ℹ️ For new users, we recommend using our native Elasticsearch tools, rather than the standalone Workplace Search product. We are actively developing new features and capabilities in the Elastic Stack to help you build powerful search applications. Refer to this blog post for more information.

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Connecting Dropbox

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Connecting Dropbox

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Use the Workplace Search Dropbox connector to automatically capture, sync and index the following items from your Dropbox service:

Stored Files	Including ID, File Metadata, File Content, Updated by, and timestamps
Dropbox Paper	Including ID, Metadata, Content, Updated by, and timestamps

This document helps you configure and connect your Dropbox service to Workplace Search. To do this, you must register your Elastic deployment in the Dropbox Developer platform, by creating an OAuth 2.0 app. This gives your app permission to access Dropbox data. You will need your Workplace Search OAuth redirect URL, so have that handy.

If you need a primer on OAuth, read the official OAuth 2.0 authorization flow RFC. The diagrams provide a good mental model of the protocol flow. Dropbox also has its own OAuth guide.

There are two high-level steps to complete:

Configuring the Dropbox Connector

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To register your Elastic deployment with Dropbox, create a new OAuth app in your organization’s Dropbox developer platform. Make sure to use a trusted and stable Dropbox account.
Provide basic information about the app and define the access scopes, or specific permissions, the app needs to interact with Dropbox. A good rule of thumb is that these should be read-only permissions. Choose only the following permissions:
- files.content.read
- sharing.read
- account_info.read
- files.metadata.read
  
  To fetch document-level permissions, you must create an OAuth App using a team-owned (Dropbox Business) account. Enable document-level permissions by adding the following permissions:
- team_info.read
- team_data.member
- team_data.team_space
- members.read
Register a redirect URL for the app to use. This is where the OAuth 2.0 service will return the user after they authorize the application. This is the Workplace Search OAuth redirect URL for your deployment. This must be a https endpoint for production use cases. Only use http for local development.
Find and record the client_id and client_secret for the app. Dropbox calls these App Key and App Secret.
Switch back to your organization’s Workplace Search administrative dashboard
In the Sources —> Add Source tab, add a new Dropbox source
Configure the service with Workplace Search using the App Key and App Secret.

Your Dropbox service is now configured, and you can connect it to Workplace Search.

Connecting Dropbox to Workplace Search

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Once the Dropbox connector is configured, you can connect a Dropbox instance to your organization’s Workplace Search deployment.

Follow the Dropbox authentication flow as presented in the Workplace Search administrative dashboard.
If the authentication flow succeeds, you will be redirected to Workplace Search.

Your Dropbox content becomes searchable as soon as syncing starts. Once configured and connected, Dropbox synchronizes automatically every 2 hours.

Limiting the content to be indexed

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If you don’t need to index all available content, you can use the API to apply indexing rules. This reduces indexing load and overall index size. See Customizing indexing.

The path_template and file_extension rules are applicable for Dropbox.

Synchronized fields

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The following table lists the fields synchronized from the connected source to Workplace Search. The attributes in the table apply to the default search application, as follows:

Display name - The label used when displayed in the UI
Field name - The name of the underlying field attribute
Faceted filter - whether the field is a faceted filter by default, or can be enabled (see also: Customizing filters)
Automatic query refinement preceding phrases - The default list of phrases that must precede a value of this field in a search query in order to automatically trigger query refinement. If "None," a value from this field may trigger refinement regardless of where it is found in the query string. If '', a value from this field must be the first token(s) in the query string. If N.A., automatic query refinement is not available for this field by default. All fields that have a faceted filter (default or configurable) can also be configured for automatic query refinement; see also Update a content source, Get a content source’s automatic query refinement details and Customizing filters.

Display name	Field name	Faceted filter	Automatic query refinement preceding phrases
Id	`id`	No	N.A.
URL	`url`	No	N.A.
Title	`title`	No	N.A.
Type	`type`	Default	None
Path	`path`	No	N.A.
Updated at	`updated_at`	No	N.A.
Last updated	`last_updated`	No	N.A.
Size	`size`	No	N.A.
Updated by	`updated_by`	Configurable	[`edited by`, `updated by`, `modified by`]
Updated by email	`updated_by_email`	Configurable	[`edited by`, `updated by`, `modified by`]
Media type	`mime_type`	Default	None
Extension	`extension`	Default	None

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