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Find app user for SSO identity

Guides SSO & App users Find app user for SSO identity
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Find app user for SSO identity

When a user logs into a Box custom application with their SSO provider, the first step that should be taken is to see if that user already exists from a previous login attempt where a Box user record was already created.

If a Box user is found you should create a user access token, or make as user calls, to access Box APIs as that user.

If a Box user is not found you should create a new user with an association to the SSO user record.

To search for existing users the List Enterprise Users endpoint may be used. Depending on whether you're using the external_app_user_id or login method your query will look slightly different.

Find user by external_app_user_id

To search for enterprise users by the stored external_app_user_id value you will need one piece of information from the SSO provider:

  • UID (required): The unique identifier from the SSO user record.

Once available, make a request to the list enterprise users endpoint, supplying the external_app_user_id definition in the parameters.

You can retrieve app users for a specific application only if such app users were created by this application. If you use one application to search for users created by a different one, no data will be returned.

Node
const ssoUID = 'SSO User Unique ID';

// Check enterprise users for matching external_app_user_id against SSO UID
client.enterprise.getUsers({ "external_app_user_id": ssoUID })
.then((users) => {
    if (users.total_count > 0) {
        // User found, fetch user ID
        const userId = users.entries[0].id;
    } else {
        // User not found - create new user record
    }
});
Java
String ssoUID = "SSO User Unique ID";

// Check enterprise users for matching external_app_user_id against SSO UID
URL url = new URL("https://api.box.com/2.0/users?external_app_user_id=" + ssoUID);
BoxAPIRequest request = new BoxAPIRequest(client, url, "GET");
BoxJSONResponse jsonResponse = (BoxJSONResponse) request.send();
JsonObject jsonObj = jsonResponse.getJsonObject();
JsonValue totalCount = jsonObj.get("total_count");

if (totalCount.asInt() > 0) {
    // User found, fetch
    // Fetch user ID
    JsonArray entries = (JsonArray) jsonObj.get("entries");
    JsonObject userRecord = (JsonObject) entries.get(0);
    JsonValue userId = userRecord.get("id");
} else {
    // User not found - create new user record
}
Python
sso_uid = 'SSO User Unique ID'

# Validate is user exists
url = f'https://api.box.com/2.0/users?external_app_user_id={sso_uid}'
headers = {'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + access_token}
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
user_info = response.json()

if (user_info['total_count'] == 0):
    # User not found - create new user record
else:
    # User found, fetch user ID
    user = user_info['entries'][0]
    user_id = user['id']

Find user by email address

To search for enterprise users by their login email you will need one piece of information from the SSO provider:

  • Email (required): The unique email from the SSO user record.

Once available, make a request to the list enterprise users endpoint, supplying the email address as the filter_term, which is made available to search by email or name.

Node
const ssoEmail = 'ssouser@email.com';

client.enterprise.getUsers({filter_term: ssoEmail})
    .then(users => {
        if (users.total_count > 0) {
            // User found, fetch user ID
            const userId = users.entries[0].id;
        } else {
            // User not found - create new user record
        }
    });
Java
String ssoEmail = "ssouser@email.com";

Iterable<BoxUser.Info> users = BoxUser.getAllEnterpriseUsers(client, ssoEmail);
Python
sso_email = 'ssouser@email.com'

users = client.users(user_type='all', filter_term=ssoEmail)
if (users['total_count'] == 0):
    # User not found - create new user record
else:
    # User found, fetch user ID
    user = users['entries'][0]
    user_id = user['id']