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Connect to DigitalOcean Spaces

· 3 min read

You can connect to DigitalOcean Spaces using Retool's built-in S3 integration and make it available as a resource. Once complete, you can write queries to interact with Spaces buckets.

Requirements​

All users for Retool organizations on Free or Team plans have global Edit permissions and can add, edit, and remove resources. If your organization manages user permissions for resources, you must be a member of a group with Edit all permissions.

To create an S3 resource for a Spaces bucket, you need to:

  • Obtain the custom endpoint URL of the Spaces bucket.
  • Configure cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) for the Spaces bucket.
  • Generate access key credentials.

Before you can create an S3 resource, you must update your S3 bucket configuration to allow Retool access.

1. Configure cross-origin resource sharing (CORS)​

Configure CORS in the Spaces console to allow Retool access to your Spaces bucket. Retool requires GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE. Set the origin to your Retool organization URL.

2. Generate access credentials​

Retool authenticates with S3-compatible services using access keys. Generate a set of Spaces Keys and provide them as values for AWS Access Key ID and AWS Secret Key ID.

3. Create an S3 resource​

Retool can connect to almost any API or database, and has built-in integrations for popular data sources. Sign in to your Retool organization and create a new S3 resource from the Resources tab.

4. Configure the resource​

Provide the necessary details to configure the resource so Retool can connect to the S3-compatible service.

General​

These settings configure the name and location of the resource within Retool.

Name​

The name to use for the resource (e.g., S3).

Folder​

The folder in which to save the resource.

Description​

A brief description of the resource (e.g., Customer data).

Credentials​

These settings configure how Retool connects to S3.

S3 bucket name​

The name of the S3 bucket.

Default S3 ACL for uploaded files​

The default access control list to use when uploading files, if required.

Use custom S3 endpoint​

The custom endpoint URL to use. For DigitalOcean Spaces, use the Origin Endpoint URL for the Spaces bucket but with the bucket removed. For example, an endpoint URL of https://my-spaces-bucket.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com would be entered into Retool as https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com.

Force S3 URLs to use path style​

Force S3-compatible services to use path style if connection issues occur. Leave this unchecked unless you experience connection issues.

AWS Access Key ID​

The generated access key for Spaces.

AWS Secret Key ID​

The generated access secret key for Spaces.

Role to assume (ARN)​

The role to assume, if required.

5. Save the resource​

Click Create resource to complete the setup. You can then click either Create an app to immediately start building a Retool app or Back to resources to return to the list of resources.

Wrap up​

Your S3 resource is now ready to use. You write queries to read or write data by specifying the action type and any additional values.

To verify you can successfully interact with the S3-compatible service, write a test query to retrieve a list of all files in the bucket. Select List all files in a bucket as the Action type.

Response
{
  "Contents": [...],
  "Name": "my-spaces-bucket",
  "KeyCount": 6,
  "CommonPrefixes": []