Long-Poll Events

To get real-time notification of activity in a Box account you can use the long poll feature of the OPTIONS /events API.

curl -X OPTIONS https://api.box.com/2.0/events \
     -H 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>'

EventStream stream = new EventStream(api);
stream.addListener(new EventListener() {
    public void onEvent(BoxEvent event) {
        // Handle the event.
    }
});
stream.start();

events = client.events().generate_events_with_long_polling()
for event in events:
    print('Got {0} event'.format(event.event_type))

client.events.getEventStream(function(err, stream) {

	if (err) {
		// handle error
	}

	stream.on('data', function(event) {
		// handle the event
	});
});

Long Polling

Long polling involves opening an HTTP request and keeping it open until the server sends a response, then repeating the process over and over to receive updated responses.

Long Poll URL

To use long polling, first send an request to the OPTIONS /events API to retrieve the long poll URL.

curl -X OPTIONS https://api.box.com/2.0/events \
    -H "authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN"

{
  "chunk_size": 1,
  "entries": [
    {
      "type": "realtime_server",
      "url": "http://2.realtime.services.box.net/subscribe?channel=cc807c9c4869ffb1c81a&stream_type=all",
      "ttl": 10,
      "max_retries": 10,
      "retry_timeout": 610
    }
  ]
}

Real-Time Servers

Next, make a GET request to the provided URL to begin listening for events. If an event occurs in an account that is being monitored the application will receive a response with the value new_change. The response contains no other details.

This single response serves as a prompt to take further action such as sending a request to the GET /events endpoint with the last known stream_position.

Disconnect & Reconnect

After the server sends this response it closes the connection. The application must now repeat the long poll process to begin listening for events again.

If no events occur for a while after the application connects to the real-time server the connection will close with a reconnect value. When this happens the application should make a new call to OPTIONS /events to restart the process.

Timeouts & Retries

If the application receive no events in retry_timeout seconds then the application can reconnect to the real-time server. This might be necessary in due to network errors.

If the application receive a max_retries error when making a GET request to the real-time server then it must restart the process by making an OPTIONS call to the /events API.