How to detect Dropbox folder is renamed. via Dropbox http-api or java-sdk

[harshap]

After rename folder in Dropbox.

Dropbox 2/files/list_folder/continue api give response that indicate old folder and it's all sub-folder deleted and folder with new name and all old sub-folder with new path created.

For example: 1. Have folder name 'contract test sub category 1' that have sub-folder named 'contract test sub category 1' and sub folder have 'test.png' 2. Rename the folder with 'contract test sub category 0'. Get the response that display below.

Response :

{"entries":
      [{
         ".tag":"deleted",
         "name":"contract test category 0",
         "id":"id:zN8VXp5DPoAAAAAAAAABJw",
         "path_lower":"/contract/contract test category 0",
         "path_display":"/contract/contract test category 0"
       },
       {
         ".tag":"deleted",
         "name":"test.png",
         "path_lower":"/contract/contract test category 1/contract test sub category 1/test.png",
         "path_display":"/contract/contract test category 1/contract test sub category 1/test.png"
       },
       {
         ".tag":"deleted",
         "name":"contract test sub category 1",
         "path_lower":"/contract/contract test category 1/contract test sub category 1",
         "path_display":"/contract/contract test category 1/contract test sub category 1"
       },
       {
         ".tag":"deleted",
         "name":"contract test category 1",
         "path_lower":"/contract/contract test category 1",
         "path_display":"/contract/contract test category 1"
       },
       {
         ".tag":"folder",
         "name":"contract test sub category 1",
         "id":"id:zN8VXp5DPoAAAAAAAAABKg",
         "path_lower":"/contract/contract test category 0/contract test sub category 1",
         "path_display":"/contract/contract test category 0/contract test sub category 1"
       },
       {
         ".tag":"file",
         "name":"test.png",
         "id":"id:zN8VXp5DPoAAAAAAAAABLQ",
         "client_modified":"2019-01-25T12:30:58Z","server_modified":"2019-01-29T06:39:51Z",
         "rev":"0123a000000011c24d890",
         "size":181599,
         "path_lower":"/contract/contract test category 0/contract test sub category 1/test.png",
         "path_display":"/contract/contract test category 0/contract test sub category 1/test.png", 
        }],
     "cursor":"AAGsW7C_w_KUDSqracbrCsltYQBEjFAgIzkiFAc-wW7q_MkvC-bsa2v9PKI9trqUlfwfvhTS-F0aqMQiZyvOMI8RkRVapojCscMh6hda97n4bk1_oC31hz6mAeuvHWaI23w7UnXHWsi9ynVh-__INwtwwOvIdNqIG1cEWZtBtvZrUsRTKgqFkypN7217AtRGOaIeTkeOK01Cc-F50eZbmg9c",
     "has_more":false
   }

I have thousand of sub-folder in folder that i want to rename and run code according to renamed folder.

I want something that indicate 'contract test sub category 1' folder to renamed to 'contract test sub category 0'.

Is there any way to detect particular folder is renamed ? Or any dropbox-api that give my expected results.

[Greg-DB · Accepted solution]

[Cross-linking for reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54417566/how-to-detect-dropbox-folder-is-renamed-via-dropbox-htt... ]

If a file or folder is renamed, the new entry will have the same 'id' as the previous (non-deleted) entry.

So, if you want to keep track of renames, you should keep the existing state, from the previous /2/files/list_folder and /2/files/list_folder/continue calls.

Here's a more complete example:

curl -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/create_folder_v2 \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data "{\"path\": \"/test/test_325818\"}" | jqp

# {
#   "metadata": {
#     "name": "test_325818",
#     "path_lower": "/test/test_325818",
#     "path_display": "/Test/test_325818",
#     "id": "id:25N5ksooX-sAAAAAAAM5zg"
#   }
# }

curl -X POST https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/upload \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
    --header "Dropbox-API-Arg: {\"path\": \"/test/test_325818/test_325818.txt\"}" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/octet-stream" \
    --data-binary "test data" | jqp

# {
#   "name": "test_325818.txt",
#   "path_lower": "/test/test_325818/test_325818.txt",
#   "path_display": "/test/test_325818/test_325818.txt",
#   "id": "id:25N5ksooX-sAAAAAAAM50A",
#   "client_modified": "2019-01-29T19:08:37Z",
#   "server_modified": "2019-01-29T19:08:37Z",
#   "rev": "73c60021eccc7",
#   "size": 9,
#   "content_hash": "824979ede959fefe53082bc14502f8bf041d53997ffb65cbbe3ade5803f7fb76"
# }

curl -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data "{\"path\": \"/test\",\"recursive\": true}" | jqp

