Sharing - how to share a folder with edit access when don't know my friend's dropbox user id?

If you don't already have a connection to the other user in Dropbox, there isn't a way to retrieve it. Instead, you can share it with them via their email address.

To give them access to mount and edit the folder, you would first share the folder, then add them to the folder. In that second step, you can specify the recipient either by Dropbox ID or email address.

What if I do already have a connection to the other user in dropbox (we've previously shared some things)? How would I go about getting their dropbox id? Is there a way (short of just walking through every file and every share bit on it) that I can access my contacts in dropbox?

Also what if I send it to user #2's email but it's not precisely the dropbox account email that user #2 uses? 

The Dropbox API doesn't offer a way to list all known contacts, so you'd need to find the account by listing the members of the relevant existing shared folder(s).

The recipient can still accept the invitation if they happen to use a different email address on their Dropbox account.

My application wouldn't know existing folders my user has shared with their friends, but could walk their dropbox and amass a contacts list (yucky though).

Looking at SharingAddFolderMemberError it does appear that if I tried to share with an incorrect email it might not work though.. if I shared a SharedLink would there be any way for the receiving user to request access to mount it / gain edit privileges using the API? 

I think it's more intuitive that I should send my friend a shared link and then either they do or don't have a dropbox account and then could gain edit access if they did (it would match my goals and I think help incentivize a user to login with their Dropbox account to be able to contribute vs just view/participate/lurk).

By "it does appear that if I tried to share with an incorrect email it might not work", are you referring to the 'email_unverified' or 'invalid_email' errors, perhaps? Those actually just refer to the connected user's account (i.e., for the access token you're using) not being verified, or the email address value for the recipient not being in the expected email address format, respectively. Those are not referring to the state, or lack thereof, of the recipient's Dropbox account.

Anyway, there isn't a way for a recipient of a shared link for a folder to both view and optionally then directly get access to mount and edit the folder in their Dropbox account using just the one shared link unfortunately. These are different types of Dropbox sharing that don't directly connect to each other.

You can accomplish this using multiple links though. You can create shared links to send to the other users so they can view/download the content, and also get the "preview_url" of the shared folder which other users can use to request access to the shared folder for mounting and editing.

Ah, that last part sounds exactly like what I want to explore, thanks Greg!

So I've created a shareLink for my folder and requested the `short_url`.

`folder.url` is https://www.dropbox.com/sh/is3b7lj3go9g9ul/AACKo9xo_qf0rn0kh4TIZSgza?dl=0

`short_url` is https://db.tt/eMUUFEZY8d

When I try to use that `short_url` in a call to `get_shared_link_metadata` I get `error: {.tag: "shared_link_not_found"}` but when I use the resolved URL (aka `folder.url`) it works. Is that to be expected?

Yes, that endpoint expects the full shared link, not the short version.

By the way, it sounds like you're using the /2/sharing/create_shared_link endpoint to get that short URL. That endpoint is deprecated, so you should use the /2/sharing/create_shared_link_with_settings replacement instead. That doesn't offer the ability to get short URLs though.

Hey Greg-DB - thank you for going through this with me.. you mentioned: "get the "preview_url" of the shared folder which other users can use to request access to the shared folder for mounting and editing." above.

Can you describe how this flow might work in terms of the API?

e.g. User #1 sends a text with a sharedLink to User #2.. how can User #2 request access in my app? I wonder if maybe you meant they could request access in Dropbox?

Sure, this would look like this:

• the app calls /2/sharing/get_folder_metadata and gets the 'preview_url' for the shared folder from user #1's account (here's an actual sample from a test account: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/dh2dl2yrb4xk52n/AAAzPALQwplEJLHvONWVy1XTa?dl=0 )
• the app sends that URL to user #2
• user #2 accesses that URL in their browser
• user #2 signs in or signs up for Dropbox, if not already signed in
• user #2 uses the "Request access" functionality on that page to request access to the shared folder
• user #1 is notified and can then choose to add user #2 to the shared folder

So those interactions need to happen in Dropbox and can't be done via API right?

Also, at the end of it all, how will I as a developer on behalf of user #2, know that User #1 has granted access? I guess once I know that I can 1) mount the folder if needed and then 2) get it's real id to store in my app and fetch contents from there. (not sure how exactly I'll get that when all I have in the app is the preview_url, e.g. my app won't know about anything happening behind the scenes in dropbox I don't believe.