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

So I'm taking a stab at this.. My User #2 who has a shared link sends a request to sharingGetSharedLinkMetadata and gets back a folder object but the id in that response doesn't work as the shared_folder_id arg to sharingGetFolderMetadata. 

When I get a files within that folder though each file object includes a parent_shared_folder_id that looks like the correct format for sharingGetFolderMetadata. Seems like I'm doing something wrong and I should be able to get the shared_folder_id somehow with 1 API call and the shared link url. I'm probably missing something obvious.. Thoughts? 

The 'id' for a file or folder, such as returned by sharingGetSharedLinkMetadata, is not the same thing as a 'shared_folder_id', and the two are not interchangeable.

In the flow we discussed, you would get the shared folder ID from user 1's side, anywhere you can get the metadata for the folder, such as from filesGetMetadata. You can then use that to get the 'preview_url' from sharingGetFolderMetadata as user 1. User 2 doesn't need the shared_folder_id in that flow. User 2 just receives the shared link, for viewing the file/folder, or the preview_url, for requesting access to the folder.

Yeah, I think when I've talked to the designer about a flow that makes sense we settled on:

User #1 shares a sharedLink with User #2, which gives User #2 read-access in our App to all the content in the folder. This way we at least can deliver value to user #2 as context. Otherwise someone is just going to out of the blue get a dropbox email that doesn't appear to be related to our application.

Once User #2 wants to "upgrade" to contribute or make edits they would then ask for permission and we'd bounce them out to the preview_url. Once User #1 grants User #2 permission, I'm hoping be able to make some change (if needed) so that User #2 can now write back new files to the folder or edit files in that folder.

It's odd to me that as a developer I can peek into any of the files inside of the sharedLink folder contents to obtain the parent_shared_folder_id that I'll need to use to get at the preview url. So I kind of wondered if I was doing something wrong or missing an API endpoint that might have it. I suppose this means that a sharedLink to a folder without files in it would be busted (not the end of the world). 

Let me paint a picture of the App in case it gives you any other ideas..

I'm a songwriter. I write chords and lyrics in my app which saves a text file to a folder inside of an App Folder. 

You and I are going camping and we both play guitar and you write songs too.

I want to share a folder of all my songs with you so we can play them together. So I send you a magic link to my app that gives you the sharedLink and then when you open my app you see my songs which makes you excited to participate.

Now if you want to add yours too (which I hope, but don't presume that you'll necessarily want to), so you sign in to dropbox, and then ask me for edit permission to the shared folder (via the preview_url). Once I grant you access I hope that you can just refresh the App and then you can add your songs to the folder.

That's at least the flow we're trying to build. Not sure if you can think of a better pattern. 

I see, thanks for the additional context. I can't think of a better system for this use case unfortunately.

Hey Greg-DB 

So I'm trying to get the `shared_folder_id` as user #1 but I'm not successful.

Heres' what I see in Dropbox for the folder. I'm the owner:

I call `/files/get_metadat` but I don't see anything to use as a `shared_folder_id`:

The folder is link-shared:

So it seems I don't have what I need to programmatically add someone by email address. Ideas?

Ah, I'm just now seeing the "This folder can only be shared as a link" banner, which must be relevant.. I wonder if it's because this is a folder at the root level of my App Folder? aka it's /Apps/Songbook.Studio/Commoner .. maybe I'm heading into the rabbit hole.

I tried to share the folder in the Dropbox MacOS client but get this:

Starting to wonder if the "App Folder" permission is at the root of what's dogging me. I don't recall being so hamstrung until we made the decision to change that in the interest of user privacy.

I tried creating another folder in the Dropbox web client and choosing "Share with specific people" and got this, which is stuck:

Ok, so I tried another direction.

I sent a shared link from user #1 to user #2 but then trying to access it as user #2:

{"error_summary": "shared_link_access_denied/..", "error": {".tag": "shared_link_access_denied"}}

elsigh Yes, apologies for the confusion, but currently, app folders are incompatible with shared folders, meaning you can't share an app folder as a shared folder (only as a read-only link), put a shared folder inside an app folder or put an app folder in a shared folder. So, the behavior and restrictions you're seeing on the web site and desktop client are expected for app folders.

Instead, for any part of your app where you want to use the API with shared folders, you'll need to use "full Dropbox" permission, as opposed to the app folder permission. 

And the 'shared_link_access_denied' issue you mentioned appears to be the same as what you reported in this other thread. That's still open with the team.

I feel like I'd never want to give any app (certainly some utility app) the ability to read every folder/file in my dropbox, but I'd trust almost app to a particular directory and contents within, just like I do with users.

This seems like an pretty unfortunate design in terms of user privacy. I can't imagine users will give my app a try if I ask to read their whole dropbox. Am I missing anything? 

No, I don't believe you're missing anything. It sounds like you have a good understanding of the Dropbox API permissions options currently available, but we appreciate the feedback. There isn't currently a way to allow an app to access only a specific pre-existing path, but I'll pass this along as a feature request. I can't promise if or when that might be implemented though. 

Hey Greg-DB - I've changed our app back to the full dropbox permission for now, but I have a couple more challenges trying to implement the approach we outlined before.

I'll start with this one since it would give two users a shared-editable folder:

• User #1 creates a new folder (we do it in /Apps/Songbook.Studio/${newFolderName})
• User #1 tries to invite User #2 by email to that folder using sharingAddFolderMember, but we’re stuck without sharing_info.shared_folder_id
• The folder metadata has no sharing_info key on it. I’ve tried called sharingCreateSharedLinkWithSettings in advance. The only way I can seem to get sharing_info to be populated is if User #1 goes to the Dropbox client and adds any user by email there.