links for multiple files in a shared folder

[billGeb]

Is there a way to link to specfic files within a shared folder without creating links for each individual file?     I have an images folder which I created a shared link that contains multiple (1000+) files.   If I want to build a url link to an individual file within the shared folder it seems like I should be able to add the name of the file to the shared folder link somehow but I can't figure out how and haven't found any documentation.

Please don't tell me the answer is to create 1000+ unique links for each of the 1000+ individual files!  

[Lusil]

Hey @billGeb, currently, you can’t customize a shared link; you can create one for the folder instead of every file individually, however. 

Let me know if I’ve misunderstood what you’re trying to achieve or if you have any other questions, and I’ll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks! 

[billGeb]

Thanks Lusil I appreciate your quick response!  

I have the link for the folder which works fine.   But what I actually want is the url to any file in the folder to imbed in a webpage to display that particular image rather than imbedding the link to the folder.   Which image needs to be dislplayed is determined by the app, not by the user, so the app needs the link to any file.   

But I think your answer is correct that it can't be done directly, the only way to do what I want is progrmatically through the API and generate urls for each file.

[Lusil]

Thanks for getting back to me on this, @billGeb. 

I’ve moved your post here, where some like-minded users may be able to share some ideas on this with you. 

Give us a shout if you have any other questions in the meantime!

[Greg-DB]

@billGeb That's correct, unfortunately you can't directly modify the shared link for a folder containing files in order to get a shared link for one of those files. (If you browse through the web page for a shared link for a folder manually, for instance, you'll see that it's more than just the file path that changes in the URL. There isn't a way to generate or predict what the resulting file URL would be just from the original shared link URL.)

If you want shared links for each file, you'd need to create each one on Dropbox. You can do so programmatically using the Dropbox API via the /2/sharing/create_shared_link_with_settings endpoint. (That's a link to the documentation for the HTTPS endpoints themselves, but we recommend using one of the official SDKs if possible. Those have corresponding native methods for the HTTPS endpoints.)