Box Class

Properties Methods Events Configuration Settings Errors

The Box class makes it easy to upload, download, and manage files and folders within Box.com.

Syntax

class ipworkscloud.Box

Remarks

The Box class provides a simple interface to working with Box.com. Capabilities include uploading and downloading files, strong encryption support, creating folders, moving and copying resources, and more.

Authentication

This class supports authentication via OAuth 2.0. First, perform OAuth authentication using the OAuth class or a separate process. Once complete you should have an authorization string which looks like:

Bearer ya29.AHES6ZSZEJzATdZYjeihDn5W-VrXSsxEZu5p0pclxGdKKQ

Assign this value to the authorization property before attempting any operations. Consult the documentation for the service for more information about supported scope values and more details on OAuth authentication.

Listing Resources

list_resources lists resources within the specified folder. Calling this method will fire the on_resource_list event once for each resource, and will also populate the Resource* properties.

If there are still more resources available to list when this method returns, the resource_marker property will be populated. Continue to call this method until resource_marker is empty to accumulate all pages of results in the Resource* properties.

// ResourceList event handler.
box.OnResourceList += (s, e) => {
  Console.WriteLine(e.Name);
};

do {
  box.ListResources("d:123456");

  for (int i = 0; i < box.Resources.Count; i++) {
    // Process resources here.
  }
} while (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(box.ResourceMarker));

Downloading Files

The download_file method downloads file resources.

If local_file is set, the file will be saved to the specified location; otherwise, the file data will be held by resource_data.

To download and decrypt an encrypted file, set encryption_algorithm and encryption_password before calling this method.

Download Notes

In the simplest use-case, downloading a file looks like this:

box.LocalFile = "../MyFile.zip";
box.DownloadFile(box.Resources[0].Id);

Resuming Downloads

The class also supports resuming failed downloads by using the start_byte property. If a download is interrupted, set start_byte to the appropriate offset before calling this method to resume the download.

string downloadFile = "../MyFile.zip";
box.LocalFile = downloadFile;
box.DownloadFile(box.Resources[0].Id);

//The transfer is interrupted and DownloadFile() above fails. Later, resume the download:

//Get the size of the partially downloaded file
box.StartByte = new FileInfo(downloadFile).Length;
box.DownloadFile(box.Resources[0].Id);

Resuming Encrypted File Downloads

Resuming encrypted file downloads is only supported when local_file was set in the initial download attempt.

If local_file is set when beginning an encrypted download, the class creates a temporary file in TempPath to hold the encrypted data until the download is complete. If the download is interrupted, DownloadTempFile will be populated with the path of the temporary file that holds the partial data.

To resume, DownloadTempFile must be populated, along with start_byte, to allow the remainder of the encrypted data to be downloaded. Once the encrypted data is downloaded it will be decrypted and written to local_file.

box.LocalFile = "../MyFile.zip";
box.EncryptionPassword = "password";
box.DownloadFile(box.Resources[0].Id);

//The transfer is interrupted and DownloadFile() above fails. Later, resume the download:

//Get the size of the partially download temp file
box.StartByte = new FileInfo(box.Config("DownloadTempFile")).Length;
box.DownloadFile(box.Resources[0].Id);

Uploading Files

The upload_file method uploads new file resources.

If local_file is set the file will be uploaded from the specified path. If local_file is not set the data in resource_data will be used.

To encrypt the file before uploading it, set encryption_algorithm and encryption_password.

Upload Notes

Box offers two ways to upload a file. For smaller files a simple upload option is provided to upload data in one request. This is the default option. For larger files (must be larger than 20 MB), uploads can be fragmented into multiple pieces, allowing resuming of uploads that may be interrupted.

Simple

By default the class uses the simple upload mechanism. When doing a simple upload, the HashSimpleUploads setting is applicable.

box.LocalFile = "../MyFile.zip";
box.UploadFile("MyFile.zip", "");

Resumable

To enable resumable uploads set use_resumable_upload to True. This is recommended for large files (must be larger than 20 MB). The class will automatically fragment the specified file into smaller pieces and upload each individually.

When use_resumable_upload is set to True and upload_file is called, a resumable upload session is started by the class. resume_url is populated with a URL identifying the session (this value may be needed for additional operations if the upload does not complete normally).

During a resumable upload, the on_fragment_complete event fires after each fragment is uploaded to indicate overall progress. The class also updates start_byte as necessary to indicate the current offset in the file.

