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Elastic Dropbox connector referenceedit

The Elastic Dropbox connector is a connector for Dropbox. This connector is written in Python using the Elastic connector framework.

View the source code for this connector (branch 8.13, compatible with Elastic 8.13).

Choose your connector reference

Are you using a native connector on Elastic Cloud or a self-managed connector client? Expand the documentation based on your deployment method.

Native connector (Elastic Cloud)edit

View native connector reference

Availability and prerequisitesedit

This connector is available as a native connector in Elastic versions 8.10.0 and later.

To use this connector natively in Elastic Cloud, satisfy all native connector requirements.

Create a Dropbox connectoredit

Use the UIedit

To create a new Dropbox connector:

  1. Navigate to the Search → Connectors page in the Kibana UI.
  2. Follow the instructions to create a new native Dropbox connector.

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

Use the APIedit

You can use the Elasticsearch Create connector API to create a new native Dropbox connector.

For example:

PUT _connector/<my-dropbox-connector>
{
  "index_name": "<my-elasticsearch-index>",
  "name": "Content synced from Dropbox",
  "service_type": "dropbox",
  "is_native": "true"
}
You’ll also need to create an API key for the connector to use.

The user needs the cluster privileges manage_api_key and write_connector_secrets to generate API keys programmatically.

To create an API key for the connector:

  1. Run the following command, replacing values where indicated. Note the id and encoded return values from the response:

    POST /_security/api_key
{
  "name": "<connector_name>-connector-api-key",
  "role_descriptors": {
    "<connector_name>-connector-role": {
      "cluster": [
        "monitor"
      ],
      "indices": [
        {
          "names": [
            "<index_name>",
            ".search-acl-filter-<index_name>",
            ".elastic-connectors-v1*"
          ],
          "privileges": [
            "all"
          ],
          "allow_restricted_indices": false
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

  2. Use the encoded value to store a connector secret, and note the id return value from this response:

    POST _connector/_secret
{
  "value": <encoded_api_key>
}

  3. Use the API key id and the connector secret id to update the connector:

    PUT /_connector/<connector_id>/_api_key_id
{
  "api_key_id": "<API key id>",
  "api_key_secret_id": "<secret id>"
}

Refer to the Elasticsearch API documentation for details of all available Connector APIs.

Usageedit

To use this connector as a native connector, see Native connectors (managed service).

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

Before you can configure your connector, you’ll need to:

Dropbox API Authorizationedit

Create Dropbox OAuth Appedit

You’ll need to create an OAuth app in the Dropbox platform by following these steps:

  1. Register a new app in the Dropbox App Console. Select Full Dropbox API app and choose the following required permissions:

    • files.content.read
    • sharing.read
  2. Once the app is created, make note of the app key and app secret values which you’ll need to configure the Dropbox connector on your Elastic deployment.
Generate a refresh Tokenedit

To generate a refresh token, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the following URL, replacing <APP_KEY> with the app key value saved earlier: https://www.dropbox.com/oauth2/authorize?client_id=<APP_KEY>&response_type=code&token_access_type=offline

    The HTTP response should contain an authorization code that you’ll use to generate a refresh token. An authorization code can only be used once to create a refresh token.

  2. In your terminal, run the following cURL command, replacing <AUTHORIZATION_CODE>, <APP_KEY>:<APP_SECRET> with the values you saved earlier:

    curl -X POST "https://api.dropboxapi.com/oauth2/token?code=<AUTHORIZATION_CODE>&grant_type=authorization_code" -u "<APP_KEY>:<APP_SECRET>"

    Store the refresh token from the response to be used in the connector configuration.

    Make sure the response has a list of the following scopes:

    • account_info.read
    • files.content.read
    • files.metadata.read
    • sharing.read

Configurationedit

The following configuration fields are required to set up the connector:

Path to fetch files/folders

The folder path to fetch files/folders from Dropbox. Default value is /.

This field can be bypassed by advanced sync rules.

App key
The App Key to authenticate your Dropbox application.
App secret
The App Secret to authenticate your Dropbox application.
Refresh token
The refresh token to authenticate your Dropbox application.
Enable document level security
Toggle to enable document level security (DLS). When enabled, full syncs will fetch access control lists for each document and store them in the _allow_access_control field.
Include groups and inherited users
Appears when document level security is enabled. Include groups and inherited users when indexing permissions.

Enabling Include groups and inherited users will cause a signficant performance degradation.

Documents and syncsedit

The connector syncs the following objects and entities:

  • Files

    • Includes metadata such as file name, path, size, content, etc.
  • Folders

Due to a Dropbox issue, metadata updates to Paper files from Dropbox Paper are not immediately reflected in the Dropbox UI. This delays the availability of updated results for the connector. Once the metadata changes are visible in the Dropbox UI, the updates are available.

  • Files bigger than 10 MB won’t be extracted.
  • Currently, the connector doesn’t retrieve files from shared Team folders.
  • Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elastic Deployment.
Sync typesedit

Full syncs are supported by default for all connectors.

