Python API client_modified resolution

[aplowman]

When I set the `client_modified` of the `files_upload` method in the Python API and then use `files_get_metadata` to inspect the `client_modified` attribute, I notice that the datetime.datetime object has had the microseconds set to zero. Does this mean the best resolution of the `client_modified` metadata is 1 second? This seems a bit too coarse if so. Regardless, may I ask whether the datetime is rounded to the nearest second or are the microseconds simply culled? I need to know this so I can then do comparisons. Thanks!

[Greg-DB · Accepted solution]

Yes, the Dropbox API itself uses UTC datetime strings in the ISO 8601 "combined date and time representation" format, so it has a resolution of seconds, not smaller.

The Python SDK does the formatting locally to conform with the Dropbox API spec before sending it to Dropbox. The format string is '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ', and any microseconds are just culled, not rounded.

I'll pass this along as a feature request for a finer time resolution, though I can't promise if or when that might be implemented.