Many new platform partners are recently joining the OpenBox directory (with plenty more to come) by leveraging OpenBox Actions.  For those of you who are more familiar with the API than OpenBox Actions, Actions enable you to bring your own service’s functionality into the Box environment - a different direction from the API which brings Box.net features into your service or application.

You’ve probably previewed a document in Box in Scribd, or edited an image with Picnik, or shared a file through Twitter.  These are examples of OpenBox Actions, and they’re not just built by Box.net’s development team.  You can actually create your own OpenBox Action through our platform, and have the opportunity to promote your service to Box.net’s users.

A common interaction involves OpenBox-to-API integrations.  Because OpenBox Actions can make REST, SOAP, and XML-RPC calls, partner services easily connect their existing APIs to OpenBox with minimal or no additional coding, often in a day or less.  Other partners still find the platform to be simple and flexible, enabling them to integrate quickly, and even scale integrations into new, full APIs.

Since most of you already have an OpenBox service to use the Box API, it’s easy to start building an OpenBox Action.  Just create or edit an OpenBox service from your development page, and in your service’s settings, below your API key, you’ll see where to start creating OpenBox Actions.

We’re continuing to enhance the capabilities of OpenBox Actions along with our API, enabling a wider variety of services to work with OpenBox.  For instance, you may have noticed that Gmail, Twitter, and Fuze Meeting are now accessible in the sidebar of your folders as well as on your files.

Beta features such as folder-level actions can be made available to interested developers.  Just contact our team and we may provide you with OpenBox features in progress, offer extra assistance, and consider new platform enhancements to fit best with your ideas.

Post by Jeremy Glassenberg, Platform Manager