This connector also supports incremental syncs, but this feature is currently disabled by default. Refer to the linked documentation for enabling incremental syncs.

Sync rulesedit

Basic sync rules are identical for all connectors and are available by default.

Advanced sync rulesedit

A full sync is required for advanced sync rules to take effect.

The following section describes advanced sync rules for this connector.

Advanced sync rules for Dropbox allow you to sync Dropbox files based on a query that matches strings in the filename. You can optionally filter the results of the query by file_extensions or file_categories. When both are provided, priority is given to file_categories. We have some examples below for illustration.

Example: Query onlyedit
[
  {
    "query": "confidential"
  },
  {
    "query": "dropbox"
  }
]
Example: Query with file extension filteredit
[
  {
    "query": "dropbox",
    "options": {
      "file_extensions": [
        "txt",
        "pdf"
      ]
    }
  }
]
Example: Query with file category filteredit
[
  {
    "query": "test",
    "options": {
      "file_categories": [
        {
          ".tag": "paper"
        },
        {
          ".tag": "png"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
]
Limitationsedit
  • Content extraction is not supported for Dropbox Paper files when advanced sync rules are enabled.

Known issuesedit

Refer to Known issues for a list of known issues for all connectors.

Troubleshootingedit

See Troubleshooting for a list of troubleshooting tips for all connectors.

Securityedit

See Security for a list of security tips for all connectors.

Content extractionedit

See Content extraction.

Connector client (self-managed)edit

View connector client reference

Availability and prerequisitesedit

This connector is available as a self-managed connector client.

This connector client is compatible with Elastic versions 8.9.0+.

To use this connector, satisfy all connector client requirements.

Create a Dropbox connectoredit

Use the UIedit

To create a new Dropbox connector:

  1. Navigate to the Search → Connectors page in the Kibana UI.
  2. Follow the instructions to create a new Dropbox connector client.

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

Use the APIedit

You can use the Elasticsearch Create connector API to create a new self-managed Dropbox connector client.

For example:

PUT _connector/my-dropbox-connector
{
  "index_name": "my-elasticsearch-index",
  "name": "Content synced from Dropbox",
  "service_type": "dropbox"
}
You’ll also need to create an API key for the connector to use.

The user needs the cluster privileges manage_api_key and write_connector_secrets to generate API keys programmatically.

To create an API key for the connector:

  1. Run the following command, replacing values where indicated. Note the encoded return values from the response:

    POST /_security/api_key
{
  "name": "<connector_name>-connector-api-key",
  "role_descriptors": {
    "<connector_name>-connector-role": {
      "cluster": [
        "monitor"
      ],
      "indices": [
        {
          "names": [
            "<index_name>",
            ".search-acl-filter-<index_name>",
            ".elastic-connectors-v1*"
          ],
          "privileges": [
            "all"
          ],
          "allow_restricted_indices": false
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}
  2. Update your config.yml file with the API key encoded value.

Refer to the Elasticsearch API documentation for details of all available Connector APIs.

Usageedit

Before you can configure your connector, you’ll need to:

To use this connector as a connector client, see Connector clients (self-managed) Once set up, for additional usage operations, see Using connectors.

Dropbox API Authorizationedit

Create Dropbox OAuth Appedit

You’ll need to create an OAuth app in the Dropbox platform by following these steps:

  1. Register a new app in the Dropbox App Console. Select Full Dropbox API app and choose the following required permissions:

    • files.content.read
    • sharing.read
  2. Once the app is created, make note of the app key and app secret values which you’ll need to configure the Dropbox connector on your Elastic deployment.
Generate a refresh Tokenedit

To generate a refresh token, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the following URL, replacing <APP_KEY> with the app key value saved earlier: https://www.dropbox.com/oauth2/authorize?client_id=<APP_KEY>&response_type=code&token_access_type=offline

    The HTTP response should contain an authorization code that you’ll use to generate a refresh token. An authorization code can only be used once to create a refresh token.

  2. In your terminal, run the following cURL command, replacing <AUTHORIZATION_CODE>, <APP_KEY>:<APP_SECRET> with the values you saved earlier:

    curl -X POST "https://api.dropboxapi.com/oauth2/token?code=<AUTHORIZATION_CODE>&grant_type=authorization_code" -u "<APP_KEY>:<APP_SECRET>"

    Store the refresh token from the response to be used in the connector configuration.

    Make sure the response has a list of the following scopes:

    • account_info.read
    • files.content.read
    • files.metadata.read
    • sharing.read

Configurationedit

When using the connector client workflow, initially these fields will use the default configuration set in the connector source code. These are set in the get_default_configuration function definition.

These configurable fields will be rendered with their respective labels in the Kibana UI. Once connected, you’ll be able to update these values in Kibana.

