Dropbox - Amazon Kendra
Supported featuresPrerequisitesConnection instructionsLearn more

Dropbox

Dropbox is a file hosting service that offers cloud storage, document organization, and document templating services. If you are a Dropbox user, you can use Amazon Kendra to index your Dropbox files, Dropbox Paper, Dropbox Paper Templates, and stored shortcuts to web pages. You can also configure Amazon Kendra to index specific Dropbox files, Dropbox Paper, Dropbox Paper Templates, and stored shortcuts to web pages.

Amazon Kendra supports both Dropbox and Dropbox Advanced for Dropbox Business.

You can connect Amazon Kendra to your Dropbox data source using the Amazon Kendra console and the TemplateConfiguration API.

For troubleshooting your Amazon Kendra Dropbox data source connector, see Troubleshooting data sources.

Supported features

Amazon Kendra Dropbox data source connector supports the following features:

  • Field mappings

  • User access control

  • Inclusion/exclusion filters

  • Full and incremental content syncs

  • Virtual private cloud (VPC)

Prerequisites

Before you can use Amazon Kendra to index your Dropbox data source, make these changes in your Dropbox and AWS accounts.

In Dropbox, make sure you have:

  • Created a Dropbox Advanced account and set up an admin user.

  • Configured a Dropbox app with a unique App name, activated Scoped Access. See Dropbox documentation on creating an app.

  • Activated Full Dropbox permissions on the Dropbox console and added the following permissions:

    • files.content.read

    • files.metadata.read

    • sharing.read

    • file_requests.read

    • groups.read

    • team_info.read

    • team_data.content.read

  • Noted your Dropbox app key, Dropbox app secret, and Dropbox access token for basic authentication credentials.

    Note

    We recommend that you regularly refresh or rotate your credentials and secret. Provide only the necessary access level for your own security. We do not recommend that you re-use credentials and secrets across data sources, and connector versions 1.0 and 2.0 (where applicable).

  • Configured and copied a temporary Oauth 2.0 access token for your Dropbox app. This token is temporary and expires after 4 hours. See Dropbox documentation on OAuth authentication.

    Note

    It is recommended that you create a Dropbox refresh access token that never expires, rather that relying on a one-time access token that expires after 4 hours. A refresh access token is permanent and never expires so that you can continue to sync your data source in the future.

  • Recommended: Configured a Dropbox permanent refresh token that never expires to allow Amazon Kendra to continue to sync your data source without any disruptions. See Dropbox documentation on refresh tokens.

  • Checked each document is unique in Dropbox and across other data sources you plan to use for the same index. Each data source that you want to use for an index must not contain the same document across the data sources. Document IDs are global to an index and must be unique per index.

In your AWS account, make sure you have:

  • Created an Amazon Kendra index and, if using the API, noted the index ID.

  • Created an IAM role for your data source and, if using the API, noted the ARN of the IAM role.

    Note

    If you change your authentication type and credentials, you must update your IAM role to access the correct AWS Secrets Manager secret ID.

  • Stored your Dropbox authentication credentials in an AWS Secrets Manager secret and, if using the API, noted the ARN of the secret.

    Note

    We recommend that you regularly refresh or rotate your credentials and secret. Provide only the necessary access level for your own security. We do not recommend that you re-use credentials and secrets across data sources, and connector versions 1.0 and 2.0 (where applicable).

If you don’t have an existing IAM role or secret, you can use the console to create a new IAM role and Secrets Manager secret when you connect your Dropbox data source to Amazon Kendra. If you are using the API, you must provide the ARN of an existing IAM role and Secrets Manager secret, and an index ID.

Connection instructions

To connect Amazon Kendra to your Dropbox data source, you must provide the necessary details of your Dropbox data source so that Amazon Kendra can access your data. If you have not yet configured Dropbox for Amazon Kendra, see Prerequisites.

Console

To connect Amazon Kendra to Dropbox

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon Kendra console.

  2. From the left navigation pane, choose Indexes and then choose the index you want to use from the list of indexes.

    Note

    You can choose to configure or edit your User access control settings under Index settings.

