ruby-box

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Mainted by: Attachments.me

RubyBox provides a simple, chainable, feature-rich client for Box's 2.0 API.

Authorization

RubyBox uses Box's OAuth2 Implementaton, Here are the steps involved in authorizing a client:

1) Get the authorization url.

require 'ruby-box'

session = RubyBox::Session.new({
  client_id: 'your-client-id',
  client_secret: 'your-client-secret'
})

authorize_url = session.authorize_url('https://redirect-url-in-app-settings')

2) After redirecting to the authorize_url, exchange the code given for an access_token

@token = session.get_access_token('code-returned-to-redirect_url')
p '@token.token' # the access token.
p '@token.refresh_token' # token that can be exchanged for a new access_token once the access_token expires.

# refreshing token.

session = RubyBox::Session.new({
  client_id: 'your-client-id',
  client_secret: 'your-client-secret',
  access_token: 'original-access-token' 
})

# you need to persist this somehow. the refresh token will change every time you use it
@token = session.refresh_token('your-refresh-token')
save_me_somehow(@token.refresh_token)

3) Create a client using a session initialized with the access_token.

require 'ruby-box'

session = RubyBox::Session.new({
  client_id: 'your-client-id',
  client_secret: 'your-client-secret',
  access_token: 'access-token'
})

client = RubyBox::Client.new(session)

Usage

Once you've created a client, you can start interacting with the Box API. What follows are some basic examples of RubyBox's usage.

Warning

Please note that using a file/folder path is extremely inefficient, as it causes the gem to traverse the directory structure recursively querying each folder in turn. Prefer the _by_id methods where possible for single-request access.

Items

Files and Folders are subclasses of Item. Folder contents (i.e. files and folders inside that folder) are retrieved in a mini-format when the Folder instance is loaded.

There are two caveats to this:

Only some fields are available

a File mini looks like this:

{
    "type": "file",
    "id": "5000948880",
    "sequence_id": "3",
    "etag": "3",
    "sha1": "134b65991ed521fcfe4724b7d814ab8ded5185dc",
    "name": "tigers.jpeg"
}

a Folder mini looks like this:

{
    "type":"folder",
    "id":"301415432",
    "sequence_id":"0",
    "name":"my first sub-folder"
}

Requests to fields other than the above (e.g. file.size) will cause a one-off hit to the api, so take care when iterating over folder contents lest a single application method result in hundreds of api hits and take forever to complete.

This can be mitigated by passing a list of extra fields you want to fetch into the .items method:

folder = client.folder_by_id(@folder_id)
# retrieve size, created_at, and description for all items in this directory
detailed_items = folder.items(@item_limit, @offset, ['size', 'created_at', 'description'])

Note: only the type and id fields are included in addition to whatever you specify using the above method, so you must be explicit.

Folders

• Listing items in a folder:

files = client.folder('/image_folder').files # all files in a folder using a path.
files = client.folder(@folder_id).files # all files in a folder using an id.
folders = client.root_folder.folders # all folders in the root directory.
files_and_folders = client.folder('files').items # all files and folders in /files

• Creating a folder:

client.folder_by_id(@folder_id).create_subfolder('subfolder') # using an id.
client.folder('image_folder').create_subfolder('subfolder') # using a path.

• Setting the description on a folder:

folder = client.folder('image_folder') # using a path.
folder.description = 'Description on Folder'
folder.update

• Listing the comments in a discussion surrounding a folder.

folder = client.folder('image_folder') # lookups by id are more efficient
discussion = folder.discussions.first
discussion.comments.each {|comment| p comment.message}

• Creating a shared link for a folder.

folder = client.folder('image_folder').create_shared_link # lookups by id are more efficient
p folder.shared_link['url'] # https://www.box.com/s/d6de3224958c1755412

Files

• Fetching a file's meta information.

file = client.file('/image_folder/an-image.jpg')# lookups by id are more efficient
file = client.file(@file_id)
p file.name
p file.created_at

• Uploading a file to a folder.

file = client.upload_file('./LICENSE.txt', '/license_folder') # lookups by id are more efficient
file = client.upload_file_by_folder_id('./LICENSE.txt', @folder_id) 

• Downloading a file.

f = open('./LOCAL.txt', 'w+')
f.write( client.file('/license_folder/LICENSE.txt').download )
f.close()

# Or you can fetch by file.id, which is more efficient:
f = open('./LOCAL.txt', 'w+')
f.write( client.file_by_id(@file_id).download ) # lookups by id are more efficient
f.close()

# You can also grab the raw url with
client.file_by_id(@file_id).download_url

# Note that this URL is not persistent. Clients will need to follow the url immediately in order to
# actually download the file

• Deleting a file.

client.file_by_id(@file_id).delete # this
client.file('/license_folder/LICENSE.txt').delete

• Displaying comments on a file.

comments = client.file('/image_folder/an-image.jpg').comments # lookups by id are more efficient
comments = client.file_by_id(@file_id).comments

comments.each do |comment|
    p comment.message
end

• Creating a shared link for a file.

file = client.file('/image_folder/an-image.jpg').create_shared_link
file = client.file_by_id(@file_id).create_shared_link # using an id
p file.shared_link.url # https://www.box.com/s/d6de3224958c1755412

• Copying a file to another folder.

file = client.file('/one_folder/cow_folder/an-image.jpg')
folder = client.folder('image_folder')

# lookups by id are more efficient

file = client.file_by_id(@file_id)
folder = client.folder_by_id(@folder_id)

file.copy_to(folder)

• Moving a file to another folder.

file = client.file('/one_folder/cow_folder/an-image.jpg')
folder = client.folder('image_folder')

# lookups by id are more efficient

file = client.file_by_id(@file_id)
folder = client.folder_by_id(@folder_id)


file.move_to(folder)

• Adding a comment to a file.

file = client.file('/image_folder/an-image.jpg') # path
file = client.file_by_id(@file_id) # id
comment = file.create_comment('Hello World!')

Search

You can use RubyBox's search method to return files and folders that match a given query.

items = client.search('image')
items.each do |item|
    p "type=#{item.type} name=#{item.name}"
end

Events

You can use RubyBox's event_response method to return an EventResponse that can be used to process any incoming events.

eresp = client.event_response
eresp.chunk_size
eresp.next_stream_position
eresp.events.each do |ev|
  p "type=#{ev.event_id} type=#{ev.event_type} user=#{ev.created_by.name}"
end

As-User

• This must be manually enabled for your account by Box Staff. Contact api@box.com for access. [ More Info ] (http://developers.box.com/docs/#users-as-user)

session = RubyBox::Session.new({
  client_id: 'your-client-id',
  client_secret: 'your-client-secret',
  access_token: 'original-access-token' ,
  as_user: 'your-users-box-id'
})

Users

Current User Info

me = client.me

Current User's enterprise

me = client.me.enterprise

An array of Ruby:Box users in an enterprise (Supports Filtering, Limit and Offset)

users = client.users

• Remeber the API filters "name" and "login" by the start of the string. ie: to get "sean+awesome@gmail.com" an approriate filter term would be "sean"

users = client.users("sean" , 10 , 1)

Contributors

• full list of contributors

Contributing to ruby-box

RubyBox does not yet support all of Box's API Version 2.0 functionality, be liberal with your contributions.

• Rename account.example to account.yml and fill in your Box credentials
• Type bundle install
• Type rake.. tests should pass
• Add a failing test
• Make it pass
• Submit a pull request

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2012 Attachments.me. See LICENSE.txt for further details.