HI
We are exploring a potential integration pattern and would appreciate guidance from the community on whether this is feasible within Appian’s integration capabilities—specifically around user-specific authorization with Box when a process is triggered via email.
A user sends an email containing a Box folder link to a designated mailbox.
This email triggers an Appian process via Process Model Email Polling (this is currently working as expected).
The process then attempts to download documents from the referenced Box folder.
The key requirement is that Box access must respect the sending user’s specific Box permissions.
We plan to use OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code Grant for Box authorization from within Appian.
We are intentionally not using the JWT approach, as it requires Box admin-level permissions and provides broader access than desired.
This approach works well when initiated from the Appian UI, where the authenticated user context is available and the user can explicitly authorize Box access.
When the process is triggered via email (outside the Appian UI):
I understand that it's not possible to keep and reuse the user's previous Box authorization context from the email sent to Appian by the same user. Is there a supported method to create a user-specific Start Process link from a background process that will allow the user to successfully start the process when they click the link?
I understand that one option is to generate a site link, direct the user to the Appian UI, and allow them to initiate the process manually. However, we’re specifically trying to determine whether it’s possible to avoid this additional user click and have the process start directly from the emailed link.
Any guidance, recommended patterns, or confirmations around platform limitations would be greatly appreciated.
Below
Discussion posts and replies are publicly visible
A Start Process Link isn't so much a URL, as it is a target for SAIL form link components that can be used strictly in the context of a logged-in user (or in portals, where there is a service account user context that can be used). AFAIK there is no way to translate this to an externally-accessible URL or in any other way use it as a workaround to force the "started by" context into something specific.
If there was such a workaround (and i suspect there might not be), I assume the answer won't be in a *link* per se, but in some way to run under the context of a target user. Sadly, controlling this in Appian has always been a little opaque.