If the upload is interrupted for any reason, resuming it is easy. First, verify that resume_url is populated (if the same instance of the class is used, it should already be populated, and no special action should be needed). Call poll_upload_status to populate the correct values for start_byte and UploadFragmentSize. Then call upload_file again to resume the upload at the specified start_byte offset.

Note that if the upload is not resumed after some time the upload session will expire. poll_upload_status may be used to check the status of a resumable upload, including when it will expire (which is stored in the UploadExpDate configuration setting). An interrupted upload can be aborted explicitly using the abort_upload method.

box.LocalFile = "../MyFile.zip";
box.UploadFile("MyFile.zip", "");

//The transfer is interrupted and UploadFile() above fails. Later, resume the download.
//Using the same instance StartByte and ResumeURL are already populated from the previous
//upload attempt.
box.UploadFile("MyFile.zip", "");

Additional Functionality

The Box class offers advanced functionality beyond simple uploads and downloads. For instance:

Encrypt and decrypt files using the encryption_algorithm and encryption_password properties.
Basic file and folder manipulation and organization using methods such as copy_resource, create_folder, delete_resource, move_resource, and restore_resource.
Support for resource sharing using create_link and revoke_link.
Resource metadata management with create_metadata, list_metadata, update_metadata, and delete_metadata.
Advanced resource listing using the search method.
Retrieval of account and space usage details using get_account_info.
File version handling with list_versions and promote_version.
And more!

Property List

The following is the full list of the properties of the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


account_address	The address of the account's user.
account_created_time	The creation timestamp of the account.
account_email	The email address of the account.
account_enterprise_id	The Id of the enterprise the account is a member of.
account_id	The Id of the account.
account_modified_time	The last modified timestamp of the account.
account_name	The name of the account's user.
account_phone	The phone number of the account's user.
account_role	The account's role.
account_status	The account's status.
account_tags	The account's resource tags.
account_total_space	The total amount of space allocated to the account.
account_used_space	The amount of space used by the account.
authorization	OAuth 2.0 Authorization Token.
download_type	The download type to use for file resources.
encryption_algorithm	The encryption algorithm.
encryption_password	The encryption password.
firewall_auto_detect	This property tells the class whether or not to automatically detect and use firewall system settings, if available.
firewall_type	This property determines the type of firewall to connect through.
firewall_host	This property contains the name or IP address of firewall (optional).
firewall_password	This property contains a password if authentication is to be used when connecting through the firewall.
firewall_port	This property contains the TCP port for the firewall Host .
firewall_user	This property contains a user name if authentication is to be used connecting through a firewall.
idle	The current status of the class.
local_file	The location of the local file.
local_host	The name of the local host or user-assigned IP interface through which connections are initiated or accepted.
metadata_count	The number of records in the Metadata arrays.
metadata_container_schema	The schema of the metadata item's container.
metadata_container_scope	The scope that the metadata item's container resides in.
metadata_mod_op	The modification operation to perform on the metadata item.
metadata_name	The name of the metadata item.
metadata_resource_id	The Id of the resource the metadata item is associated with.
metadata_source_name	The name of another metadata item from which to copy or move a value.
metadata_value	The value of the metadata item.
metadata_value_type	The type of the metadata item's value.
other_headers	Other headers as determined by the user (optional).
overwrite	Determines if local files are overwritten.
parsed_header_count	The number of records in the ParsedHeader arrays.
parsed_header_field	This property contains the name of the HTTP header (same case as it is delivered).
parsed_header_value	This property contains the header contents.
proxy_auth_scheme	This property is used to tell the class which type of authorization to perform when connecting to the proxy.
proxy_auto_detect	This property tells the class whether or not to automatically detect and use proxy system settings, if available.
proxy_password	This property contains a password if authentication is to be used for the proxy.
proxy_port	This property contains the TCP port for the proxy Server (default 80).
proxy_server	If a proxy Server is given, then the HTTP request is sent to the proxy instead of the server otherwise specified.
proxy_ssl	This property determines when to use SSL for the connection to the proxy.
proxy_user	This property contains a user name, if authentication is to be used for the proxy.
query_param_count	The number of records in the QueryParam arrays.
query_param_name	The name of the query parameter.
query_param_value	The value of the query parameter.
resource_data	The data that was downloaded, or that should be uploaded.
resource_marker	A marker indicating what page of resources to return next.
resource_count	The number of records in the Resource arrays.
resource_created_by	The email address of the user who created the resource.
resource_created_time	The creation timestamp of the resource.
resource_description	A description of the resource.
resource_e_tag	The ETag of the resource.
resource_hash	A SHA1 hash of the file resource's content.
resource_id	The Id of the resource.
resource_modified_by	The email address of the user who last modified the resource.
resource_modified_time	The last modified timestamp of the resource.
resource_name	The name of the resource.
resource_owner	The email address of the user who owns the resource.
resource_parent_id	The Id of the resource's parent.
resource_shared_link	The URL of the resource's shared link.
resource_shared_link_access	Access level afforded by the resource's shared link.
resource_shared_link_protected	Whether the resource's shared link is password-protected.
resource_size	The size of the resource.
resource_sync_state	The sync state of the folder resource.
resource_tags	Tags applied to the resource.
resource_trashed	Whether the resource is in the trash.
resource_trashed_time	The trashed timestamp of the resource.
resource_type	The resource's type.
resource_version_id	The version Id of the file resource.
resume_url	The resumable upload URL.
search_marker	A marker indicating what page of search results to return next.
ssl_accept_server_cert_encoded	The certificate (PEM/base64 encoded).
ssl_cert_encoded	The certificate (PEM/base64 encoded).
ssl_cert_store	The name of the certificate store for the client certificate.
ssl_cert_store_password	If the certificate store is of a type that requires a password, this property is used to specify that password in order to open the certificate store.
ssl_cert_store_type	The type of certificate store for this certificate.
ssl_cert_subject	The subject of the certificate used for client authentication.
ssl_server_cert_encoded	The certificate (PEM/base64 encoded).
start_byte	The byte offset from which to start the upload or download.
timeout	A timeout for the class.
use_resumable_upload	Whether to use resumable uploads.
version_marker	A marker indicating what page of file versions to return next.

