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Mark M.130's avatar
Mark M.130
Explorer | Level 4
8 years ago
Solved

API command to view file content in web browser

Hi,   I'd like to integrate Dropbox deeply into a web app, and one of the biggest required features is to be able to view the contents of the file in a HTML frame, much like the corrent dropbox.com...
API
  • Greg-DB's avatar
    Greg-DB
    8 years ago
    The endpoint names in my previous reply are links to the documentation which has more information about each one, but in short:
    - download: returns the original file data
    - get_preview: returns the data for an HTML or PDF preview for files of supported document types
    - get_thumbnail: returns the data for a jpeg or png thumbnail for files of supported image types
Greg-DB's avatar
Greg-DB
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
8 years ago

The Dropbox API doesn't offer a way to access file comments, but I'll pass this along as a feature request. 

 

It does offer a few options for accessing file data itself though:

 

The standard way is to get the file data directly from the Dropbox API servers using /2/files/download. (Or, for a preview or thumbnail version of the data, depending on the file type, using /2/files/get_preview or /2/files/get_thumbnail respectively.) These return the file data directly, which you could save and display on your web page.

 

Alternatively, you can get a temporary link to the file data using /2/files/get_temporary_link.

 

Or, for a more permanent link to the Dropbox web site to display the file, you can create a shared link using /2/sharing/create_shared_link_with_settings. It sounds like this might be closest to what you're looking for.

 

(Those are links to the documentation for the HTTPS endpoints themselves, but we recommend using one of the official SDKs if possible. Those have corresponding native methods for the HTTPS endpoints. )

Mark M.130's avatar
Mark M.130
Explorer | Level 4
8 years ago

Thanks Greg for the quick response. To clarify, what's the difference between preview, thumbnail and download?

  • Greg-DB's avatar
    Greg-DB
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    8 years ago
    The endpoint names in my previous reply are links to the documentation which has more information about each one, but in short:
    - download: returns the original file data
    - get_preview: returns the data for an HTML or PDF preview for files of supported document types
    - get_thumbnail: returns the data for a jpeg or png thumbnail for files of supported image types
    • Mark M.130's avatar
      Mark M.130
      Explorer | Level 4
      8 years ago

      Thanks! Sounds like preview is what I'd need.

      • milankj's avatar
        milankj
        Explorer | Level 3
        3 years ago

        Did you get to view ur file in web using preview?

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