How can I use the externalId of a TeamMemberProfile (Java API) ?

[jacqkl]

I discovered the field externalId in the class com.dropbox.core.v2.team.MemberProfile and I would like to use it to identify a team member with an "App related ID" (exactly the purpose of externalId as described in the Java-doc).

The only way I could find to set this "externalId" is with a  MemberProfile constructor,

and also, it's a "final field";

So my questions are:

1. is this info. only local (and not persistent) to the java app?, or is it kept somewhere in Dropbox?

2.  if answer to 1. is no,  how can this info. be set?, preferably using the dropbox web(browser) gui

3. if answer to 1 is yes, what can be used to achieve a persistent and team-admin manageable kind of team-user aliasing ?

[Greg-DB · Accepted solution]

1. No, the external ID is not local only. It is persisted on the Dropbox servers. 

2. It's not possible to set the external ID manually via the Dropbox web site. You can use the API to set it programmatically. With the Java SDK, that's done via membersAdd or membersSetProfileBuilder.