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Pysio13's avatar
Pysio13
Helpful | Level 6
3 years ago
Solved

Shared Link / "scl" to "s"

Hello. My question concerns my recent issue with file sharing. Usually, my links were generated in this way: 'https://www.dropbox.com/s/'. However, lately, every file is being generated in this way: 'https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/'. Do you know a way to restore the old way of generating links? I just need old way of links, because game can't read new links

    Greet šŸ˜›

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  • JasonSilverDBX's avatar
    JasonSilverDBX
    3 years ago
    Thank you BenDBX  for splitting off a new thread specific to the 3rd party integrations issue, and especially for doing it in a way that migrates all the relevant posts to date!  To properly wrap up this thread, below is a summary.


    Why the new "/scl" link format?

     

    Dropbox is moving to an updated shared link architecture where links are based on the content being shared rather than on the user doing the sharing.  This new content-based link architecture is already in place for edit access links to folders and newly created links to files, and can be identified by the presence of an ā€˜rlkeyā€™ parameter in the URL.  (They also begin with "/scl" instead of the previous architecture's  "/s".)  It is the rlkey parameter which grants access to the content.  That is why removing that parameter results in visitors having to sign in and request access.  I talk more about this transition in this forum thread.
     
    Over the next few months, weā€™ll round out the shared link portfolio by bringing this new architecture to newly created view-only access folder links, or view folder links for short.

    Direct Download on new link architecture is Solved

     
    Regarding this thread on ā€œdirect / forcedā€ download not working on new links, this should be solved since a fix was implemented 2 weeks ago.  That is, all new links should now function the same as legacy links for these purposes.  This can be accomplished in two ways.  
    1. modifying the dl parameter in the URL
    2. modifying using dl.dropbox.com or dl.dropboxusercontent.com.  

     

    šŸ‘‰ In both cases you must retain the rlkey parameter for the URL to grant your recipients permission rights to access your file.

     

    What is the DL parameter?

     

    Anything following the ? in a URL are query parameters.  Itā€™s worth reemphasizing that dl parameter in new links did not break and will continue to function identically to those in legacy links.  Manually changing the dl parameter does the following:

     

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0

    • Default link. This will render the content in the Dropbox file viewer.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=1

    • Downloads the content of the link (if the user has access to the content based on link settings). This query parameter takes precedence even if raw=1 is also added.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&raw=1

    • Directly renders the content in the browser (if the link has a public audience and no other restrictions). Note that this link has an HTTP 302 redirect, so the application or browser must be able to follow the redirect.

     

    What are the dl.dropbox... modifications?

     
    These are link transformations from the early days of Dropbox.  While we don't "officially" list these anymore in our Help Center, we are continuing to support them for now.  
     
    https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0
    • Replacing www with dl works exactly like a ?raw=1 link: this will directly render content for public links in the browser. It requires following an HTTP 302 redirect.
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0
    • Works like a ?raw=1 link, but the application or browser will not need to follow an HTTP 302 redirect to access the content.
     

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  • eagledrop's avatar
    eagledrop
    Helpful | Level 6
    3 years ago
    Not very good news from Support:

    We are currently changing the way users create shared links. All new links now have the /scl/ token instead of /s/. We have never supported modifying links the way you are doing it (using dl.dropboxusercontent.com), and at the moment this functionality won't work on the new /scl/ links. Our engineers haven't committed to supporting this in the future, but things may change.
  • Marconius's avatar
    Marconius
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago

    Adding my own note here:

    1. The rlkey bit makes links way longer than they used to be, which is a pain.
      1. Deleting that bit prompts a login, so not an option.
    2. Can no longer change www to dl to create a direct link, which is a major issue.

    These are both issues that make the platform effectively useless for my purposes. I could maybe deal with Dropbox forcing people to view all files through their viewer, but the already massive links becoming 50% longer is an absolute game-breaker for me.

  • ramonB's avatar
    ramonB
    Helpful | Level 6
    3 years ago

    The new links to embed an audio file in an html player don't work.

  • Forebears's avatar
    Forebears
    Helpful | Level 6
    3 years ago
    Yep, the audio player use case completely breaks with this change.

    Seems like a pretty dumb way to lose a significant amount of customers on Dropboxes end. Iā€™m surprised they arenā€™t concerned about this functionality at all.
  • matthewdbx's avatar
    matthewdbx
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    3 years ago
    Hi everyone, thank you for providing feedback in this post and bringing to our attention the issue with dl.dropbox.com and dl.dropboxusercontent.com not working for /scl/fi/ shared links.
     
    Our engineering team is now aware of the issue and is actively working on a fix to restore the functionality thatā€™s been mentioned. We expect this to be available within the week, and weā€™ll continue to keep you informed of the fix status in this forum post.
     
    As we continue to roll out the centralized /scl/ link model in the future, weā€™ll continue to monitor this post and the community forum for any additional feedback.
     
    Thank you again for the feedback and input in this post, and sincere apologies for the disruption the issue has caused.
  • ramonB's avatar
    ramonB
    Helpful | Level 6
    3 years ago
    All's well That ends well. Thank you so much.
  • caitycordova's avatar
    caitycordova
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago

    Hi, what about the dl=0 vs dl=0key....  I need to be able to replace with raw=1 

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