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Link to files/folder - not sharing
Hello again team,
I'm attempting to write an app that will send people links to items within their Dropbox files and folders.
This app makes use of the delta/metadata endpoints to discover files ...
I am also looking for a method to deep link to a file. Just not on the website - but on the desktop.
Scenario.
We are 3 users, and we use Wunderlist (and Gmail, and other apps)
I would love to attach files to an Task, Email etc that will open up the file or location in the Desktop Application.
The problem is our shared folders all live in different local path locations.
eg.
User 1, has a Mac so the path is \usr\dropbox\sharedfoldersX\sharedfolder1\subfolder\file.txt
User 2, has a PC and the path is C:\Users\dropbox\sharedfoldersY\sharedfolder1\subfolder\file.txt
User 3, has a PC and the path is D:\dropbox\sharedfolder1\subfolder\file.txt
So there is no clean way to give a Local File Path easily.
We currently share it like this
\sharedfolder1\subfolder\file.txt
But that is a pain to get, especially on a Mac.
If the App could work this out, like this.
file.txt has ID 44444
User 1 clicks dropbox.com\?openlocation=44444
It Either Opens the file on the local system (as it knows the location as per above)
OR dropbox.com\?openlocation=44444&dir=yes
Opens location in Finder/ File Explorer
\usr\dropbox\sharedfoldersX\sharedfolder1\subfolder\
So dropbox.com\openlocation= is a Webhook to open the Desktop Application, if it is not there, it opens the Web location.
That would be super helpful and maintain file integrity across applications like Task lists and Email :)
Kinda like a "Share with Colleague" button in the Context menu.
Any progress on this? Badly needed. Someone posted the recommendation to modify the link url by using "dl." instead of "www." but I am not sure whether that is a reliable long term URL or things might break at some point?
- Greg-DB
Dropbox Community Moderator
No update on deep links like this.
(The URL transformation you're referring to only applies to shared links, as a way to control the behavior of the shared link itself. The officially documented way to do that is found here: https://www.dropbox.com/help/201 )Thank you Greg, actually what I need is not exactly that. I need the image to be loaded in the browser alone. If I replace the "www" with "dl" at the beginning of the shared URL and then remove anything following the file extension, it seems to work.
I was just wondering if it's going to be a good idea in the long term, because maybe things might change over time?
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