Box API "App Users" Usage and Planning

Question

I'm searching for some information about intended usage of Box Platform and App Users. This stack overflow question was a great first step:

What is the intended use case for app auth and app users?

I'm a developer working on a one-stop Portal app for a non-profit and their clients to access and share information and files. The employees and clients are currently using a full Box site, but want to do everything through the Portal and with just their portal log in.

The answer to this question seems to state that Box Platform is totally separate from any existing Box instance and there isn't any way for the two to interact. That's fine, but it would just mean a migration of users and services to start using Box

If that's the case, I feel more confident about moving forward with a plan. Just use the API to programmatically generate and manage users, files and folders, and come up with some 1-time code to migrate existing data and users over to the new Box Platform.

If that assessment is correct, then my follow up question would be around the UI for working on Box Platform. From the API docs, I know you can use the API to generate sharing/embed URLs, and I could use Box's existing embed widget on my site. Is that the intended usage of Box Platform? Or would it look more to having a developer generate their own UI?

Then, finally, how does App Auth work with App Users?

Thank you,

Alex

Answer 1

"Box Platform is totally separate from any existing Box instance and there isn't any way for the two to interact."

Box Platform is Box's category for applications that interact with Box through Box's API and use App Users as the user model. When you are using Box Platform, Box is invisible to your end users.

When you have a Box instance with only App Users, this is a Box Platform use case.

There is also another category of use cases where you have App Users and Managed Users within the same Box instance. This category would be a hybrid of Box Platform and building a custom integration with the Box API.

From the API docs, I know you can use the API to generate sharing/embed URLs, and I could use Box's existing embed widget on my site. Is that the intended usage of Box Platform? Or would it look more to having a developer generate their own UI?

The embed widget is designed to let Managed Users select files from their Box account.

Box Platform is designed to be used with App Users. If you are using App Users, your application would need to map your user model to the Box App User model. Since there is no UI for App Users, your application would be interacting with the Box API on behalf of your end users.