Airtable Sync integration: Box

  • Updated on Dec 2, 2024
  • Published on Jul 6, 2022
  • 3 minute(s) read

Plan availability

Team, Business, and Enterprise Scale

Permissions

Owners/Creators - In order to create or update synced tables, you'll need to have creator permissions in the base where you are setting up the sync.

Platform(s)

Web/Browser, Mac app, and Windows app

Related reading

  • Sync - Basic setup - If you haven’t set up a sync before, we recommend first reading this article to become familiarized with how the Airtable Sync feature generally works.

  • Airtable Sync FAQs - Answers to common questions that might help unblock you if you are encountering issues.

Learn how to use the Airtable Sync integration feature to bring information from an external application into Airtable as a new table in your base. Sync integrations are always a one way sync from the external application into an Airtable base, so changes made in Airtable cannot be synced back to the external application that you are syncing with.

This article covers how to sync file directories in Box to a table in an Airtable base.

Setting up a Box to Airtable sync

Step 1: Add a new synced table

Start by clicking the + symbol next to your list of tables. Then, under Sync data from section click More... and select the Box option.

1500005384581AddSyncedTable.gif

Step 2: Select a Box account

Select an existing Box account (if you’ve already connected to Box), or link to a new Box account. Once you link to the account, select the folder that you want to use to create the synced table. Lastly, choose whether or not to sync Box Folders in addition to files.

1500005384841boxoptions.jpg

Once you’ve made the selection in this menu, click Next.

Step 3: Select fields to sync

After clicking Next, you’ll be presented with two sync options to choose from:

  1. All fields from the source view, including any fields added by Box in the future

  2. Specific fields from the source view

1500005384961selectfields.png

If you choose to sync specific fields you’ll be shown a menu where you can toggle each individual field that you want to sync from Box.

1500005384981specificfields.png

Field data that can be synced from Box

Below is a list of all of the field data that is provided by Box that can be synced to Airtable:

  • File path

  • File name

  • Type (file or folder)

  • Created time (of the Airtable record)

  • Created By (who created the file on Box)

  • Last Modified Time (of the Box file / folder)

  • Last Modified By (which Box user last modified the file)

  • File Extension (boxnote, png, jpg, pdf, etc.)

  • File Size (in bytes)

  • Description

  • Parent Folder

  • Link (a direct link to the Box file)

  • ID (the unique file ID assigned by Box)

Step 4: Create synced table

Before creating your synced table, there are Settings options that allow you choose how often you want to sync, and how to handle records deleted or hidden in the source (Box):

  • The frequency of syncing. Right now, the options are manual syncing and automatic syncing which happens around every 5 minutes

  • Whether or not deleted records (files / folders in the selected Box folder)should be removed from the Airtable table. By default, deleted events will be removed.

1500005297402createsyncedtable.png

Once you’ve selected your desired settings, click the Create table button. The sync operation will retrieve all files (and optionally, folders) in the Box folder selected and generate Airtable records.

1500005297482Syncedtable.gif

Security and OAuth scopes

Authentication

Although the scopes include root_readwrite permissions, these are only necessary for file downloads from Box, and the Box sync integration does not ever write anything to Box. The OAuth consent screen will look something like this:

4407039677463boxOAuth.png

Airtable will only have access to the folders and files that the user who connected the Box sync has access to. If the user who connected a Box sync leaves the company and their Box account gets deactivated, the sync will stop working.

Note

There is no separate plugin or app that needs to be installed on the user’s Box instance. The data that we retrieve from Box’s API is transmitted securely via HTTPS and will not be used for any purpose other than the synced table.

Box Scopes

Scope name

Scope purpose

root_readonly

For reading files that are accessible to the user

root_readwrite

For writing and downloading files that are accessible to the user

For more information on Box scopes, check out Box's documentation here.

FAQs

Can I sync record data from Airtable to Box?

No, this feature only syncs files and folders from Box to Airtable.

What data is used for the primary field of the Airtable record?

The file path for the Box file is used to create the primary field name in Airtable.

What types of information in Box will create Airtable records?

All files and folders will generate individual Airtable records in the synced table.

Are there any limitations to be aware of?

The maximum number of issues synced is 10,000. This is a limit that we impose to ensure reasonable performance.