Using PowerShell Scripts with the Box CLI
Using PowerShell Scripts with the Box CLI
By itself, the CLI is already powerful, but using it alongside a PowerShell script lets you complete repetitive tasks even quicker. We created an example scripts folder within our CLI GitHub repository to help jump start your development.
To show you how CLI scripts work, we are going to use the provision and create users script template.
This script uses the Box CLI to build and create an onboarding folder structure, create managed users in bulk, and provision such new users by adding them to the newly created folder structure as collaborators with viewer or uploader roles.
Use case
To automatically create users and folder structure, the script performs the following steps:
- Uses a
.csvfile to load employee data in bulk. - Defines folder structure using a JSON file or uploads the structure from the user's local directory.
- Creates a managed user a predetermined folder structure to each user.
Prerequisites
Windows
Install the latest version of dotnet core.
MacOS & Linux
Install PowerShell
Configured Box application
You should have a Box application created. If you haven't done so yet, see step 1 of this quick start guide. Alternatively, go to your developer console, and follow the guide Setup with OAuth 2.0.
Download the script
Clone the script to a directory of your choice and navigate to that directory.
git clone https://github.com/box/boxcli.git box-cli
cd box-cli/examples/User\ Creation\ \&\ Provisioning/
Configure the script settings
Adapt the script to run in your own environment. In this example, you will use the sample data provided with the script.
Prepare the user list
You can use the following sample files to load users:
Employees_1.csv, Employees_5.csv, and Employees_10.csv.
Each will load 1, 5 or 10 new users.
Customize these files for a test run. For example, update the
Employees_1.csv with the following data:
firstName,lastName,email
Isaac,Newton,abc@abc.local
In the Users_Create_Provision.ps1 script file, specify which .csv
file you would like to load.
#Set Employee List CSV Path
$EmployeeList = "./Employees_1.csv"
Create folder structure
You can either create a folder structure from a JSON file or upload it from your local drive.
Use a JSON file
The Folder_Structure.json file contains the folder structure you want to create.
As an example you will create a Market Research and a Sales Plays
folder, each with a subfolder Statistics and Big Pharma respectively.
The script will place this folder structure
under the Onboarding folder.
#First create Onboarding folder owned by current user
$script:OnboardingFolderId = box folders:create 0 "Onboarding" --id-only
Write-Output "Created a user owned Onboarding folder with id: $($OnboardingFolderId)"
Provide the location of the Folder_Structure.json file.
#Onboarding Folder Structure: Set either path build off JSON or directly
# upload a local folder
$FolderStructureJSONPath = "./Folder_Structure.json"
#$LocalUploadPath = "./OnboardingLocalUpload"
Upload file from local drive
You can also upload a folder structure directly from the local file system:
- Set the path to your local folder:
#Onboarding Folder Structure: Set either path build off JSON or directly
# upload a local folder
#$FolderStructureJSONPath = "./Folder_Structure.json"
$LocalUploadPath = "./OnboardingLocalUpload"
- Comment the
New-Folder-Structurecall, and uncomment the next section:
#Create Folder Structure from JSON
#New-Folder-Structure
#OR directly upload Folder structure to current user's root folder
# from local directory
$script:OnboardingFolderId = box folders:upload $LocalUploadPath --id-only
Write-Output "Uploaded local folder structre to current user's root folder
with $($script:OnboardingFolderId)"
Run the script
- Change the directory to the folder containing the script.
In this example, it is the
User Creation & Provisioningfolder.
rvb@lab:~/box-cli/examples/User Creation & Provisioning$ pwsh
PowerShell 7.2.4
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.
https://aka.ms/powershell
Type 'help' to get help.
/home/rvb/box-cli/examples/User Creation & Provisioning>
- Run the script:
PS /home/rvb/box-cli/examples/User Creation & Provisioning> ./Users_Create_Provision.ps1
The response will be similar to the following:
Starting User Creation & Provisioning script...
firstName lastName email
--------- -------- -----
Isaac Newton abc@abc.local
Extracting folder structure
Found current User ID: 18622116055
Created a user owned Onboarding folder with id: 164734146745
Created subfolder Market Research under Onboarding folder with id: 164735375585
Created subfolder under Statistics folder with id: 164734956242
Created subfolder Sales Plays under Onboarding folder with id: 164735683001
Created subfolder under Big Pharma folder with id: 164736160637
Creating employee Managed User account with first name:
Isaac, last name: Newton, email: abc@abc.local, and
Created Managed user with id: 19605663027
Type: collaboration
ID: '37250833128'
Created By:
Type: user
ID: '18622116055'
Name: Rui Barbosa
Login: barduinor@gmail.com
Created At: '2022-06-07T13:58:05-07:00'
Modified At: '2022-06-07T13:58:05-07:00'
Expires At: null
Status: accepted
Accessible By:
Type: user
ID: '19605663027'
Name: Isaac Newton
Login: abc@abc.local
Invite Email: null
Role: viewer uploader
Acknowledged At: '2022-06-07T13:58:05-07:00'
Item:
Type: folder
ID: '164734146745'
Sequence ID: '0'
ETag: '0'
Name: Onboarding
Collaborated Managed User Isaac Newton to current users
Onboarding folder for provisioning
Summary
You explored automation using a PowerShell script with the Box CLI to provision users and create an initial folder structure.