  3. On the Getting started page, choose Add data source.

  4. On the Add data source page, choose Dropbox connector, and then choose Add connector. If using version 2 (if applicable), choose Dropbox connector with the "V2.0" tag.

  5. On the Specify data source details page, enter the following information:

    1. In Name and description, for Data source name—Enter a name for your data source. You can include hyphens but not spaces.

    2. (Optional) Description—Enter an optional description for your data source.

    3. In Default language—Choose a language to filter your documents for the index. Unless you specify otherwise, the language defaults to English. Language specified in the document metadata overrides the selected language.

    4. In Tags, for Add new tag—Include optional tags to search and filter your resources or track your AWS costs.

    5. Choose Next.

  6. On the Define access and security page, enter the following information:

    1. Authorization—Turn on or off access control list (ACL) information for your documents, if you have an ACL and want to use it for access control. The ACL specifies which documents that users and groups can access. The ACL information is used to filter search results based on the user or their group access to documents. For more information, see User context filtering.

    2. Type of authentication token—Choose either a permanent token (recommended) or a temporary access token.

    3. AWS Secrets Manager secret—Choose an existing secret or create a new Secrets Manager secret to store your Dropbox authentication credentials. If you choose to create a new secret an AWS Secrets Manager secret window opens.

      1. Enter following information in the Create an AWS Secrets Manager secret window:

        1. Secret name—A name for your secret. The prefix ‘AmazonKendra-Dropbox-’ is automatically added to your secret name.

        2. For App key, App secret, and token information (permanent or temporary)—Enter the authentication credential values configured in Dropbox.

      2. Save and add your secret.

    4. Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)—You can choose to use a VPC. If so, you must add Subnets and VPC security groups.

    5. Identity crawler—Specify whether to turn on Amazon Kendra’s identity crawler. The identity crawler uses the access control list (ACL) information for your documents to filter search results based on the user or their group access to documents. If you have an ACL for your documents and choose to use your ACL, you can then also choose to turn on Amazon Kendra’s identity crawler to configure user context filtering of search results. Otherwise, if identity crawler is turned off, all documents can be publicly searched. If you want to use access control for your documents and identity crawler is turned off, you can alternatively use the PutPrincipalMapping API to upload user and group access information for user context filtering.

    6. IAM role—Choose an existing IAM role or create a new IAM role to access your repository credentials and index content.

      Note

      IAM roles used for indexes cannot be used for data sources. If you are unsure if an existing role is used for an index or FAQ, choose Create a new role to avoid errors.

    7. Choose Next.

  7. On the Configure sync settings page, enter the following information:

    1. For Select entities or content types—Choose Dropbox entities or content types you want to crawl.

    2. In Additional configuration for Regex patterns—Add regular expression patterns to include or exclude certain files.

    3. Sync mode—Choose how you want to update your index when your data source content changes. When you sync your data source with Amazon Kendra for the first time, all content is crawled and indexed by default. You must run a full sync of your data if your initial sync failed, even if you don't choose full sync as your sync mode option.

      • Full sync: Freshly index all content, replacing existing content each time your data source syncs with your index.

      • New, modified sync: Index only new and modified content each time your data source syncs with your index. Amazon Kendra can use your data source's mechanism for tracking content changes and index content that changed since the last sync.

      • New, modified, deleted sync: Index only new, modified, and deleted content each time your data source syncs with your index. Amazon Kendra can use your data source's mechanism for tracking content changes and index content that changed since the last sync.

    4. In Sync run schedule, for Frequency—Choose how often to sync your data source content and update your index.

    5. Choose Next.

  8. On the Set field mappings page, enter the following information:

    1. Files, Dropbox Paper, and Dropbox Paper templates—Select from the Amazon Kendra generated default data source fields you want to map to your index.

    2. Add field—To add custom data source fields to create an index field name to map to and the field data type.

    3. Choose Next.

  9. On the Review and create page, check that the information you have entered is correct and then select Add data source. You can also choose to edit your information from this page. Your data source will appear on the Data sources page after the data source has been added successfully.

