Configuring Connections

A guide to the Connections page of Simplebim Cloud, where you give Simplebim Cloud access to the file storage of your organisation — Dropbox, OneDrive or SharePoint — and keep that access in working order. It explains what a connection is, how one is added and authorized, what the status badge and the connection test tell you, and how connections are edited, unauthorized and removed.

Connections are used by the file locations of workspaces and pipelines, which have their own guides — Using the Workspace Page and Using the Pipeline Page. Publishing dataflows from Simplebim desktop into pipelines is described in Using the Simplebim Cloud Dialogs.

Contents

• What a connection is
• Where the page is
• The page at a glance
• Connection types
  • Dropbox
  • OneDrive
  • SharePoint
  • One authorization, several connections
• How authorizing works
• Adding a connection
  • Adding a Dropbox connection
  • Adding a OneDrive connection
  • Adding a SharePoint connection
  • If you cancel the wizard
• The connection list
  • The Status column
  • The Actions column
• Connection details
  • Choosing the folder
  • The Select Folder dialog
  • Authorized by
• Authorizing and unauthorizing an existing connection
• Testing connections
• Seeing where a connection is used
• Removing connections
• Messages
• Troubleshooting

What a connection is

Simplebim Cloud processes files that live in your own file storage. Before it can read or write anything there, somebody has to let it in. A connection is that permission: it records which storage is used (Dropbox, OneDrive or a SharePoint document library), who authorized the access, and optionally a folder that the connection is limited to.

The folder is a self-imposed limit. Simplebim Cloud only ever reads and writes inside the chosen folder and its subfolders, even when the authorizing user could see more. Leave the folder empty to allow the whole storage.

Connections belong to the account — typically one account per company — and are visible to all workspaces of the account. A workspace does not use a connection directly: its pipelines have file locations, and a file location points at a folder inside a connection. This is why a connection can be shared by many pipelines, and why a connection that stops working stops every pipeline built on it.

A workspace can additionally have workspace connections, which are folders inside an account connection given a name of their own. They are managed on the Workspace page and are outside this guide; see Using the Workspace Page.

Where the page is

Connections is the second item of the top navigation bar, after Home. It is available as soon as you are signed in and an account is selected; the page always shows the connections of the account you are currently working in.

The page is meant for account administrators: adding, editing, authorizing, unauthorizing and removing connections is administration of the account's file storage. Other members work with the connections through the file locations of their workspaces and pipelines and do not need this page.

The page at a glance

From top to bottom the page has:

Connection types

Dropbox

A Dropbox connection gives Simplebim Cloud the access of one Dropbox user — the person who signs in when the connection is authorized. Simplebim Cloud sees exactly what that user sees, limited to the connection's folder if one is set.

OneDrive

A OneDrive connection gives Simplebim Cloud access to the personal OneDrive of a Microsoft work account — the OneDrive that belongs to the person who signs in when the connection is authorized.

OneDrive connections are offered only to users who signed in to Simplebim Cloud with Microsoft, because the authorization is done with the same Microsoft work account. If you sign in with an e-mail address and password, the type is not in the Add New Connection menu.

SharePoint

A SharePoint connection points at one document library (a drive) of one SharePoint site in one Microsoft tenant. It is authorized with delegated permissions: a SharePoint user signs in, and Simplebim Cloud gets the same access rights to SharePoint as that user has. The connection is defined by:

An older type, SharePoint (application permissions), is not offered in this version. A connection of that type created by an earlier version is still listed, but it cannot be authorized here; use a SharePoint (delegated permissions) connection instead.

One authorization, several connections

The sign-in that authorizes a connection is stored per storage, not per connection:

• All Dropbox connections of an account share one Dropbox authorization.
• All SharePoint connections of an account that are in the same tenant share one SharePoint authorization.
• Each OneDrive connection has an authorization of its own, because a OneDrive always belongs to one person.

This has practical consequences. Authorizing one Dropbox connection authorizes every Dropbox connection of the account, and all of them then show the same Authorized by line. Authorizing again as a different Dropbox user switches all of them to that user's access. Unauthorizing one of them unauthorizes them all. The same holds for SharePoint connections within one tenant. When you need access as two different Dropbox users or in two different tenants, that works — they are different authorizations — but two connections that differ only by folder always share.

