Add or Edit a Dropbox Business Source

If you have a Dropbox Business account with administrator credentials, you can index the content of your team members’ Dropbox and make it searchable through a Coveo-powered search interface. In a Coveo-powered search interface, the source content is accessible to either everyone or specific users as determined by source permissions (see Content Security).

When you create a source, you authorize the Coveo organization to read your Dropbox Business account using OAuth 2.0, a protocol that authorizes access without giving your password.

Source Key Characteristics

Features Supported Additional information
Dropbox Business version Latest cloud version Following available Dropbox Business releases
Searchable content types Teams, Accounts, Files (files and folders)
Content update operations Refresh

Takes place every three hours by default. A rebuild or security identity provider update is required to update shared folder permissions.
Rescan  
Rebuild  
Content security options Determined by source permissions If you select the Determined by source permissions option, keep in mind that Coveo Cloud can't replicate all Dropbox access permissions in your search interface. Specifically, it supports the permissions of folders shared between Dropbox users through the Dropbox sharing feature. However, it can't replicate the permissions of a folder shared through a link and permissions of files located inside a non-shared folder.
Source creator  
Everyone  

Requirements

Before configuring your source, you must ensure that your Dropbox instance is ready to work with Coveo Cloud.

Authorize Your Coveo Organization to Access the Dropbox of Your Team Members

Perform the OAuth 2.0 protocol.

Add or Edit a Dropbox Business Source

Before you start, ensure that your Dropbox Business instance meets the source requirements.

Then, when adding or editing your Dropbox Business source, follow the instructions below.

“Sign in to Dropbox” Window

When adding a source, you must first authenticate with Dropbox Business in the Sign in to Dropbox window to allow Coveo Cloud to access your content.

  1. Enter the credentials of a Dropbox Business administrator account that has access to the content you want to index, and then click Sign in.

  2. Click Allow.

“Configuration” Tab

On the Add/Edit a Dropbox Business Source subpage, the Configuration tab is selected by default. It contains your source’s general and content information, as well as other parameters.

General Information

Source Name

Enter a name for your source.

Use a short and descriptive name, using letters, numbers, hyphens (-), and underscores (_). Avoid spaces and other special characters.

Character Optical Recognition (OCR)

Check this box if you want Coveo Cloud to extract text from image files or PDF files containing images. OCR-extracted text is processed as item data, meaning that it’s fully searchable and will appear in the item Quick View. See Enable Optical Character Recognition for details on this feature.

Index

When adding a source, if you have more than one logical (non-Elasticsearch) index in your organization, select the index in which the retrieved content will be stored (see Leverage Many Coveo Indexes). If your organization only has one index, this drop-down menu isn’t visible and you have no decision to make.

  • To add a source storing content in an index different than default, you need the View access level on the Logical Index domain (see Manage Privileges and Logical Indexes Domain).

  • Once the source is added, you can’t switch to a different index.

“Content Security” Tab

Select who will be able to access the source items through a Coveo-powered search interface. For details on this parameter, see Content Security.

If you select the Determined by source permissions option, keep in mind that Coveo Cloud can’t replicate all Dropbox access permissions in your search interface. Specifically, it supports the permissions of folders shared between Dropbox users through the Dropbox sharing feature. However, it can’t replicate the permissions of a folder shared through a link and permissions of files located inside a non-shared folder.

“Access” Tab

In the Access tab, determine whether each group and API key can view or edit the source configuration (see Resource Access):

  1. In the Access Level column, select View or Edit for each available group.

  2. On the left-hand side of the tab, if available, click Groups or API Keys to switch lists.

Completion

  1. Finish adding or editing your source:

    • When you want to save your source configuration changes without starting a build/rebuild, such as when you know you want to do other changes soon, click Add Source/Save.

      To add the source content or to make your changes effective, on the Sources page, you must click Start initial build or Start required rebuild in the source Status column.

      OR

    • When you’re done editing the source and want to make changes effective, click Add and Build Source/Save and Rebuild Source.

      Back on the Sources page, you can review the progress of your source addition or modification.

    Once the source is built or rebuilt, you can review its content in the Content Browser.

  2. Optionally, consider editing or adding mappings.

    You can only manage mapping rules once you build the source (see Refresh, Rescan, or Rebuild Sources).

What’s Next?

Adapt the source update schedule to your needs.

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