General URL for many files from 1 shared folder

Hey @Sanchez,

thank you for your feedback.

What I'm trying to do is the following:

I'd like my code to use the dropbox URL and get files depending from the value of a variable.

My code is able to get the static part of the dropbbox URL and the variable name of the file (for example, for the Great Britain it is gb.png), but it fails to get the unique key (/s/xxxxxxxxxx).

Example: in case of Great Britain the value of the variable is "gb" 

- the whole URL is https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2ct7i7ov5zf6r0z/gb.png?dl=0

- the static part of the URL is https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/                        ?dl=0

- the variable part of the URL is 2ct7i7ov5zf6r0z   and gb.png

My code is able to get the file name ( gb.png ) but not the unique keys ( 2ct7i7ov5zf6r0z )

Is it somehow possible to create dropbox URL without unique keys (like 2ct7i7ov5zf6r0z) ?

Thank you,

Denne

Hi Mark,

yes, it is for an app I'm playing with.

My idea was: to show country flags which I hold in my dropbox, but every single flag-file has not only a file name (like gb.png) but also a dropbox key (/s/xxxxxxxxxxx) for that file which makes the whole URL unique and thus impossible to generalize the call of the URL.

Thank you,
Denne

Thank you Greg! I'll give it a try

I confirmed that this method is not going to work. The json response contains entries with id, tag and so one, but you cannot really download the subfolders or anything with them.

duckladydinh I'm not sure I understand your comment. If something isn't working as documented, please share the details so we can look into it for you.

For example, you can use the /2/files/list_folder endpoint to list the contents of a folder from a shared link for the folder:

curl -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data "{\"path\": \"\",\"shared_link\": {\"url\": \"<SHARED_LINK_FOR_FOLDER>\"}}"

# {
#   "entries": [
#     {
#       ".tag": "folder",
#       "name": "Test",
#       "path_lower": "/test shared folder/test",
#       "path_display": "/test shared folder/Test",
#       "parent_shared_folder_id": "248930168",
#       "id": "id:uKXaztDfaPQAAAAAAAAABA",
#       "sharing_info": {
#         "read_only": false,
#         "parent_shared_folder_id": "248930168",
#         "traverse_only": false,
#         "no_access": false
#       }
#     },
# <redacted for brevity>
#   ],
#   "cursor": "<redacted for brevity>",
#   "has_more": false
# }

And you can also list sub-folders like that using the "path" parameter:

curl -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data "{\"path\": \"/test\",\"shared_link\": {\"url\": \"<SHARED_LINK_FOR_FOLDER>\"}}"

# {
#   "entries": [
# <redacted for brevity>
#     {
#       ".tag": "file",
#       "name": "test.txt",
#       "path_lower": "/test shared folder/test/test.txt",
#       "path_display": "/test shared folder/Test/test.txt",
#       "parent_shared_folder_id": "248930168",
#       "id": "id:uKXaztDfaPQAAAAAAAAB3w",
#       "client_modified": "2018-05-10T17:07:46Z",
#       "server_modified": "2019-10-18T20:35:37Z",
#       "rev": "5953546d8c26e0ed65f78",
#       "size": 4,
#       "sharing_info": {
#         "read_only": false,
#         "parent_shared_folder_id": "248930168",
#         "modified_by": "<redacted for brevity>"
#       },
#       "is_downloadable": true,
#       "content_hash": "954d5a49fd70d9b8bcdb35d252267829957f7ef7fa6c74f88419bdc5e82209f4"
#     }
#   ],
#   "cursor": "<redacted for brevity>",
#   "has_more": false
# }

And then you can download a listed file using /2/sharing/get_shared_link_file by likewise using the relative path:

curl -X POST https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/sharing/get_shared_link_file \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
    --header "Dropbox-API-Arg: {\"url\": \"<SHARED_LINK_FOR_FOLDER>\",\"path\": \"/test.txt\"}"

# test file contents

Hi, thank you Grek. K for your very helpful comment. I did not look at the 'get_shared_link_file' and yes, it can fix my current problem. I am sorry for jumping to an early conclusion reconfirmed that the solution works.

Just a little question: Is there any way to do the same for 'folder'?