Method List

The following is the full list of the methods of the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


abort_upload	Aborts the current resumable upload session.
add_query_param	Adds a query parameter to the QueryParams properties.
config	Sets or retrieves a configuration setting.
copy_resource	Copies a resource.
create_folder	Creates a new folder resource.
create_link	Creates a shared link.
create_metadata	Creates a new metadata container on a resource.
create_preview_link	Creates a preview link.
delete_metadata	Deletes a metadata container from a resource.
delete_resource	Trashes or permanently deletes a resource.
download_file	Downloads a file resource.
get_account_info	Gets information about the current user's account and space usage.
get_resource_info	Gets information about a specific resource.
interrupt	Interrupt the current method.
list_metadata	Lists the metadata items for a resource.
list_resources	Lists resources.
list_versions	Lists previous versions of a file resource.
lock_file	Locks a file resource.
move_resource	Moves a resource.
poll_upload_status	Gets the status of the current resumable upload session.
promote_version	Promotes a previous file resource version to be the current version.
reset	Resets the class to its initial state.
restore_resource	Restores a resource from the trash.
revoke_link	Revokes a shared link.
search	Searches for resources that match the specified query.
send_custom_request	Sends a custom request to the Box API.
unlock_file	Unlocks a locked file resource.
update_metadata	Updates the metadata items for an existing metadata container.
update_resource	Updates a resource.
upload_file	Uploads a new file resource.

Event List

The following is the full list of the events fired by the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


on_end_transfer	Fired when a document finishes transferring.
on_error	Information about errors during data delivery.
on_fragment_complete	Fires after each fragment of a resumable upload is completed.
on_header	Fired every time a header line comes in.
on_log	Fires once for each log message.
on_metadata_list	Fires once for each metadata item when listing a resource metadata.
on_progress	Fires during an upload or download to indicate transfer progress.
on_resource_list	Fires once for each resource returned when listing resources or versions.
on_ssl_server_authentication	Fired after the server presents its certificate to the client.
on_ssl_status	Shows the progress of the secure connection.
on_start_transfer	Fired when a document starts transferring (after the headers).
on_transfer	Fired while a document transfers (delivers document).