The following configuration fields are required to set up the connector:

path
The folder path to fetch files/folders from Dropbox. Default value is /.
app_key (required)
The App Key to authenticate your Dropbox application.
app_secret (required)
The App Secret to authenticate your Dropbox application.
refresh_token (required)
The refresh token to authenticate your Dropbox application.
retry_count
The number of retry attempts after a failed request to Dropbox. Default value is 3.
concurrent_downloads
The number of concurrent downloads for fetching attachment content. This can help speed up content extraction of attachments. Defaults to 100.
use_text_extraction_service
Requires a separate deployment of the Elastic Text Extraction Service. Requires that pipeline settings disable text extraction. Default value is False.
use_document_level_security
Toggle to enable document level security (DLS). When enabled, full syncs will fetch access control lists for each document and store them in the _allow_access_control field.
include_inherited_users_and_groups
Depends on document level security being enabled. Include groups and inherited users when indexing permissions.

Enabling Include groups and inherited users will cause a signficant performance degradation.

Deployment using Dockeredit

You can deploy the Dropbox connector as a self-managed connector client using Docker. Follow these instructions.

Step 1: Download sample configuration file

Download the sample configuration file. You can either download it manually or run the following command:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/connectors/main/config.yml.example --output ~/connectors-config/config.yml

Remember to update the --output argument value if your directory name is different, or you want to use a different config file name.

Step 2: Update the configuration file for your self-managed connector

Update the configuration file with the following settings to match your environment:

  • elasticsearch.host
  • elasticsearch.api_key
  • connectors

If you’re running the connector service against a Dockerized version of Elasticsearch and Kibana, your config file will look like this:

# When connecting to your cloud deployment you should edit the host value
elasticsearch.host: http://host.docker.internal:9200
elasticsearch.api_key: <ELASTICSEARCH_API_KEY>

connectors:
  -
    connector_id: <CONNECTOR_ID_FROM_KIBANA>
    service_type: dropbox
    api_key: <CONNECTOR_API_KEY_FROM_KIBANA> # Optional. If not provided, the connector will use the elasticsearch.api_key instead

Using the elasticsearch.api_key is the recommended authentication method. However, you can also use elasticsearch.username and elasticsearch.password to authenticate with your Elasticsearch instance.

Note: You can change other default configurations by simply uncommenting specific settings in the configuration file and modifying their values.

Step 3: Run the Docker image

Run the Docker image with the Connector Service using the following command:

docker run \
-v ~/connectors-config:/config \
--network "elastic" \
--tty \
--rm \
docker.elastic.co/enterprise-search/elastic-connectors:8.13.2.0 \
/app/bin/elastic-ingest \
-c /config/config.yml

Refer to DOCKER.md in the elastic/connectors repo for more details.

Find all available Docker images in the official registry.

We also have a quickstart self-managed option using Docker Compose, so you can spin up all required services at once: Elasticsearch, Kibana, and the connectors service. Refer to this README in the elastic/connectors repo for more information.

Documents and syncsedit

The connector syncs the following objects and entities:

  • Files

    • Includes metadata such as file name, path, size, content, etc.
  • Folders

Due to a Dropbox issue, metadata updates to Paper files from Dropbox Paper are not immediately reflected in the Dropbox UI. This delays the availability of updated results for the connector. Once the metadata changes are visible in the Dropbox UI, the updates are available.

  • Files bigger than 10 MB won’t be extracted.
  • Currently, the connector doesn’t retrieve files from shared Team folders.
  • Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elastic Deployment.
Sync typesedit

Full syncs are supported by default for all connectors.

This connector also supports incremental syncs, but this feature is currently disabled by default. Refer to the linked documentation for enabling incremental syncs.

Sync rulesedit

Basic sync rules are identical for all connectors and are available by default.

Advanced sync rulesedit

A full sync is required for advanced sync rules to take effect.

The following section describes advanced sync rules for this connector.

Advanced sync rules for Dropbox allow you to sync Dropbox files based on a query that matches strings in the filename. You can optionally filter the results of the query by file_extensions or file_categories. When both are provided, priority is given to file_categories. We have some examples below for illustration.

Example: Query onlyedit
[
  {
    "query": "confidential"
  },
  {
    "query": "dropbox"
  }
]
Example: Query with file extension filteredit
[
  {
    "query": "dropbox",
    "options": {
      "file_extensions": [
        "txt",
        "pdf"
      ]
    }
  }
]
Example: Query with file category filteredit
[
  {
    "query": "test",
    "options": {
      "file_categories": [
        {
          ".tag": "paper"
        },
        {
          ".tag": "png"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
]
Limitationsedit
  • Content extraction is not supported for Dropbox Paper files when advanced sync rules are enabled.

End-to-end Testingedit

The connector framework enables operators to run functional tests against a real data source. Refer to Connector testing for more details.

To perform E2E testing for the Dropbox connector, run the following command:

$ make ftest NAME=dropbox

For faster tests, add the DATA_SIZE=small flag:

make ftest NAME=dropbox DATA_SIZE=small

Known issuesedit

Refer to Known issues for a list of known issues for all connectors.

Troubleshootingedit

See Troubleshooting for a list of troubleshooting tips for all connectors.

Securityedit

See Security for a list of security tips for all connectors.

Content extractionedit

See Content extraction.

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