Disconnection from dropbox API after a period of time

[FormtoolOffice]

Hi

We use a system called EMPOWER that connects to the dropbox for our attachments.  Every day I have to reconnect the dropbox in the empower cloud based app (using google chrome) as it gets disconnected from the dropbox over a period of time.

No other computers or users are manually disconnecting.

What can be causing this?

Basic sub.

[Greg-DB]

It sounds like the makers of Empower haven't implemented support for "refresh tokens" and so the app is only using "short-lived access tokens", which expire after a few hours. The developers of the app will need to update it accordingly to maintain long-term access on new authorizations. You may want to reach out to them to ask them to do so.

[FormtoolOffice]

Hi - from developer: DropBox has two options for their connections. One is to have refresh tokens and the other is to keep the connection alive until it is disconnected. We are using the second option. It will not disconnect unless it is done manually.

[Здравко]

Hi @FormtoolOffice,

Seems, your application developers are referring to old information, invalid now. More than 2 years ago the "second option" was declared as deprecated in fact. More than year already the same option is dropped - something those developers completely miss (seems). More info for the migration mentioned can be seen here. 😉

Hope this helps.

[Greg-DB]

@FormtoolOffice Здравко is correct. The information from the developers is out of date. To elaborate and clarify, there have been three different ways an app may have worked at various points:

1. long-lived access tokens: Apps previously could have the user authorize the app to receive a long-lived access token that could be stored and re-used repeatedly without expiring automatically. This option is no longer available for new connections.
2. short-lived access tokens: Apps can now have the user authorize the app to receive a short-lived access token that can be used for several hours before expiring automatically. The app can have the user manually re-authorize the app after that to get a new short-lived access token when needed.
3. short-lived access tokens and refresh tokens: Apps can now have the user authorize the app to receive a short-lived access token that can be used for several hours before expiring automatically, as well as a refresh token which does not expire automatically and which can be used to automatically get a new short-lived access token whenever needed, without the user manually re-authorizing the app.

The developers of the app should refer to the following resources for more information on implementing this properly:

• https://developers.dropbox.com/oauth-guide
• https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation#authorization
• https://dropbox.tech/developers/migrating-app-permissions-and-access-tokens

They can also contact us directly here if they need help with any of this.