How authorizing works

Authorizing is the same in the wizards and on the list:

1. You click Authorize. Simplebim Cloud opens a new browser tab with the sign-in page of the storage — Dropbox, or Microsoft for OneDrive and SharePoint. Your browser must allow Simplebim Cloud to open new windows; if nothing appears, see Troubleshooting.
2. You sign in there and accept the requested access. For OneDrive the Microsoft page suggests the account you used for Simplebim Cloud; for SharePoint and Dropbox you choose the account on the storage's own page.
3. The tab ends on a small Simplebim Cloud page that says either The connection was authorized successfully. You can close this window and return to Simplebim Cloud. or The authorization failed. Close this window and try authorizing the connection again. Close the tab yourself.
4. Meanwhile the page you started from waits — a spinner shows next to Authorize — and picks the result up by itself. It waits up to two minutes; after that it reports Authorization failed. Please try again. even if you complete the sign-in later, in which case simply authorize again.

The stored result is an access token, never your password. Simplebim Cloud renews it in the background for as long as the storage allows. What is recorded on the connection is who did it: see Authorized by.

Adding a connection

Choose the type from Add New Connection. Each type has a three-step wizard; the steps are shown across the top of the wizard and you move with Next and Previous. Next refuses to leave a step until it is complete and says why. Cancel or the X in the corner closes the wizard; see If you cancel the wizard for what that leaves behind.

Adding a Dropbox connection

1. Authorize Access to Dropbox. Give the connection a Connection Name — this is how the connection is listed everywhere, so name it after what it gives access to, such as Acme Dropbox or Project files. The Authorizing Dropbox User field is pre-filled with your own e-mail as a reminder of who should sign in; the Dropbox page decides the actual account. Click Authorize and complete the sign-in as described in How authorizing works. Next requires a name and a completed authorization; otherwise it says Please authorize the connection before proceeding. On leaving the step the connection is tested once; a failed test shows a warning but lets you continue.
2. Select Folder (optional). Leave the folder empty to give access to the whole Dropbox, or limit the connection to one folder and its subfolders: type the path, or click Select Folder and pick it from the tree (see The Select Folder dialog). A folder picked from the tree gets an Open in Dropbox ↗ button next to it.
3. Done! Click Close. The folder is saved and the new connection appears in the list, expanded.

Adding a OneDrive connection

1. Name the connection and authorize it. Give the connection a Connection name. The Authorize as field shows your own account and cannot be changed: it is suggested on the Microsoft sign-in page, which usually makes the authorization a single confirmation click. The OneDrive that the connection accesses is the OneDrive of whoever completes the Microsoft sign-in. Click Authorize; Next requires a name and a completed authorization.
2. Select a base folder (optional). As for Dropbox: leave empty for the whole OneDrive, or type or pick a folder. A picked folder gets an Open in OneDrive ↗ button.
3. The connection is ready. Click Close.

Adding a SharePoint connection

1. Authorize Delegated Access to SharePoint. Fill in the Connection Name, the Tenant ID and the Host Name (see SharePoint for what they are). When you signed in to Simplebim Cloud with Microsoft, the Tenant ID of your own organisation may already be filled in. The Authorizing SharePoint User field is pre-filled with your own e-mail as a reminder; the Microsoft page decides the actual account. Authorize becomes available once Tenant ID and Host Name are filled; click it and complete the Microsoft sign-in. Next requires a name and a completed authorization; otherwise it says Connection is not authorized or name is missing.
2. Select a Site and Drive. The SharePoint Site list shows the sites of the tenant that the authorizing user can see; type into the list to filter it. Choosing a site fills the Sharepoint Drive list with the document libraries of that site; choose one. Next requires both, otherwise it says Site or drive is not selected.
3. Done! Click Close. The connection is saved and tested once, and appears in the list.

The wizard has no folder step. To limit a SharePoint connection to a folder inside the document library, expand it in the list afterwards and set the folder there; see Choosing the folder.

If you cancel the wizard

The connection is created in the account at the moment you click Authorize in step 1, so that the authorization has something to attach to. Cancelling the wizard after that point therefore leaves the connection in the list — authorized if the sign-in was completed, otherwise Unauthorized. It is harmless, and you can finish it from the list: expand it to set the missing details or folder, or click Authorize in its row. If you do not want it, remove it with Purge Connections.

Cancelling before clicking Authorize leaves nothing behind.

