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Sharing - how to share a folder with edit access when don't know my friend's dropbox user id?
I have an App built on the Dropbox API (https://songdocs.io).
I want to send a link to a folder to a friend, and I know I can get a shared link (which gives anyone with it view permissions) and...
The 'sharing_info' is only set on a folder if the folder is itself shared as a shared folder (or is inside a shared folder). Note that this is different than the kind of sharing offered by /2/sharing/create_shared_link_with_settings. Calling /2/sharing/create_shared_link_with_settings for a folder will not make it a "shared folder"; it only creates a "shared link" for it.
To first share the folder as a shared folder, so that it will receive 'sharing_info' with a 'shared_folder_id' that you can then use with /2/sharing/add_folder_member, you should first call /2/sharing/share_folder.
Greg-DB
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorThe 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).
- Greg-DB
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?
- Greg-DB
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.
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