Ready to visualize and track your Box data? Get started by setting up a connection between PowerMetrics and your Box account and adding one (or more) data feeds.
When you're finished adding Box data feeds, you'll use them to power your custom metrics.
This article includes:
Note: If you have trouble sharing your folders and files publicly, make sure the administrator of your Box account has provided you with permission. If you're the administrator of your Box account, you can find the related settings on your Enterprise Settings page under Content and Sharing. Enable External links to folders and files and set access options to Open, Company and Collaborators. Make sure you save your selected settings.
Creating a Box data feed
When you create a Box data feed, you:
Connecting PowerMetrics to your Box account
The first step in creating a Box data feed is to connect PowerMetrics to your account.
Here are a couple things to note:
Your data is safe with us. The first time you connect your Box account to PowerMetrics, you'll be prompted to enter your Box login credentials and give permission to allow access to the data within your Box account. We are serious about protecting your data privacy.
Managing your connections. By default, your connection name looks like this: yourname@Box<date and time created>. You can modify the default connection name when you create a new connection or from your list of connections, accessed by clicking the 
button in the left navigation sidebar and selecting Connections. Each time you connect to Box, you can use the same account (or switch to a different account if needed). If you have trouble accessing an existing connection, your OAuth token may have expired. If that happens to you, go here for help.
To connect PowerMetrics to your Box account:
- In the left navigation sidebar, click the + button beside Data Feeds.
- Click Select data.
- On the Where is your data? page, select Box. (See below.)
-
If this is your first time connecting to Box:
- Click Connect an account. Enter your Box login credentials and click Authorize. Then, click Grant access to Box. Click Continue.
-
If you've connected to Box before:
- Select an existing connection from the drop-down list and click Continue.
Next step - Choosing data for the data feed.
Choosing data for the data feed
To choose data for the data feed:
- On the Configure data service page, select the desired file.
- Click Get data.
- Ensure this is the data you're looking for and, then, click Continue.
Note: If you're uploading a multi-sheet file, use the Sheet selector to choose the sheet to show by default when you enter the data feed editor. (See below.) You can also switch between sheets in the editor by double-clicking a column header in the data feed table. This opens the raw data, where, under Sheet, you can choose the sheet you want to work with from the drop-down list.
- You're taken to the data feed editor, where you can either save the data as-is or modify it. If you want to modify the data feed, go to this article for detailed editing information.
- Click Save data feed.
The data feed is added to your account and is ready to use for custom metrics. To see a list of all your data feeds, click Data Feeds in the left navigation sidebar.
Next steps - Creating Box custom metrics
Now that you've created one or more Box data feeds, you can return to them and use them to make custom metrics. A single data feed can be used to create a single or multiple custom metrics.
To create custom metrics using a data feed:
- In the left navigation sidebar, click Data Feeds to open your list of data feeds.
- Select the data feed you want to use for your custom metric.
- Click either the +Add metric button in the top right corner of the window or open the Metrics tab and click +Add metric. (See below.)
- Choose settings for your custom metric and click Save metric. If you need help, go here to learn more.
The metric opens in its overview page and is added to your list of metrics (accessed by clicking Metrics in the left navigation sidebar).
Now you're ready to start interacting with and learning from your metric data!