API

To connect Amazon Kendra to Dropbox

You must specify a JSON of the data source schema using the TemplateConfiguration API. You must provide the following information:

  • Data source—Specify the data source type as DROPBOX when you use the TemplateConfiguration JSON schema. Also specify the data source as TEMPLATE when you call the CreateDataSource API.

  • Sync mode—Specify how Amazon Kendra should update your index when your data source content changes. When you sync your data source with Amazon Kendra for the first time, all content is crawled and indexed by default. You must run a full sync of your data if your initial sync failed, even if you don't choose full sync as your sync mode option. You can choose between:

    • FORCED_FULL_CRAWL to freshly index all content, replacing existing content each time your data source syncs with your index.

    • FULL_CRAWL to index only new, modified, and deleted content each time your data source syncs with your index. Amazon Kendra can use your data source’s mechanism for tracking content changes and index content that changed since the last sync.

    • CHANGE_LOG to index only new and modified content each time your data source syncs with your index. Amazon Kendra can use your data source’s mechanism for tracking content changes and index content that changed since the last sync.

  • Access token type—Specify whether you want to use permanent or temporary access token for your AWS Secrets Manager secret that stores your authentication crednetials.

    Note

    It's recommended that you create a refresh access token that never expires in Dropbox rather that relying on a one-time access token that expires after 4 hours. You create an app and a refresh access token in the Dropbox developer console and provide the access token in your secret.

  • Secret Amazon Resource Name (ARN)—Provide the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of an Secrets Manager secret that contains the authentication credentials for your Dropbox account. The secret is stored in a JSON structure with the following keys:

    {
    "appKey": "Dropbox app key",
    "appSecret": "Dropbox app secret",
    "accesstoken": "temporary access token or refresh access token"
}

  • Identity crawler—Specify whether to turn on Amazon Kendra’s identity crawler. The identity crawler uses the access control list (ACL) information for your documents to filter search results based on the user or their group access to documents. If you have an ACL for your documents and choose to use your ACL, you can then also choose to turn on Amazon Kendra’s identity crawler to configure user context filtering of search results. Otherwise, if identity crawler is turned off, all documents can be publicly searched. If you want to use access control for your documents and identity crawler is turned off, you can alternatively use the PutPrincipalMapping API to upload user and group access information for user context filtering.

  • IAM role—Specify RoleArn when you call CreateDataSource to provide an IAM role with permissions to access your Secrets Manager secret and to call the required public APIs for the Dropbox connector and Amazon Kendra. For more information, see IAM roles for Dropbox data sources.

You can also add the following optional features:

  • Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)—Specify VpcConfiguration when you call CreateDataSource. For more information, see Configuring Amazon Kendra to use an Amazon VPC.

  • Document/content types—Specify whether to crawl files in your Dropbox, Dropbox Paper documents, Dropbox Paper templates, and web page shortcuts stored in your Dropbox.

  • Inclusion and exclusion filters—Specify whether to include or exclude certain files.

    Note

    Most data sources use regular expression patterns, which are inclusion or exclusion patterns referred to as filters. If you specify an inclusion filter, only content that matches the inclusion filter is indexed. Any document that doesn’t match the inclusion filter isn’t indexed. If you specify an inclusion and exclusion filter, documents that match the exclusion filter are not indexed, even if they match the inclusion filter.

  • Access control list (ACL)—Specify whether to crawl ACL information for your documents, if you have an ACL and want to use it for access control. The ACL specifies which documents that users and groups can access. The ACL information is used to filter search results based on the user or their group access to documents. For more information, see User context filtering.

  • Field mappings—Choose to map your Dropbox data source fields to your Amazon Kendra index fields. For more information, see Mapping data source fields.

    Note

    The document body field or the document body equivalent for your documents is required in order for Amazon Kendra to search your documents. You must map your document body field name in your data source to the index field name _document_body. All other fields are optional.

For a list of other important JSON keys to configure, see Dropbox template schema.

Learn more

To learn more about integrating Amazon Kendra with your Dropbox data source, see: