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Question

"Service account" vs "app user"

  • May 21, 2025
  • 2 replies
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Could someone please explain the difference between a "service account" and an "app user"?  I've read the docs but I don't really understand the distinction.

 

In other information technology contexts, there's a one-to-one correspondence between accounts and users.  Here, I'm not sure---does every app user have a corresponding service account?

2 replies

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Hello ,

 

if you do an authentication call using the enterprise method instead the user one, you will be authenticating with the service account. Then, if you do a call to getCurrentUser information you will see the "mail" of that user. Something like: AutomationUser_xxxxxx_KPvny_____(at)boxdevedition(dot)com. This user is the one you've configured when you were configuring the application permissions. It will have admin rights according to the config on the developer console.

 

The App users, are users created by the service account. These are regular users that can collaborate on folders and upload documents and nothing else. The mail is like AppUser_xxxxxx_h9f0Y_____(at)boxdevedition(dot)com.

 

Hope this helps.


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That makes sense, and it's consistent with some further reading of the docs I did.  Thanks.