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. You get the ease of sharing and communication provided by the popular Slack platform, with the content management and security features of Box.

Enabling the integration

After your organization’s Box admin enables the 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.

If you attempt to send a shared link over Slack before you have installed the integration, the system prompts you to install it.

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

• 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.

Using the Box Content Picker to send Box files to individuals via Slack

Using Slack to send shared links to files stored in Box works similarly to attaching files from your local machine.

1. On the left of the Slack message box, click
   . The Add from… menu displays
2. Click Box. Your Box repository opens in a separate window.
3. Browse for and click the file you want.
4. In the lower-righthand corner of the window, click the check mark. The Upload a file window opens.
   • Optional: type in a message to the recipient.
5. Click Upload. The URL of the file displays in the message box and Slack sends the message.
   • A thumbnail image of the attached file’s first page displays if your organization has enabled this feature.
   • A generic file type icon displays if your organization has not enabled the thumbnail feature.

Sharing Box files in Slack channels

The process for sharing your Box content with an entire Slack channel is the same as that for individuals, above, with one important exception: when only some channel members have permission to access the file you’re sharing.

When you share a link with a channel in which not every member can access the file, before you send the link Slack enables you to:

• set permission level on the shared link
• set the collaboration level of people you invite
  • The option to set the collaboration level does not display if the number of collaborators is or could exceed 50. In other words, if the number of people already collaborating on the file, plus the number of channel members, exceeds 50, you do not get this option. Instead, everyone you invite to collaborate can only view the file.

To set the permission level, click Select an option, and in the menu that displays click the option or options you want.

Searching Box content and accessing recents and favorites

There are several commands you can type directly into the Slack message box that make it faster and easier to 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 5 files at a time, with a link you can use to view more files, also in sets of 5.