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Writing a file via API and make it always accessible publicly (like the old Public folder)
Hi,
This is my scenario: I need to write a file in users' Dropbox using the Core API and make it accessible (sharable) publicly and for a longer period (than 4 hours). I need somehow a similar behavior to the old Public folder, when the public link was available forever. I have noticed that if users share something via the "Share Dropbox link" they can set the expiration date or even remove it, but I cannot find a similar option via API.
So far, I am able to make the authentication, etc. and write anywhere/anything in a user's dropbox via the Core APIs but I cannot figure out how to make a file (or a folder) always accessible. The media API seems the closest way, but it expires after 4 hours.
Is there a way to do this?
Thanks so much!
Giorgio
6 Replies
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- Greg-DB
Dropbox Community Moderator
Yes, you can use the /shares endpoint to get a shareable link to a file or folder:
Thanks, Gregory
I would like to access the raw version of the file (which will be a JSON file). Is there a way to do that via API? I have noticed that the /media links expire after 4 hours...
- Greg-DB
Yes, there's information here on modifying the links from /shares for different behaviors, e.g., to return raw content:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/201
That's great, thank you so much!
The only downside of this is that the /shares link is not CORS enabled like the APIs, right? Having that &raw=1 option in the /shares endpoint would be great...
- Greg-DB
That's correct, CORS isn't enabled on www.dropbox.com. The parameters (
dlorraw) are preferred, but if they don't suit your use case, one alternative is to change host from www.dropbox.com to dl.dropboxusercontent.com, that is:to:
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/...
CORS does work on the latter host. That's not documented though, so I can't say it's officially supported.
And thanks for the feedback. I'll pass this along as a request to put the raw option directly into the /shares endpoint.
Awesome!
Thank you again for your help!
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