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Re: Frequency of allowed /delta calls to detect changes

Frequency of allowed /delta calls to detect changes

Robert B.58
New member | Level 1

I'm using the /delta endpoint (via the PHP SDK's getDelta method) to detect when any changes have been made in a folder or any of its children, grandchildren, etc. It seems to work well. However, in the API documentation it instructs to, "...wait a while (at least 5 minutes) before calling getDelta again". I'm running my code on a linux-based server and wish to deploy it as a cron job running more frequently than every 5 minutes, so that I can be notified rather quickly about any new uploads. If /delta is intended to be called at most once every 5 minutes, is there another way to achieve the same goal easily with a lower time interval in between checks?

2 Replies 2

Greg-DB
Dropbox Staff

Yes, for server-side apps, we recommend using webhooks:

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/webhooks/docs

For client-side apps, or if webhooks won't suit your use case for whatever reason, you can use /longpoll_delta:

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#longpoll-delta

Steve M.
Dropbox Staff

The below blog post might help. It uses /longpoll_delta and /delta in a loop. (Code is in Python.)

https://blogs.dropbox.com/developers/2013/11/low-latency-notification-of-dropbox-file-changes/

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