Setting up Box Utility in Salesforce

Overview

Box Utilities is a Salesforce Lightning utility that gives users quick access to Box directly from the utility bar of a Lightning app.

Box Utilities is organized into tabs:

• Box Notes — users create, edit, organize, and collaborate on Box Notes without leaving Salesforce.
• File Uploads — users upload new files from their computer into a record's Box folder, or migrate Salesforce Files already attached to a record into that folder.

Box Utilities automatically detects the Salesforce record a user is viewing, ensuring that notes and files are associated with the correct Box folder. As additional Box Utilities features become available in future releases, they will automatically be available in any Lightning app where Box Utilities has been enabled.

The Box for Salesforce managed package includes Box Utilities in the Box Lightning app by default. No additional configuration is required when users access the Box app. To make Box Utilities available in another Lightning app, such as Sales, Marketing, or a custom Lightning app, follow the steps below.

Configure Box Utilities in a Lightning App

1. From Setup, enter App Manager in the Quick Find box and select App Manager.
2. Locate the Lightning app you want to update.
3. Click the dropdown arrow next to the app and select Edit.
   • If you are editing a standard Salesforce app, Salesforce prompts you to save your changes as a customized copy. This is expected behavior.
4. In the App Manager wizard, select Utility Items (Desktop Only).
5. Click Add Utility Item.
6. Under the Custom section, select Box Utilities.
7. Configure the utility using the recommended settings:

8. Click Save.

Notes:

• Set Show Box Upload Tab to false only if you want to hide the File Uploads tab and leave Box Notes visible to users.
• Box Upload Tab Order controls the position of the File Uploads tab. Box Notes is 1 and File Uploads is 2 by default; change these values if you want File Uploads to appear first.

Verify the Configuration

1. Open the Lightning app you configured.
2. Confirm that the Box Utility button appears in the Salesforce utility bar.
3. Navigate to a Salesforce record.
4. Open Box Utilities and verify that the record's Box Notes are displayed.

5. Select the File Uploads tab and confirm it appears.

If the record does not already have an associated Box folder, Box for Salesforce automatically creates one when the first record-level note is created.

Configure Objects for Note Association

Users can associate personal Box Notes with Salesforce records only for objects that are configured in Folder Name Configuration.

This configuration uses the same custom setting that Box for Salesforce uses when creating Box folders for Salesforce records.

Add a Supported Object

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Open Custom Settings.
3. Locate Folder Name Configuration and click Manage.
4. Click New.
5. In Field API Name, enter the API name of the field to be used for folder naming and search — typically Name, or Subject for Case, or the custom object's name field.
6. Make sure the object added here has "Allow Search" enabled; otherwise, users won't see search results for that object.

7. Click Save. Once saved, the object becomes available the next time users open the Associate dialog in Notes or Record search in File Uploads tab.

How Record Association Works

When a user associates a personal Box Note with a Salesforce record, Box Utilities searches only the objects defined in Folder Name Configuration (see above).

This design ensures that:

• Notes can only be associated with Salesforce objects that have been intentionally enabled for Box.
• Box folders are created only for supported objects.
• Administrators manage supported objects from a single configuration rather than maintaining separate settings.
• Custom objects are supported by specifying the appropriate field used for record lookup.

If no objects are configured, the Associate dialog does not return any records. If a configured object exists but the current user does not have permission to view it, that object is omitted from the search results.

Notes:

• Box Utilities automatically detects the Salesforce record currently being viewed.
• Record-level Box folders are created automatically when required.
• The user's personal My Salesforce Box Notes folder is automatically created the first time they access the Box Utilities component from a non-record page.
• Any future Box Utilities capabilities released by Box will become available within every Lightning app where Box Utilities has been enabled.

After Box Utilities has been configured, users can create and manage Box Notes and add files to records directly from Salesforce. See Using Box Utility in Salesforce for information about creating notes, working with personal notes, associating notes with Salesforce records, and uploading or migrating files.