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UI Elements can be used either by downloading the Javascript libraries directly from the Box CDN or by installing our NPM package. All UI Elements require their corresponding CSS stylesheet to render properly.

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Prerequisites

To use Box UI Elements, you need the following Node and React versions:
  • Node version: >=18.18.2 <20.11.0
  • React version >=18.0.0
The available versions of UI elements are listed in the manual installation section.

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Migration to React 18

For existing projects based on React 17 or below, check the React 18 migration guide. Once you upgrade React in your project, update the box-ui-elements package with npm or yarn: 
npm install box-ui-elements --legacy-peer-deps

yarn add box-ui-elements
This should result in updated version in the package.json file: 
"box-ui-elements": "^23.0.0"
No additional changes related to Box UI elements are required in your code. For more information, check the blog post about React 18 upgrade for UI elements.

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NPM installation

Use this when you are building a React based app and would like to import the components directly into your app at build time.
Note The --legacy-peer-deps flag is necessary when installing UI elements with npm due to library dependencies. 
npm install box-ui-elements --legacy-peer-deps
yarn add box-ui-elements

Learn more on the NPM website

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Content Preview

Use the Content Preview SDK if you need a specific version of the preview library. Otherwise, use Content Preview UI Element wrapper.

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Manual installation

All the UI elements are also available directly from the Box CDN.
ElementVersionFile
Content Explorer23.0.0CSS https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/explorer.css
JS with React https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/explorer.js
JS without React https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/explorer.no.react.js
Content Open With23.0.0CSS https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/openwith.css
JS with React https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/openwith.js
JS without React https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/openwith.no.react.js
Content Picker23.0.0CSS https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/picker.css
JS with React https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/picker.js
JS without React https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/picker.no.react.js
Content Sidebar23.0.0CSS https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/sidebar.css
JS with React https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/sidebar.js
JS without React https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/sidebar.no.react.js
Content Uploader23.0.0CSS https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/uploader.css
JS with React https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/uploader.js
JS without React https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/uploader.no.react.js
Content Preview UI Element23.0.0CSS https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/preview.css
23.0.0JS https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/23.0.0/en-US/preview.js
Content Preview SDK2.106.0CSS https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/preview/2.106.0/en-US/preview.css
JS https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/preview/2.106.0/en-US/preview.js
Use these links to either download the elements code to your application’s code, or embed them straight into your page from the CDN. 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
  <head>
    <!-- Latest version of the explorer css for your locale -->
    <link
      rel="stylesheet"
      href="https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/{VERSION}/en-US/explorer.css"
    />
  </head>
  <body>
    <!-- Latest version of the explorer js for your locale -->
    <script src="https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/elements/{VERSION}/en-US/explorer.js"></script>
    ...
  </body>
</html>
For Box Preview, the sample would look slightly different. 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>Box Content Preview Demo</title>

    <!-- Latest version of Box Content Preview for en-US locale -->
    <script src="https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/preview/{VERSION}/en-US/preview.js"></script>
    <link
      rel="stylesheet"
      href="https://cdn01.boxcdn.net/platform/preview/{VERSION}/en-US/preview.css"
    />
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="preview-container" style="height:400px; width:100%;"></div>
    <script>
      var preview = new Box.Preview();
      preview.show("93392244621", "EqFyi1Yq1tD9mxY8F38sxDfp73pFd7FP", {
        container: ".preview-container",
        showDownload: true,
      });
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

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Versions

Most of the UI elements have 2 distinct versions.
  • A standard *.js file (e.g. explore.js) that includes React and ReactDOM in the bundle.
    • Use this when you are not building a React based app or you don’t want to include the components as part of your app’s build process.
    • It includes React and ReactDOM libraries.
    • The file size of this asset will be larger than the one below.
  • A smaller *.no.react.js file (e.g. explore.no.react.js) that does not get bundled with React and ReactDOM.
    • Use this when both React and ReactDOM libraries are already loaded on the application.
    • These libraries expect a React and ReactDOM >= 16.6 and < 18.

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Supported Locales

The above asset URLs use en-US. If you want to use another locale, then replace en-US in the URLs above with any of the following: en-AU, en-CA, en-GB, da-DK, de-DE, es-ES, fi-FI, fr-CA, fr-FR, it-IT, ja-JP,, ko-KR, nb-NO, nl-NL, pl-PL, pt-BR, ru-RU, sv-SE, tr-TR, zh-CN, zh-TW

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Self-hosting Content Preview

To serve the Box Content Preview library from your own server, follow these steps.

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1. Download release

Either fork the repository and check out the version you want to serve or download the specific version as a zip.
  • Check out a specific version with git checkout v2.106.0.
  • Download a specific version as a zip from the releases page.

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2. Install dependencies

Install the dependencies and build the library with the following command. 
yarn install && yarn build:i18n && yarn build:prod

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3. Serve files

Self-serve everything except for the dev folder from the /dist folder. You must not alter the folder structure and third-party needs to be in the same folder as 2.106.0. For example, if you self-host using a box-assets directory, these URLs must be accessible:
  • https://cdn.YOUR_SITE.com/box-assets/2.106.0/en-US/preview.js
  • https://cdn.YOUR_SITE.com/box-assets/third-party/text/2.65.0/papaparse.min.js
  • https://cdn.YOUR_SITE.com/box-assets/third-party/model3d/1.12.0/three.min.js

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Authentication

In order to initialize any of the UI Elements, an application will need to provide a valid Access Token.

Learn how to authenticate an application

 It is also recommended to downscope an Access Token before passing it into an insecure environment (the user’s web browser). UI Elements only expect any Access Token to be passed in for authentication, and can therefore be used for any type of authentication available from Box Platform. For testing purposes, a Developer Token can be used.

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CORS

To use UI Elements, an application needs to allow the domain the widget is used on for Cross Origin Resource sharing. See the CORS guide for more details.

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Source Code & Releases

Source code for Box UI Elements is hosted on GitHub. The repository contains detailed documentation for usage and development. Please file any bugs you encounter under the “Issues” tab with clear steps to reproduce. This repository also holds a list of releases.