Configuring and Indexing a Box Source

A source defines a set of configuration parameters for a specific Box account.

To configure and index a Box source

1. On the Coveo server, access the Administration Tool (see Opening the Administration Tool).

2. Select Index > Sources and Collections.

3. In the Collections section:

   1. Select an existing collection in which you want to add the new source.

      OR

   2. Click Add to create a new collection (see Adding a Collection).

4. In the Sources section, click Add.

   The Add Source page that appears is organized in three sections.

5. In the General Settings section of the Add Source page:

   

   1. Enter the appropriate value for the following required parameters:

      Name

      Enter a descriptive name of your choice for the connector source.

      Example: Box

      Source Type

      Select the connector used by this source. In this case, select Box.

      Note: If you do not see Box, your environment does not meet the requirements (see Box Connector Requirements).

      Addresses

      This parameter is not used, but must not be empty. Enter http://www.box.com.

      Fields

      Select the field set that you created earlier (see Box Connector Deployment Overview).

      Refresh Schedule

      Time interval at which the index is automatically refreshed to keep the index content up-to-date. By default, the Every day option instructs CES to refresh the source everyday at 12 AM. Because the incremental refresh takes care of maintaining the source up-to-date, you can select a longer interval such as Every Sunday (see What Should Be the Frequency of Source Refresh Schedules?).

   2. Review the value for the following parameters that often do not need to be modified:

      Rating

      Change this value only when you want to globally change the rating associated with all items in this source relative to the rating to other sources (see Understanding Search Results Ranking).

      Example: When a source replaces a legacy system, you may want to set this parameter to High, so that in the search interface, results from this source appear earlier in the list compared to those from legacy system sources.

      Document Types

      If you defined a custom document type set for this source, select it (see What Are Document Type Sets?).

      Active Languages

      If you defined custom active language sets, ensure to select the most appropriate for this source (see Adding and Configuring a Language Set).

6. In the Specific Connector Parameters & Options section of the Add Source page:

   

   1. Using the following parameters, authorize the Coveo crawler to access the content of your managed users:

      Client ID Security provider

      Enter the client identifier to use that you previously obtained (see Authorizing the Coveo Connector to Access the Box of Your Managed Users).

      Client Secret Security provider

      Enter the client secret to use that you previously obtained (see Authorizing the Coveo Connector to Access the Box of Your Managed Users).

      Refresh Token

      The parameter is not needed when indexing Box Enterprise content.

      Enterprise ID CES 7.0.8850+ (March 2017)

      Enter the enterprise identifier as displayed in your Box Enterprise Settings page. It must be the same ID that you entered when configuring the security provider (see Configuring a Box Security Provider).

      Public Key ID CES 7.0.8850+ (March 2017) Security provider

      Enter the public key unique identifier you previously obtained (see Authorizing the Coveo Connector to Access the Box of Your Managed Users). It must be the same ID that you entered when configuring the security provider (see Configuring a Box Security Provider).

      Private Key File CES 7.0.8850+ (March 2017) Security provider

      Enter the full path of the valid PEM private key file you previously obtained (see Authorizing the Coveo Connector to Access the Box of Your Managed Users). It must be the same file path that you entered when configuring the security provider (see Configuring a Box Security Provider).

   2. The default value for the following parameter generally does not need to be changed:

      Number of refresh threads

      Determines the number of files that the connector can refresh simultaneously. The default and recommended value is 8.

   3. The following option must be selected for your managed users content to be indexed.

      Index Managed Users' Content

      Note: CES 7.0.9093– (September 2017) The parameter was labeled Index All Managed Users.

      Whether the content of all your managed users should be indexed. When the option is cleared, only your content is indexed.

   4. CES 7.0.9167+ (December 2017) When you want Box users to be indexed as separate documents, select the following option:

      Index Users

   5. Select additional content to be indexed using the following option:

      Index Custom File Metadata

      Whether the custom metadata specified in the Global Properties should be indexed.

   6. (Optional) Click Add Parameter when you want to show and change the value of advanced source parameters (see Modifying Hidden Box Source Parameters).

   7. The Option check boxes generally do not need to be changed:

      Index Subfolders

      This parameter is not taken into account for this connector.

      Index the document's metadata

      When selected, CES indexes all the document metadata, even metadata that are not associated with a field. The orphan metadata are added to the body of the document so that they can be searched using free text queries.

      When cleared (default), only the values of system and custom fields that have the Free Text Queries attribute selected will be searchable without using a field query (see Adding a Field to Search On and What Are Field Queries and Free Text Queries?).

      Example: A document has two metadata:

      • LastEditedBy containing the value Hector Smith

      • Department containing the value RH

      In CES, the custom field CorpDepartment is bound to the metadata Department and its Free Text Queries attribute is selected.

      When the Index the document's metadata option is cleared, searching for RH returns the document because a field is indexing this value. Searching for hector does not return the document because no field is indexing this value.

      When the Index the document's metadata option is selected, searching for hector also returns the document because CES indexed orphan metadata.

      Document's addresses are case-sensitive

      Ensure that this option is selected because Dropbox team member IDs are case sensitive.

      Generate a cached HTML version of indexed documents

      When you select this check box (recommended), at indexing time, CES creates HTML versions of indexed documents. In the search interfaces, users can then more rapidly review the content by clicking the Quick View link rather than opening the original document with the original application. Consider clearing this check box only when you do not want to use Quick View links or to save resources when building the source.

      Open results with cached version

      Leave this check box cleared (recommended) so that in the search interfaces, the main search result link opens the original document with the original application. Consider selecting this check box only when you do not want users to be able to open the original document but only see the HTML version of the document as a Quick View. In this case, you must also select Generate a cached HTML version of indexed documents.

7. When you chose to index Box permissions, in the Security section, in the Security Provider drop-down list, select the Box security provider that you created for this source (see Configuring a Box Security Provider).

   Note: CES 7.0.8691– (December 2016) Since the Box permission model is not supported, select (none).

   Important: The connector does not support Box permissions. It is thus strongly recommenced to only index Box accounts with public content.

   Note: A workaround is to manually define permissions on the source (see Permissions).

   

8. Click Save to save the source configuration.

9. When your Box content is all public or when you use CES 7.0.8691– (December 2016):

   1. In the navigation panel on the left, click Permissions.

   2. In the Permissions page, select Specify the security permissions to index.

   3. In the Allowed Users and Denied Users boxes, enter the users and groups that you respectively want to allow or deny to see search results from this source. The default is to allow everyone \S-1-1-0\ (Active Directory Group).

   4. Click Apply Changes.

10. When you are ready to start indexing the Box source, click Rebuild.

11. Validate that the source building process is executed without errors:

    • In the navigation panel on the left, click Status, and then validate that the indexing proceeds without errors.

      OR

    • Open the CES Console to monitor the source building activities (see Using the CES Console).