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This script extracts metadata details for all the files and folders in any Box folder and saves the result in a CSV spreadsheet for each metadata template.

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Prerequisites

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Windows

Install the latest version of dotnet core.

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MacOS & Linux

Install PowerShell. Run the pwsh command to test the installation. 
pwsh
Depending on the directory you are running the command in, the output may differ. For example: 
PowerShell 7.2.5
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.

https://aka.ms/powershell
Type 'help' to get help.

PS /Users/user/repos/boxcli/examples>
If you encounter issues make sure you installed both dotnet core and PowerShell.

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Box CLI

To use the script, you will need the Box CLI installed and configured. You can get this done by going through our quick start guide.

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Configure the script

  1. Clone the boxcli GitHub repository and cd into this example’s folder or download the files from examples directory. 
    git clone https://github.com/box/boxcli.git
cd boxcli/examples/Metadata\ Extraction/
  2. Specify the folderID and userID parameters to tell the script which folder to scan, and who is the user running the script. 
    [string]$FolderID = "",
[string]$UserID = "",
    If you don’t want to specify the parameters directly in the script, you can either pass them as flags or allow the script to prompt you to enter them. A sample command with flags looks as follows: 
    ./Metadata-extraction.ps1 -folderId 123456789 -userId 123456789

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Run the script

  1. Run the Powershell command. 
    pwsh
  2. Run the script. 
    ./Metadata-extraction.ps1 -folderId 123456789 -userId 123456789
    When the script finishes, you will see the following output or a similar one. 
    Pulling data from Folder ID: 173961139760
metadata as user ID: 20718545815
Reading Item ID: 1016853559790
Metadata saved to: MetadataTemplate_properties.csv

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Logging

Logs are stored in a logs folder located in the main folder. You have access to these log files:
  • Metadata-extraction_all.txt that contains all log entries.
  • Metadata-extraction_errors.txt that contains only errors.