The connection list

Click anywhere on a row to expand it and show the connection details; several rows can be expanded at once.

The Status column

Authorized (green) means an authorization is stored for the connection — it has been authorized and not unauthorized since. Unauthorized (yellow) means there is none: the connection is new, was unauthorized, or shares an authorization that was removed through another connection.

The badge says whether an authorization exists, not whether it still works. An access that was revoked on the storage side — a Dropbox app removed by the user, a Microsoft password reset — still shows Authorized until it is unauthorized here. Test Connections is how you find out whether the connections actually work; see Testing connections.

When an Unauthorized connection has a recent test failure on record, a warning triangle appears next to the badge. Hover it to read the error message.

The Actions column

Connection details

Expanding a row shows an editable form. Type cannot be changed once a connection exists; to move from Dropbox to SharePoint, add a new connection. The other fields depend on the type:

Changing any field shows an Unsaved changes warning and enables Save. Cancel discards the changes. Saving a connection never touches its authorization: renaming a connection or changing its folder does not require authorizing again.

Choosing the folder

The Folder box shows the connection's folder without a leading slash. You can type the path by hand — Projects/2026/Models — or click Select Folder and pick it from the storage. Select Folder is available only when the connection is Authorized and, for SharePoint, when Tenant ID, Host name, Site path and Drive name are all filled in; the button's tooltip tells you which of the two is missing.

To the right of the box is the Open in Dropbox / OneDrive / SharePoint ↗ button, which opens the folder in the storage's own web interface in a new tab. It works only for a folder that was picked with Select Folder, because that is when Simplebim Cloud learns the folder's web address. Typing a path clears the link; pick the folder from the tree again to get it back.

The Select Folder dialog

The dialog shows the folders of the storage as a tree, starting from the root of the Dropbox, the OneDrive or the SharePoint document library. Expand a folder to load its subfolders — each level is fetched from the storage when you open it, so there is a short wait. Select the folder you want and click Select Folder; the path is written into the Folder box and you still have to Save. Cancel leaves the field as it was.

If the storage cannot be listed the dialog closes and a message tells you why — either the reason reported by the storage, such as an unknown drive name, or Failed to load folders. Please check that the connection is authorized.

Authorized by

Once a connection is authorized its details show a line such as

Authorized by anna@acme.com as SharePoint user Anna Example (anna.example@acme.onmicrosoft.com)

The first name is the Simplebim Cloud user who clicked Authorize. The second is the account on the storage that signed in — the Dropbox user, the Microsoft account. They are often the same person but need not be: a data connection administrator can authorize as a shared service account, and the line then shows exactly that. Connections that share an authorization show the same line; see One authorization, several connections.

Authorizing and unauthorizing an existing connection

Authorize in a row of an Unauthorized connection opens the Authorize Connection dialog. Its single field, Authorizing User, is pre-filled with your e-mail and reminds you that Simplebim Cloud will get the same access as the authorizing user. Click Authorize and complete the sign-in in the new tab as described in How authorizing works. When the result arrives the list refreshes and the message Connection was authorized successfully appears. If the storage is slow to confirm you may see Authorization is taking longer than expected. Refresh the page in a moment to see the updated status. instead; the authorization normally completes on its own within seconds.

Unauthorize Connection removes the stored authorization at once, without a confirmation, and the badge turns Unauthorized. Remember that Dropbox and SharePoint authorizations are shared: the other Dropbox connections, or the other SharePoint connections of the same tenant, turn Unauthorized as well. Every file location built on those connections stops working until one of them is authorized again, which authorizes them all. Nothing else is lost — names, folders and the file locations that use the connections stay as they are.

Unauthorize and authorize again when the access has stopped working, or when the access should belong to another user — for example when the colleague who authorized a connection leaves the company.

Testing connections

Test Connections asks the storage behind every connection of the account whether the stored authorization still works. The Connections Check dialog shows Initializing test..., a progress bar while the checks run, and then a Results summary:

The dialog does not name the failing connections. Look at the list after closing it: an Unauthorized connection with a warning triangle carries the error text of this test in its tooltip. A connection that failed the test but still shows Authorized has an authorization that the storage no longer accepts — unauthorize it and authorize it again.

The checks run on the server; if you close the dialog while they are running they still finish, you just do not see the summary. The test does not change any connection except for recording the result.

