Installing and Using the Box for Slack Integration

The Box for Slack integration enables you to share content from your Box repository directly from the Slack message interface and gives you greater visibility and granular control into how Slack accesses and manages Box content and metadata. You get the ease of sharing and communication provided by the popular Slack platform, with the content management and security features of Box.

With the Box for Slack integration, you can:

• Preview content with dynamic, scrollable or high-resolution graphics previews, along with the unfurled file title and thumbnail, for Box links shared in Slack.
• Grant access with instant permissions to channel or chat participants – that is, prompt people to grant expanded permissions if not everyone in a Slack channel or group has permission in Box to view/access content.
• Default instant permissions - define the default adjustment of shared link settings for a shared file. If you enable and configure this option, when someone in a Slack conversation or channel doesn't have access to the shared file, Box automatically applies the default permissions you defined.
• Search and share Box content via slash commands(/box recents, /box favorites, /box search).
• Control access and display settings granularly for Box admins.
• Use Box as the content layer for Slack, where Box acts as the single content layer supporting all your conversations. To learn more, see this article.
• Share files from the Box Web app preview - click the Slack icon in the sidebar of the app preview to take its link into Slack and send it to channels and conversations of your choice. To learn more, see this article.
• Receive Box notifications in Slack when someone:
  • sends you a new collaboration invitation for a file, folder, or Box Note,
  • @mentions you in a file or Box Note comment,
  • adds a new annotation in a Box Note you own,
  • adds a new comment in a file you own or in which you've commented.

Enabling the integration

After your organization’s Box admin enables the Box for Slack integration, you must install it for your account. To do this:

1. Log in to your Slack account with your Slack credentials.
2. Go to the Box entry in the Slack app store and click Sign in to Install.
3. Click Continue.
4. Log on to Box and follow the prompts. When prompted to grant Slack access to your Box files, click OK.

You can begin using the integration immediately after you enable it to:

• Send links to Box content to individuals and to Slack channels.
• Browse through lists of your favorite and most recently accessed files.
• Use Slack to search through Box content.

If you use Slack to share a Box link with someone who has not yet enabled the integration, Slack prompts them to do so, and they go through the same enablement procedure.

After they install the integration, another message introduces them to the Box for Slack features.

Sharing Box files in Slack conversations and channels

When you share a Box file in Slack, everyone in the Slack channel or conversation can see the file name, file type, and a thumbnail image, if enabled by your admin.  Slack users who are also logged into the integration and have file access permissions in Box can also access a scrollable high-resolution preview of the file.

When you share a link to a Box file in a channel or conversation in which not every member can access the file, the Box for Slack integration allows you to:

• Modify the existing collaboration level of the shared link.
• Select channels with which to share the link at your chosen collaboration level.
  • If the number of people already collaborating on the file plus the number of channel members exceeds 500, you do not get this option. Instead, everyone you invite to collaborate can only view the file.

To set up the default permissions, visit the Box for Slack app’s App Home.

Searching Box content and accessing recents and favorites

You can type special commands directly into the Slack message box to more quickly and easily find and share files from Box, without leaving the Slack message interface. These are called “slash commands,” because each simple command is preceded by a forward slash.

Type any of the following at the very beginning of your Slack message:

In each case Slack displays five files at a time, with a link you can use to view more files, also in sets of five.

Turning off Box notifications for Slack

If you don't want to receive Box notifications through Slack:

• in your Box account, turn off Box notifications for Slack, or
• in Slack, mute the Box app.

To turn off Box Notifications for Slack:

1. In your Box account window, click your account icon and select Account Settings.
2. At the top of the window, click Notifications.
3. Scroll down to the App Notifications section.
4. Under Slack, disable Slack notifications.
5. At the top of the window, click Save Changes.

Previewing Box files in Slack

Box account holders can see dynamic, scrollable or high-resolution graphics previews, without leaving Slack.

When your Box account holders click a Slack message's unfurled content card that contains an uploaded or linked Box file, the Slack client app loads the file’s representation directly from Box and displays a preview of the file in a modal window. The preview data is neither processed nor transferred through Slack’s infrastructure.

Box account holders still retain the ability to open, view, and edit the file in the Box webapp.
To see these previews, Box account holders must have sufficient access permissions in Box.
Previewing Box files in Slack is available for document types for which Box generates a PDF representation, and image types for which Box generates a png or jpg representation, as well as GIFs.
The ability to preview Slack app links is subject to Slack admin-level setup. Not all Slack client app modalities may be capable of supporting the Slack app link previews.