Box as External Document Repository
Integrate your Box Account with MangoApps
Overview
Box provides a cloud based content management platform and a file sharing service for business as well as individuals. With Box, you get a single place to manage, secure, share and govern all of the files for your internal and external collaboration and processes.
MangoApps provides the capability to connect your Box account to its Intranet Solution enabling users to share and collaborate by attaching or embedding files from your Box account.
How do we connect your Box Account to MangoApps?
Your Box account can be connected to your MangoApps solution with a few easy steps. As a pre-requisite, users should be signed up for a Box account or have an existing account which they are using for storing their files and data. Such accounts can be a personal or a business account as well.
Let's have a look at the configuration steps which are primarily divided into two sub-steps.
Admin Configuration
User Configuration
Admin Configuration
The Admin Configuration refers to the settings/configurations that needs to be implemented on the Admin Portal of MangoApps. Hence, this is to be carried out by a Network Admin.
MangoApps Network Admin should login and then access the Admin Portal by clicking on the gear icon beside the Admin's name on the top right-hand corner of the console and then click on 'Manage Domain'. This will bring you to the Admin Portal.
Here's a screenshot which highlights the settings the Network Admin needs to go through in order to successfully enable the integration of Box as an external document repository.
Once we are at the Admin Portal, Click on the 'Modules' option on the left hand pane which will open its own sub-menu.
From the sub-menu, click on 'Files' which will bring you to the entire list of settings related to file/document management
Click on the tab that says 'External Document Repositories'.
Select the checkbox for the option 'Enable Box Integration'.
Click on 'Save Settings' to enable the integration.
Once the above configurations are implemented on the Admin Portal, the users can be notified that the integration is enabled so that they can start connecting their Google Drive with MangoApps.
User Configuration
Users can login to their MangoApps portal after which using the universal 'Compose', they can compose a Post, Private message, Team update or access any other functionality which provide the 'Attach' option.
Let's look at a screenshot which will go through the step-by-step process for connecting the Box account from the user portal. The screenshot here depicts the attach section when composing a private message.
When composing a message, Click on the 'Attach' section and you will see the option for 'Box' listed now.
Click on the 'Box' option.
Click on 'Connect to Box'. Once this option is clicked, a pop-up window opens requesting you to enter credentials for your Box account. Please enter the credentials to authorize MangoApps to connect to your Box account.
As the Box account is successfully connected now, it will list all files and folder structure.
Use this option to Connect/Reconnect to your Box account again.
Note: Users need to connect to the Box account only once from MangoApps portal and all other functionalities that allow attaching files from Box will automatically sync.
Now that the Box account is connected displaying the files and folder structure within it, users can leverage this external document repository to share their files to their work on MangoApps through Posts, Private messages, Team updates and all other functionalities with the capability to attach files.
How to attach files from Box
To attach files from your Box account for Team updates, Posts, Private Messages, you can click on the universal 'Compose' button and select the appropriate option.
Let's look at a few examples on how we can attach files from Box to our work/conversations.
a. Attaching files to a Team update:
Once you enter the name of the Team the update to be addressed to, click on 'Attach'.
Now, click on 'Box' from the list of file repositories.
Using the 'Search Files' section, you can perform a deep search for a file name.
Check the box on the right for the files to be attached.
Click on 'Done' to successfully attach the files to your update.
Finally, click on 'Share' to share your update to the selected team.
Once you have successfully shared your update within a Team, it will appear on the 'News Feed' for the members of that team.
The attached files from Box are direct links to the documents which when clicked will directly open in the Box viewer. Do notice the Box logo beside the filenames which signifies that the attached files reside in the user's Box account.
The creator of the team status update/post/message and other options which allow to attach files from the connected Box account will also have the capability to delete the reference of the shared file.
Click on the three-dot icon after the filename and then click on 'Delete Reference'. This will only remove the reference of the shared/attached file from MangoApps and will not delete the actual file which resides in the user's Box account.
b. Attaching files when composing a Private Message
Use the universal 'Compose' button to create a new message which will open the new message dialog box. Enter the intended Recipient, Subject and message details.