Configuration Settings

The following is a list of configuration settings for the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


AccountMaxFileSize	Maximum individual file size allowed for the account.
AccumulatePages	Whether the class should accumulate subsequent pages of results when listing them.
ClientCreatedTime	The client-side creation time.
ClientModifiedTime	The client-side last modified time.
CreateLinkAccess	The access level to create links with.
CreateLinkAllowDownloads	Whether the link should permit the linked resource to be downloaded.
CreateLinkExpiration	The expiration date to assign to the link.
CreateLinkPassword	The password to protect the link with.
DownloadTempFile	The temporary file used when downloading encrypted data.
EncryptionIV	The initialization vector to be used for encryption/decryption.
EncryptionKey	The key to use during encryption/decryption.
HashSimpleUploads	Whether to calculate and send SHA1 hashes for simple uploads.
MaxResults	Limits the number of resource and version results.
MaxSearchResults	Limits the number of search results.
MetadataUpdateOrder	List of Metadata item indices specifying the order to send them in the request.
ProgressAbsolute	Whether the class should track transfer progress absolutely.
ProgressStep	How often the progress event should be fired, in terms of percentage.
RawRequest	Returns the data that was sent to the server.
RawResponse	Returns the data that was received from the server.
ResourceClientCreatedTime[i]	The client-side creation timestamp of the specified resource.
ResourceClientModifiedTime[i]	The client-side last modified timestamp of the specified resource.
ResourceExpirationTime[i]	The expiration timestamp of the specified resource.
ResourcePurgeTime[i]	The purge timestamp of the specified resource.
ResourceSharedLinkCanDownload[i]	Whether the specified resource's shared link provides download access.
ResourceSharedLinkDownloadURL[i]	The shared direct download URL for the specified resource.
ResourceSharedLinkExpiration[i]	The expiration timestamp of the specified resource.
RetryAfter	The number of seconds after which to retry the request.
TempPath	The path to the directory where temporary files are created.
ThumbnailFormat	The image format thumbnails should be downloaded in.
ThumbnailSize	The thumbnail output size.
UploadExpDate	The expiration of the resumable upload session.
UploadFragmentSize	The fragment size in use for the resumable upload session.
VersionId	A version Id, used to modify certain requests.
XChildCount	The number of child elements of the current element.
XChildName[i]	The name of the child element.
XChildXText[i]	The inner text of the child element.
XElement	The name of the current element.
XParent	The parent of the current element.
XPath	Provides a way to point to a specific element in the returned XML or JSON response.
XSubTree	A snapshot of the current element in the document.
XText	The text of the current element.
AcceptEncoding	Used to tell the server which types of content encodings the client supports.
AllowHTTPCompression	This property enables HTTP compression for receiving data.
AllowHTTPFallback	Whether HTTP/2 connections are permitted to fallback to HTTP/1.1.
Append	Whether to append data to LocalFile.
Authorization	The Authorization string to be sent to the server.
BytesTransferred	Contains the number of bytes transferred in the response data.
ChunkSize	Specifies the chunk size in bytes when using chunked encoding.
CompressHTTPRequest	Set to true to compress the body of a PUT or POST request.
EncodeURL	If set to true the URL will be encoded by the class.
FollowRedirects	Determines what happens when the server issues a redirect.
GetOn302Redirect	If set to true the class will perform a GET on the new location.
HTTP2HeadersWithoutIndexing	HTTP2 headers that should not update the dynamic header table with incremental indexing.
HTTPVersion	The version of HTTP used by the class.
IfModifiedSince	A date determining the maximum age of the desired document.
KeepAlive	Determines whether the HTTP connection is closed after completion of the request.
KerberosSPN	The Service Principal Name for the Kerberos Domain Controller.
LogLevel	The level of detail that is logged.
MaxRedirectAttempts	Limits the number of redirects that are followed in a request.
NegotiatedHTTPVersion	The negotiated HTTP version.
OtherHeaders	Other headers as determined by the user (optional).
ProxyAuthorization	The authorization string to be sent to the proxy server.
ProxyAuthScheme	The authorization scheme to be used for the proxy.
ProxyPassword	A password if authentication is to be used for the proxy.
ProxyPort	Port for the proxy server (default 80).
ProxyServer	Name or IP address of a proxy server (optional).
ProxyUser	A user name if authentication is to be used for the proxy.
SentHeaders	The full set of headers as sent by the client.
StatusLine	The first line of the last response from the server.