Testing is also available per workspace on the Workspace page, where it checks only the connections that workspace uses.

Seeing where a connection is used

Show Usage opens the Connection Usage dialog for the connection. It lists every place the connection is built on, one row per file location, with the Workspace, the Pipeline (empty for a workspace connection), the File Location name and its Folder. Both workspace connections that point straight at the connection and pipeline file locations that reach it through a workspace connection are included. The columns can be sorted and filtered, which helps in a large account.

Use it before unauthorizing or removing a connection, and when a pipeline complains about a file location and you want to know which connection is behind it.

When nothing uses the connection the dialog says This data connection is not used by any file locations. and offers a red Delete Connection button, which removes the connection immediately.

Removing connections

A connection can only be removed while nothing uses it. To remove one that is in use, first change or delete the file locations that Show Usage lists, then remove the connection.

There are two ways to remove unused connections:

• Delete Connection in the Connection Usage dialog removes that one connection.
• Purge Connections at the top of the page opens a dialog listing every unused connection of the account with a check box each. Tick the ones to remove and click Purge. If every connection is in use the dialog says All connections are in use.

Removing a OneDrive connection also removes its authorization, since it belongs to that connection alone. Removing a Dropbox or SharePoint connection leaves the shared authorization in place for the other connections that use it. If no other connection uses it, the authorization is simply no longer referenced; unauthorize the connection before removing it if you want the stored access token cleared.

Removing a connection cannot be undone, but nothing on the storage side is changed — the folders and files stay where they are.

Messages

The page reports through small notifications in the corner of the window. The ones you are most likely to see:

The page that ends the sign-in tab shows either The connection was authorized successfully. You can close this window and return to Simplebim Cloud. or The authorization failed. Close this window and try authorizing the connection again.

Troubleshooting

Nothing happens when I click Authorize. The browser blocked the new tab. Allow pop-ups for the Simplebim Cloud address in the browser's settings — the address bar usually shows an icon for it — and click Authorize again.

OneDrive is missing from the Add New Connection menu. OneDrive connections are authorized with a Microsoft work account and are offered only to users who signed in to Simplebim Cloud with Microsoft. Sign in with Microsoft, or ask a colleague who does.

The sign-in tab says the authorization failed. The storage refused the request — a cancelled consent, a wrong account, or a Microsoft tenant that does not allow the Simplebim Cloud application. Close the tab and authorize again; if it keeps failing on the Microsoft side, your IT administrator may need to grant consent to the application in the tenant.

I authorized, but the connection still says Unauthorized. The storage confirms the authorization a moment after the sign-in tab reports success. Reload the page. If it is still Unauthorized after a minute, authorize again.

I cancelled the wizard and there is an unfinished connection in the list. The connection is created when you click Authorize in step 1. Either finish it from the list or remove it with Purge Connections. See If you cancel the wizard.

Several connections turned Unauthorized when I unauthorized one. They share the authorization: all Dropbox connections of the account, or all SharePoint connections in the same tenant. Authorizing any one of them authorizes them all again. See One authorization, several connections.

Authorized by shows a colleague, not me. Somebody else authorized the shared Dropbox or SharePoint authorization after you did, or before you. Whoever authorized last is shown on every connection that shares it. If the access should be yours, click Unauthorize Connection and authorize again.

Test Connections reports a failure but every connection is Authorized. The badge only says an authorization is stored; the test says whether the storage still accepts it. Find the connection that fails — try the file locations of the pipelines that stopped working, or test them workspace by workspace — then unauthorize and authorize it again.

Select Folder is greyed out. Hover the button. Either the connection is not authorized yet, or a SharePoint connection is missing its site path or drive name.

The Open in … ↗ button is greyed out. The folder was typed rather than picked, so its web address is unknown. Click Select Folder, pick the same folder from the tree and save.

The SharePoint Site list is empty or does not have my site. The list contains the sites the authorizing user can see under the given host name. Check the host name, and make sure the user who signed in has access to the site. Sites the user cannot open are not listed.

I cannot delete a connection. It is in use. Show Usage lists the file locations built on it; change or delete those first. Only unused connections appear in Purge Connections.

A SharePoint connection shows Permission Type Application and cannot be authorized. It was created with an earlier version that supported application permissions. Add a new SharePoint (delegated permissions) connection to the same site and drive, point the file locations at it, and purge the old one.