Direct link to image file

[danc222]

Hi, I'd like to know if there is a way to create a direct link to a file using the API. My app requires sending an image link to a 3rd party's API for image recognition. When I test the link created using "create_shared_link_with_settings", I get something like 

www.dropbox.com/s/8um0tttqgbjq5c7/my_image.jpg  

But it is not recognised as an image. Thanks

[TaylorKrusen]

Hi, 

Is the 3rd party API you're calling expecting a file or a URL to an image? 

I'd expect it to need the entire file, in which case you'll need to download (files/download) the file onto your server and upload the file to the other API for processing. 

[danc222]

Hi, thanks for the reply. The API is expecting a URL to the image. You can actually see for yourself here https://imagga.com/auto-tagging-demo

Links generated via the Dropbox API do not work as I assume the URL given is a 'container' with meta data, download links and comments etc. I am looking for a direct link to the media. Is this possible with Dropbox? Thanks

[danc222]

To add some more information:

I created a link of an image and got something that looked like:
www.dropbox.com/s/8um0tttqgbjq5c7/my_image.jpg  

But after downloading the image to my desktop, the actual link to the image file looked like:https://uc16303a726d517a4932231f53ee.dl.dropboxusercontent.com/cd/0/get/AjqdFl9BQdUPdRx5SUC83nDAmmbl...

This form of URL works with the API in question. So my question is...is there a way to generate this URL?

[TaylorKrusen · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the link. Neat tool. I found a solution! 

The share/get_temporary_link is the one you want. You can test it out in the API explorer real quick to verify before you write the code. 

Cheers!

[danc222]

Thanks Taylor, that seems to do the trick! I see temporary links expire after 4 hours but new ones can be generated on demand. Works fine for me.

[Busy beaver]

Idk is it legit, but I found a solution here - https://zapier.com/blog/generate-direct-dropbox-link/

It is just to replace "www.dropbox.com" in your url with "dl.dropboxusercontent.com". So in your case it would be dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/8um0tttqgbjq5c7/my_image.jpg .

Whois tells that that domain belongs to the same company as dropbox.com so probably that's not a third-party website.