Need some Clarification on JWT Authentication of Box

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January 20, 2023 10:17

Hello team,

I am using BoxSDK for python. There I am using JWT authentication. I have created an app on Developer account for testing which uses authentication as OAuth 2.0 with JSON Web Tokens (Server Authentication).

After creating this TestApp in developer account I am using it in some APIs to do some basic operations in Box. I also got an Service Account ID. related to my test app.

All good till here.

But I am facing issue when I am uploading a folder in my box account through browser and then try accessing that folder contents via Box API, its not accessible.

The same is accessible when I am adding the service account ID as a collaborator in that folder.

So I want to know if there is any option using which I dont need to do the above part i.e. adding service account ID as a collaborator in every folder that I want to access through API. Please suggest.

Is this behavior only for test account? If I take Enterprise edition of Box, will this issue be solved?

I need that whatever folder I upload in Box through website, it should be accessible vis API where I am using JWT authentication.

Many thanks for your help.

Comments

3 comments

Rui Barbosa

January 20, 2023 15:18
Hi Deepak,

A service account can impersonate a user, and from your description I think it can solve your use case.

Take a look at the usage of the as-user in the python SDK here.

For more information see:
- As-User header
- User types
Let us know if this helped.

Cheers
1

Comment actions Permalink

Deepak Kumar

January 23, 2023 05:16

Hello Rui,

Many thanks for the inputs. Using as User Param worked for me actually.

But still I have one issue. If I am directly calling the Box API, its working. But if I am calling from code for SDK its not working. Just refer the code below. Case 1 is returning data, but code in case 2 is not returning data.. Not sure why. Your help on this will be really appreciated.

1:-

auth = JWTAuth.from_settings_file('/Users/deepakkumar/Desktop/aims_admin/aims_admin/config.json')
access_token = auth.authenticate_instance()
url = "https://api.box.com/2.0/folders/191086611195/items"
payload = {}
headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer '+ access_token,
    'as-user': '23183548938'
}
response = requests.request("GET", url, headers=headers, data=payload)

2:-

auth = JWTAuth.from_settings_file('/Users/deepakkumar/Desktop/aims_admin/aims_admin/config.json')
access_token = auth.authenticate_instance()
client = Client(auth)
user_to_impersonate = client.user(user_id='23183548938')
user_client = client.as_user(user_to_impersonate)
items = user_client.folder(folder_id='191086611195').get_items()

Regards

Deepak Kumar

Rui Barbosa

January 23, 2023 16:31

Hi Deepak,

I think you're just missing the last step.

The .get_items() returns an object but doesn't actually get each item:

I've slightly tweaked your example:

from boxsdk import JWTAuth, Client

def main():
   auth = JWTAuth.from_settings_file('./.jwt.config.json')
   auth.authenticate_instance()
   client = Client(auth)

   me = client.user().get()
   print(f"Service account user: {me.id}:{me.name}")

   user_id_to_impersonate = '18622116055'
   folder_of_user_to_impersonate = '191176042455'

   user_to_impersonate = client.user(user_id=user_id_to_impersonate).get()
   # the .get() is just to be able to print the impersonated user
   print(f"User to impersonate: {user_to_impersonate.id}:{user_to_impersonate.name}")

   user_client = client.as_user(user_to_impersonate)
   items = user_client.folder(folder_id=folder_of_user_to_impersonate).get_items()

   print(f"Items in folder:{items}")

   # we need a loop to actually get the items info
   for item in items:
      print(f"Item: {item.type}\t{item.id}\t{item.name}")

With the following results:

Service account user: 20344589936:UI-Elements-Sample
User to impersonate: 18622116055:Rui Barbosa
Items in folder:<boxsdk.pagination.limit_offset_based_object_collection.LimitOffsetBasedObjectCollection object at 0x103db7e20>
Item: folder    191177421988    files_to_upload
Item: file      1119062117269   file_a.txt

Cheers

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