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Who can see my comments on a file ?

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altius_rup

I have created an app to preview a Box file in a web application, connected via a Box App (and thus a service user account).

When in the web application, I can view the file, comment the file, highlight it etc.

But from the Box web app, I can see comments only when they @mention my Box user.

However, conversely, when I post a comment on the feed of the file, this comment can be seen from the web app in all cases, whether I @mention the Box app (service user) or not.

 

Question : how can I make sure that comments by the Box aa (service user) are visible by other "normal" Box users ?

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  • Alex Novotny

    Hello, 

    To clarify what I think you are saying, anytime a comment is made on a file you can see it in the preview in the web application no matter what... but in the main Box app, you can only see them if your user is at-ed. 

    Alex, Box Developer Advocate

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  • altius_rup

    "at-ed" ? Do you mean "mentioned" ?

    So you are saying that even if I have a file shared with 3 other people, they will only see my comments if I mention them ? If I add a comment without mentioning anyone, no one will see that comment ?

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  • altius_rup

    Please confirm :

    If file sharing rights are changed later on and a new person gets view rights on a file, they cannot review the comments made on the file in the past because they have not been mentioned ?

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  • Alex Novotny

    Sorry for confusion. My earlier comment was a question seeing if you could confirm the behavior I think you are seeing... It is my understanding that if comments are on a file and you have access to the file, you should be able to see them - past or present. I could be wrong though. I haven't tested this functionality before. 

     

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  • Alex Novotny

    Confirmed. I made a comment on a file. Then, collaborated another user. Logged in as that user. I see the past comment. 

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  • altius_rup
    • Edited

    OK, thanks.

    Now back to my initial question.

    I have created an app (in Salesforce) with the Box API (following advice by your colleague Kyle Adams).
    In this app, the problem described occurs : a user in Box will only see comments posted to a shared file in Salesforce by someone else if they are mentioned in the comments feed. If a comment is posted with no mention, the Box user can see the file but not the comment.

    Now, in my case, the app is working with a Box service account.

    So my question is :
    Are comments posted on a file by a Box service account visible to all users who can see the file, or only to Box users mentioned in the comment ?

    I am seeing the latter, and I'm not happy about it. Maybe I'm missing a special setting ?

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  • Alex Novotny

    Thanks for the additional information. I'm still a bit confused. When you say the "App is working with a Box service account", do you mean that every can see comments in Salesforce even when they aren't mentioned? 

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  • altius_rup

    Please connect with Kyle Adams.

    I set up this Salesforce canvas app for Box as designed by him here :
    https://github.com/kylefernandadams/box-canvas-app

    This communicates with a proxy app hosted on Heroku :
    https://github.com/kylefernandadams/box-ui-elements-heroku

    This, in turn, communicates with Box via a Box service account. In my scenario, I am adding comments from Salesforce to a Box file which is shared with 2 or 3 users in Box. The comments made in Salesforce (through the Box service account of a Box app) are only visible to Box users who are mentioned in the comment : I want to know whether this is normal, or a bug, or requires an extra setting I am missing.

    I will later test this with a Box user authentication via OAuth from Salesforce (instead of Box service account), if this is possible, to leave comments marked as authored by the Box user himself.

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  • Alex Novotny

    I'll send to Kyle. But I expect if you are seeing the behavior, it is expected and/or a bug. Although, I use the word bug lightly. I don't know of a setting to change that. I will ask though. 

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  • Alex Novotny

    I did test the base Salesforce app with the normal Box views and I can see all comments on files past and present. But for Kyle's canvas app, I guess something could be different. 

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