there are too many DataSets that run at the same time, the connector may not be able to recover and will fail. In that case, stagger the DataSets to run at different times.
  • Other common issues: credential issues (password change), selecting from the wrong folder, entering an incorrect file name (forgetting.xslx for example).

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FAQ

Make sure all your connector settings match your file and free of typos. Files may not be available via the Box API up to 30 minutes after the file was uploaded. Ensure the file has been in Box for at least 30 minutes, and then attempt to run the DataSet again.
This problem might stem from an issue with your option settings in Box. Domo is an unpublished application in box.com terminology, and one of the options Box gives to its users is to disable unpublished applications by default. Therefore, if a customer is using this option, Domo users may not be able to authenticate or connect to Box to import data from Box to Domo.Box gives customers the option to allow any unpublished application to use a customer’s Box instance, which appears to be what most customers have enabled in their Box account settings. Some customers do not want to enable all unpublished applications but would like to enable Domo to use Box. In this case, there is also an option Box provides to allow exceptions. To enable an exception for Domo, Domo’s public API key for Box needs to be added to the exception list.The public API key for Domo at Box is: wmiawbgvombfafa0jj4dgvmvq5ivq83m​
The Box connector allows you to specify the name and type of the file to pull the data from. The Box Advanced connector offers an additional advanced section to specify the data formatting details, along with the name and type of the file.
Yes.
As often as required.
No.