Click on Attach option.
Select Box to list files and folders within it.
Select the appropriate file you want to attach to the message.
Click on Done to successfully attach the files and send the message.
Here's how the message will look at the receiving end. User can simply click on the filename which will open the file in the Box viewer.
c. Attaching files when composing a Post
Click the universal 'Compose' button to start creating your post. Enter the Team/Group/Department name or 'Everyone' for a larger audience.
Click on the 'Content' tab to select the template of your choice.
Click on Continue to proceed to the next part of authoring the post.
Click the 'Attach' section to open the list of available file repositories.
Click on the 'Box' option to list all files and folders.
Select the files to be attached with the post.
From the 'Search' bar, you also perform a deep search for files inside Box.
Click on 'Done' to successfully attach the files now and then publish the post
Note: The templates from the 'Alert' section does not have any option to attach files. This is by design.
Now, here's a quick glimpse on how the attachments section will look on opening the post. Once a post is opened, it will list the attachments in two different locations as highlighted in the screenshot below.
Clicking on the filename will directly open them using the Box viewer.
d. Attaching files to a Task
When creating a Task, be it a standalone task or a task within a project, user's can also attach files to add relevant details and evidences for the work needed to be achieved.
Here's how we can attach files while creating a Task or when editing an existing one.
Click on the 'Attach' section and select 'Box' from the list.
Select the appropriate files to be attached with the task.
Click on 'Done' to successfully attach the files to the task.
The task properties showing the highlighted file attached from 'Box'.
How to publish a file to Box from MangoApps?
All this while, we have been looking on how to connect your Box account to your MangoApps Intranet/Collaboration suite and share/attach your files to MangoApps. So, let's talk about files/documents/data which resides on MangoApps which the user wishes to keep a copy on his connected Box account as well.
MangoApps provides a seamless two-way integration where we can publish a file residing on MangoApps platform to Box.
Let's quickly go through the few easy steps to do so.
On the User portal, Click on the 'Files' option on the left hand pane which will then list all your files associated with MangoApps for your account.
For the file you want to publish click on the three dots which displays the pop-up menu with multiple options.
Highlight the 'Publish' option and click on 'Box'. This will open a new Dialog box requesting to select a destination to publish the file.
Use the 'Search' box to search for specific folders to place the file inside Box.
Select the appropriate folder where you want the file to be saved in Box.
Click on Publish. Wait for a few minutes(time taken to upload the data to Box) and refresh your Box browser window. Then, check the folder you had published the file to and it should be there.
We can go through the screenshots below to see how it looks:
Note that the file published to Box will have the Box logo beneath it signifying that it is available in Box now.
Which actions gives the option to Attach files:
Posts
Private Messages
Team Updates
Pages
Wikis
Tasks
News Feed activities on your wall
Calendar events feed
Ideas & Campaign
Questions
Ballot
Poll
Note: The shared Box file's access will be set to "Anyone who has the link can access. No Sign-In required" to ensure all users can view the file
How does integrating Box as an external document repository with MangoApps help?
Increase Productivity - Co-authoring capabilities bring real-time collaboration to MangoApps. Users can create new and edit existing files directly in MangoApps. Changes are automatically saved back to Box— all without exchanging an email.
Simplify Collaboration - Work alongside colleagues, enabling real-time collaboration in MangoApps. You can see if other collaborators are viewing or editing files, and can update it to the latest version with just one click. In-line commenting allows you to streamline approval processes so you can work more efficiently.
Improve ROI Through Adoption - Provide your teams with central location for the Box tools they love resulting in high adoption rates and better control over company data.
Stay Productive Anywhere - Enable employees to access, edit, sync, and share their Box content anytime, on any device.
Bring Your Work To Your Conversations - Locate, share your documents and files from Box within MangoApps makes working with information easier by putting it into the context of the team, department or project where it belongs.
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