This is related to the attachment field type. Our team can have hundreds of box files and folders, searching in the attachment integration here in airtable would leverage a lot of benefits for a variety of use cases for my team.
Youโre right! This is beyond a discussion that elucidates your requirements. It should be an article for searching and pulling Box documents into Airtable.
I think itโs a mischaracterization to suggest the workaround I offered is a โhackโ or has added security risks; it doesnโt. It uses a well-supported and an often-used block built by Airtable. iFrames are fully secure and based on open web standards. And, if anyone hacked an Airtable account, they would not have access to the framed Box account because it does not require an oAuth linkage.
Feel free to describe this as not a solution to your desired feature. Iโm okay with that.
Once I understood your idea, I voted it up. I hope they add this feature.
I disagree, but if you want to share your suggestions on a different post for show and tell, that makes sense.
My use case is specific to the attachment field type integrations offered. Everything in blocks and iframe is outside of that field type and irrelevant to this question.
I know that seeing โboxโ made it tangentially related but mostly I feel like you had an idea before you heard or understood me.
We tried your โshare URLโ as a URL attachment idea. Here is our feedback:
going to box, searching box, clicking the share feature, waiting for the link to generate, copying the URL, inserting the link = 8 clicks. Whether this is in a โblockโ or not, I do not want my users to go through this process of sharing and copying URLs
the URL is displaying a โlogin to authenticateโ instead of displaying the attachment. What does that mean? That means that every single collaborator on this base also needs the provisioned access in box first for this to work, AND they have to login to box otherwise the โpreviewโ attachment feature does not work. As I stated, we are an image driven/visual use case. The box authentication integrated into the attachment solution resolves all of these restrictions and issues I am describing.
I agree! I donโt want to do that either, ergo - why I upvoted your suggestion. :winking_face:
The process I use requires exactly 8 clicks to find anything through search, then select, and import a Box document. But [today], how many clicks are required to locate and import a Box document without search?
Assuming the document is in the root folder, itโs six clicks without the advantage of a search functionality. The reality is that it is likely going to be north of 15 to 18 clicks depending on the depth and complexity of your Box repository.
This is precisely why I agreed that your idea was a good one. Itโs silly the way it presently works. The workaround I use is simply less silly - perhaps far less silly.
If you have dozens or hundreds of Airtable users who need to each install separate blocks to bring Box search into the process, thatโs ugly too. Five users? Possibly not that ugly. But thatโs an Airtable inefficiency; they need an enterprise admin and access control feature for commonly deployed blockโs.
If, by company policy, you donโt like the approach I suggested, I understand. I also donโt like it - itโs not ideal, but it was intended to help you (maybe others) with a process where search was perceived (by me) as the most critical ingredient missing until such time as the feature can be upvoted and implemented.
I get it, you donโt like my observations. Iโm sorry you feel that way. But, I think a forum discussion about new feature requests is supposed to include diverse ideas, workarounds, and alternatives. As such, I felt compelled to share mine with you and all the other readers who might benefit from a glimpse of at least one possible pathway that is not perfect, but better than no search at all in the process of introducing Box documents.
Bill, thanks for all the information and versatility you described in working to with Box. I had implemented a similar โworkaroundโ using Box but Iโm going to be trying your suggestions as well. I think using Box as a secure cloud content โhostโ that Airtable can access is absolutely critical for enterprise and security issues and Iโd love to see more community chatter on how people are using Box. Thanks again.