TransferredData	The contents of the last response from the server.
TransferredDataLimit	The maximum number of incoming bytes to be stored by the class.
TransferredHeaders	The full set of headers as received from the server.
TransferredRequest	The full request as sent by the client.
UseChunkedEncoding	Enables or Disables HTTP chunked encoding for transfers.
UseIDNs	Whether to encode hostnames to internationalized domain names.
UsePlatformHTTPClient	Whether or not to use the platform HTTP client.
UserAgent	Information about the user agent (browser).
ConnectionTimeout	Sets a separate timeout value for establishing a connection.
FirewallAutoDetect	Tells the class whether or not to automatically detect and use firewall system settings, if available.
FirewallHost	Name or IP address of firewall (optional).
FirewallPassword	Password to be used if authentication is to be used when connecting through the firewall.
FirewallPort	The TCP port for the FirewallHost;.
FirewallType	Determines the type of firewall to connect through.
FirewallUser	A user name if authentication is to be used connecting through a firewall.
KeepAliveInterval	The retry interval, in milliseconds, to be used when a TCP keep-alive packet is sent and no response is received.
KeepAliveTime	The inactivity time in milliseconds before a TCP keep-alive packet is sent.
Linger	When set to True, connections are terminated gracefully.
LingerTime	Time in seconds to have the connection linger.
LocalHost	The name of the local host through which connections are initiated or accepted.
LocalPort	The port in the local host where the class binds.
MaxLineLength	The maximum amount of data to accumulate when no EOL is found.
MaxTransferRate	The transfer rate limit in bytes per second.
ProxyExceptionsList	A semicolon separated list of hosts and IPs to bypass when using a proxy.
TCPKeepAlive	Determines whether or not the keep alive socket option is enabled.
TcpNoDelay	Whether or not to delay when sending packets.
UseIPv6	Whether to use IPv6.
LogSSLPackets	Controls whether SSL packets are logged when using the internal security API.
OpenSSLCADir	The path to a directory containing CA certificates.
OpenSSLCAFile	Name of the file containing the list of CA's trusted by your application.
OpenSSLCipherList	A string that controls the ciphers to be used by SSL.
OpenSSLPrngSeedData	The data to seed the pseudo random number generator (PRNG).
ReuseSSLSession	Determines if the SSL session is reused.
SSLCACertFilePaths	The paths to CA certificate files on Unix/Linux.
SSLCACerts	A newline separated list of CA certificate to use during SSL client authentication.
SSLCheckCRL	Whether to check the Certificate Revocation List for the server certificate.
SSLCipherStrength	The minimum cipher strength used for bulk encryption.
SSLEnabledCipherSuites	The cipher suite to be used in an SSL negotiation.
SSLEnabledProtocols	Used to enable/disable the supported security protocols.
SSLEnableRenegotiation	Whether the renegotiation_info SSL extension is supported.
SSLIncludeCertChain	Whether the entire certificate chain is included in the SSLServerAuthentication event.
SSLNegotiatedCipher	Returns the negotiated ciphersuite.
SSLNegotiatedCipherStrength	Returns the negotiated ciphersuite strength.
SSLNegotiatedCipherSuite	Returns the negotiated ciphersuite.
SSLNegotiatedKeyExchange	Returns the negotiated key exchange algorithm.
SSLNegotiatedKeyExchangeStrength	Returns the negotiated key exchange algorithm strength.
SSLNegotiatedVersion	Returns the negotiated protocol version.
SSLProvider	The name of the security provider to use.
SSLSecurityFlags	Flags that control certificate verification.
SSLServerCACerts	A newline separated list of CA certificate to use during SSL server certificate validation.
TLS12SignatureAlgorithms	Defines the allowed TLS 1.2 signature algorithms when UseInternalSecurityAPI is True.
TLS12SupportedGroups	The supported groups for ECC.
TLS13KeyShareGroups	The groups for which to pregenerate key shares.
TLS13SignatureAlgorithms	The allowed certificate signature algorithms.
TLS13SupportedGroups	The supported groups for (EC)DHE key exchange.
AbsoluteTimeout	Determines whether timeouts are inactivity timeouts or absolute timeouts.
FirewallData	Used to send extra data to the firewall.
InBufferSize	The size in bytes of the incoming queue of the socket.
OutBufferSize	The size in bytes of the outgoing queue of the socket.
BuildInfo	Information about the product's build.
CodePage	The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations.
LicenseInfo	Information about the current license.
ProcessIdleEvents	Whether the class uses its internal event loop to process events when the main thread is idle.
SelectWaitMillis	The length of time in milliseconds the class will wait when DoEvents is called if there are no events to process.
UseInternalSecurityAPI	Tells the class whether or not to use the system security libraries or an internal implementation.

IPWorks Cloud 2020 Python Edition