Integrate Live Box Data into Custom Business Apps Built in Power Apps

Power Apps is a service for building and using custom business apps that connect to your data and work across the web and mobile — without the time and expense of custom software development. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Box data from the apps you build using Power Apps. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from Power Apps and build an app based on live Box data.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Box, allowing you to easily integrate with live Box data in Power Apps — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Apps and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Box, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Box data.

Configure Box Connectivity for Power Apps

Connectivity to Box from Power Apps is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Box data from Power Apps, we start by creating and configuring a Box connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "Box" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Box.

   Box uses the OAuth standard to authenticate. To authenticate to Box, obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL by registering an app. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Box Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Box data from Power Apps.

Connecting to CData Connect AI

To use Connect AI to integrate Box data into your Power Apps, you need a new SQL Server connection:

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Dataverse -> Connections -> New connection
3. Select SQL Server
4. In the connection wizard:
   
   
   • Choose to connect directly
   • Set SQL server name to tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Set SQL database name to the name of the Box connection (e.g. Box1)
   • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   • Click Create

Building a Data-Centric App for Box Data

With the connection to Connect AI configured, you are ready to integrate live Box data into the apps you build in Power Apps.

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Create and select "SQL"
3. Select the SQL Server connection you created
4. Search for or choose a table to work with
5. Click Connect
6. Customize the newly created app just like you would any other, including changing the layout and setting the fields exposed in BrowseScreen, DetailScreen, and EditScreen

At this point, you have an app with read and write access to live Box data that you can save and publish for use within your organization.

SQL Access to Box Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Box data from Microsoft Power Apps. You can create more connections and apps to drive business — all without replicating Box data.

To get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.