Box Inc. is enhancing the experience for users of its application program interfaces in a bid to convince corporate developers and independent software vendors of the merits of incorporating Box’s document-sharing features into their products.

Box estimates that more than 80,000 developers already tap into its API library, which includes features such as file upload and download, file previews, search, file/folder metadata, retention policies, permissions and event reporting. Its new API Navigator tool is meant to introduce developers to the Box ecosystem by simulating interaction with an application (pictured).

“Say you want to add a watermark — you can look under the covers to see how easy it is to embed that into an application,” said Ken Yagen, vice president of platform product management at Box. “It’s a demo app that shows you how to build a custom experience around the Box API.”

The developer console has been overhauled to let coders create and manage applications that incorporate the Box API. “It gives you a walk-through based upon which use case you’re automating, and takes you through the process of building that application,” Yagen said. The console now includes guided walk-throughs, access to support documents and an integrated feedback mechanism.

Box is also making its documentation process more interactive, enabling developers to see the consequences of their code choices. “Box will show you what your query results will look like so you can copy and paste directly into your editor,” Yagen said. This also enables interactive fine-tuning of queries.

Finally, documentation is being crowd-sourced through the use of an interactive developer platform from ReadMe.io Co. to enable anyone to submit suggestions for improving the development experience to Box for publication to all developers.

The functionality is being rolled out to tutorials, recipes and documentation. Comments and tips will be vetted by Box staff members, with most published within 24 hours, Yagen said. Access to the API library and toolkit is free. Box charges by the number of API calls used.

Maintaining a strong relationship with the developer community is essential to Box’s competitive strategy. The company relies on third-party applications to provide many key features that its platform does not support natively, including most of everything from e-signing to multi-factor authentication. Box teamed up with IBM Corp. last year to develop an automated document handling tool aimed at reducing administrative overhead for enterprise customers. 

With reporting from Maria Deutscher

Image courtesy of Box