# {
#   "entries": [
#     {
#       ".tag": "folder",
#       "name": "test",
#       "path_lower": "/test",
#       "path_display": "/test",
#       "id": "id:25N5ksooX-sAAAAAAAM5zw"
#     },
#     {
#       ".tag": "folder",
#       "name": "test_325818",
#       "path_lower": "/test/test_325818",
#       "path_display": "/Test/test_325818",
#       "id": "id:25N5ksooX-sAAAAAAAM5zg"
#     },
#     {
#       ".tag": "file",
#       "name": "test_325818.txt",
#       "path_lower": "/test/test_325818/test_325818.txt",
#       "path_display": "/test/test_325818/test_325818.txt",
#       "id": "id:25N5ksooX-sAAAAAAAM50A",
#       "client_modified": "2019-01-29T19:08:37Z",
#       "server_modified": "2019-01-29T19:08:37Z",
#       "rev": "73c60021eccc7",
#       "size": 9,
#       "content_hash": "824979ede959fefe53082bc14502f8bf041d53997ffb65cbbe3ade5803f7fb76"
#     }
#   ],
#   "cursor": "AAEZHC5JNB-5N9UR8wHEdcHTUEbi-u78UPPhZfrt9hPLMhmbDIgPn6pFEmlMk7fItVUgMRA4dpMhLtwuqjlhTYgcDraWbCIpZ0rKJsPui2yTPXNIWIoCCjWzHm_osUCUWMOwGPLDqcXNMvhx5dUAz6fU7QaK0pGJAF08QdpQFV_KJC73PT1MT_DX1TYuDPBWkP4",
#   "has_more": false
# }

curl -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/move_v2 \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data "{\"from_path\": \"/test/test_325818\",\"to_path\": \"/test/test_325818_renamed\"}" | jqp

# {
#   "metadata": {
#     ".tag": "folder",
#     "name": "test_325818_renamed",
#     "path_lower": "/test/test_325818_renamed",
#     "path_display": "/Test/test_325818_renamed",
#     "id": "id:25N5ksooX-sAAAAAAAM5zg"
#   }
# }

curl -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder/continue \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data "{\"cursor\": \"AAEZHC5JNB-5N9UR8wHEdcHTUEbi-u78UPPhZfrt9hPLMhmbDIgPn6pFEmlMk7fItVUgMRA4dpMhLtwuqjlhTYgcDraWbCIpZ0rKJsPui2yTPXNIWIoCCjWzHm_osUCUWMOwGPLDqcXNMvhx5dUAz6fU7QaK0pGJAF08QdpQFV_KJC73PT1MT_DX1TYuDPBWkP4\"}" | jqp

# {
#   "entries": [
#     {
#       ".tag": "deleted",
#       "name": "test_325818.txt",
#       "path_lower": "/test/test_325818/test_325818.txt",
#       "path_display": "/test/test_325818/test_325818.txt"
#     },
#     {
#       ".tag": "deleted",
#       "name": "test_325818",
#       "path_lower": "/test/test_325818",
#       "path_display": "/Test/test_325818"
#     },
#     {
#       ".tag": "folder",
#       "name": "test_325818_renamed",
#       "path_lower": "/test/test_325818_renamed",
#       "path_display": "/Test/test_325818_renamed",
#       "id": "id:25N5ksooX-sAAAAAAAM5zg"
#     },
#     {
#       ".tag": "file",
#       "name": "test_325818.txt",
#       "path_lower": "/test/test_325818_renamed/test_325818.txt",
#       "path_display": "/test/test_325818_renamed/test_325818.txt",
#       "id": "id:25N5ksooX-sAAAAAAAM50A",
#       "client_modified": "2019-01-29T19:08:37Z",
#       "server_modified": "2019-01-29T19:09:03Z",
#       "rev": "73c64021eccc7",
#       "size": 9,
#       "content_hash": "824979ede959fefe53082bc14502f8bf041d53997ffb65cbbe3ade5803f7fb76"
#     }
#   ],
#   "cursor": "AAHt9Zlq5FimhWx0HZfGESi174eBTbSFXHS0ZyMQq5PcBgpWjIah3fS6iRKkyqHbmWr5MG-7cX4Bq8p6f6BF0nZ6D6cp26qSXH6kUxaAa_71a3f3hVMT8vDNF3dpxXHp4D57TU2YoEKwGrflmA9jEQbtS4_qZ77eL5Ul-ragoAh9kBLgopvOU7WOWVanQFHbj8I",
#   "has_more": false
# }

In this example, you can see how the folder originally at 
"/test/test_325818" was renamed to "/test/test_325818_renamed", but retained the same 'id' of "id:25N5ksooX-sAAAAAAAM5zg".

[harshap · Accepted solution]

Thank You Greg.

It really works for me.

[owaisansari]

Yes, but this is not ideal when dealing with dropbox webhooks. Currently, when a rename action happens on a parent directory and Dropbox send us the change made by user. It do not add IDs to deleted entries. I wish there is a simple approach to handle this.