I only need to obtain the MetaCode from the files, not the file itself. Can that be done?

[sjyuenger]

I have a windows app that only needs to scan for the file meta data (File Name, Date Created, Directory, File Size etc) to support my clients.  My application FindMyFile.exe builds a virtual drive to store a relational database of that data.  I then can query for any file and get an answer in 1-3 seconds (my test database was 2.4 million records).

Many of my clients use DropBox and I want to permit them to include their files on DropBox along with their other file storage medium and give them a complete picture of their data (c:/ d:/ e:/ f:/ and DropBox) to scan for their files.

This app is close to release, and it has a "patent pending" status at this point.

[Здравко]

Hi @sjyuenger,

There is a special call to receive a single entry (either file or folder) metadata. Actually you don't need it since when you list available entries in Dropbox account result is a list of such metadata - you receive them even when you don't want. So, Yes, that can be done! 😉

Good luck.

[sjyuenger]

That is super, however if I as for a folder do I get the metadata for all the sub folders and files as well?

In windows python my code:

• for r, d, f in os.walk(target):
  for fi in f:
  qfname = os.path.join(r, fi)

It is the os.walk command that loads all the sub folders and files.  Can I walk down the result from DropBox?

Regards,

Steve Yuenger

[Здравко]

@sjyuenger, To be honest I'm not sure what you're asking me for. If you want to use API (or some suitable SDK) you should use API calls (or corresponding SDKs methods). In all other cases you can use whatever you want and works for you (since your example is related to local files, eventually synced). Clarify to yourself what exactly you want. My previous post was for Dropbox API usage.

If you want to enumerate the synced files localy, the files should exist (or their placehoders at least). Take in mind if you 're going to enumerate placeholders, some of the metadata (the file size for instance) may be wrong! Take care.

[sjyuenger]

Sorry I wasn't clear.  I do want to use the Drop Box API as that makes my product acceptable to our mutual clients.

Rather than taking up your time first, let me attempt to follow your initial suggestion.  If I run into a wall, I hope I can follow up with you.

Regards

Stephen Yuenger

[Greg-DB]

@sjyuenger If you want to list file/folder metadata using the Dropbox API with Python, you can do so either using the official Dropbox Python SDK, or the Dropbox API HTTPS endpoints directly.

To use the official Dropbox Python SDK, which is recommended, for this you would use the files_list_folder and files_list_folder_continue methods.

Otherwise, without the SDK, to use the HTTPS endpoints directly, the corresponding endpoints are /2/files/list_folder and /2/files/list_folder/continue.