Long-term Access Token for using in Node Red

[lsteel11]

Hi, 

I am trying to sync data from a raspberry pi to a dropbox app, so that I can access the data remotely in real time (e.g. it updates every 10 mins). I created a flow in Node Red to do this, using the dropbox out node - and put in the access token from my dropbox app. This worked well, however, the access token expired after a few hours. From researching, I see that dropbox is now only generating short term access tokens. However, for my data collection I require long term access.

1. Would generating a refresh token solve this problem? 

2. If so, how do I generate a refresh token? I have  downloaded python and python SDK, and tried to follow the documentation, but I am confused and cannot get it to work. 

I would really appreciate any help on the above, or any other ideas you may have as to how to sync this data! 

Many thanks, 

Laura 

[Greg-DB · Accepted solution]

1. Yes, using a refresh token is the right way to maintain long-term access without repeated manual interaction.

2. You can find an example of using the Python SDK to process the app authorization flow to get a refresh token here. Once you have the refresh token, you can store and re-use it to make the Dropbox client object whenever you need, without processing the app authorization flow again. The SDK will use the refresh token to perform the refresh process for you automatically.

[lsteel11]

Hi Greg, 

Thank you so much for this! I have managed to successfully implement the code (using my App Key etc) as far as line 19. 

When I run that next section, python just shuts down... any ideas? 

Many thanks, 

Laura 

[lsteel11]

Hi Greg, 

Thank you so much for this! I have managed to successfully implement the code (using my App key etc) up until line 19. 

When I run this next section, python just shuts down ... any ideas? 

Many thanks!

Laura 

[lsteel11]

Hi Greg, 

Thank you so much for this! I have tried to reply a couple of times but dropbox keeps marking my response as spam and removing it!?

I have successfully implemented the example code (using my app key etc) up until line 19. When I try to run this next section, python just shuts down ... any ideas? 

Many thanks! 

[Greg-DB]

Apologies for the trouble with the spam filter. I just unflagged your posts. Anyway, I saw your new post and followed up there.