Dropbox API Support & Feedback
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Is there any way to register an OAuth2 redirect URI that will support using an unreserved (random) port over loopback/localhost? For desktop applications that might not be installed system-wide (e.g., portable installs), app-declared custom URI scheme redirection and app-claimed HTTPS URI redirection aren't available, and creating a short-lived local HTTP server works well for other OAuth2 services. Dropbox's URI matching appears to require a matching port too though. Do we need to just register ~50,000 URIs for all the different ports? Is there a better alternative?
I'm afraid I don't have a great solution for you, as OAuth 2 redirect URIs for the Dropbox API are required to be pre-registered exactly. I'll be sure to pass this along as feedback though.
One thing you may be able to do instead is to use one static redirect URI but encode the necessary information in the 'state' parameter, and decode it as necessary after the redirect back to your app, to handle it as necessary:
https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation#authorization
Alternatively, you could forgo using a redirect URI entirely. With the "code" flow, you can omit redirect_uri and have the user copy and paste the code manually. (Or, for the "token" flow, you can use https://www.dropbox.com/1/oauth2/display_token as the redirect URI and have the user copy and paste the access token.)
I'm afraid I don't have a great solution for you, as OAuth 2 redirect URIs for the Dropbox API are required to be pre-registered exactly. I'll be sure to pass this along as feedback though.
One thing you may be able to do instead is to use one static redirect URI but encode the necessary information in the 'state' parameter, and decode it as necessary after the redirect back to your app, to handle it as necessary:
https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation#authorization
Alternatively, you could forgo using a redirect URI entirely. With the "code" flow, you can omit redirect_uri and have the user copy and paste the code manually. (Or, for the "token" flow, you can use https://www.dropbox.com/1/oauth2/display_token as the redirect URI and have the user copy and paste the access token.)
Thanks Greg. I considered using a static redirect URI like you suggested, but that would require redirecting to our own website before redirecting to localhost for the real processing. Since we're a desktop app, I'd rather we not be involved, especially since corporate firewalls might be set up to allow access to Dropbox but not our own site.
I've gone with the code flow for now and it's working, but I do hope the localhost URI matching is made more flexible in the future.
I'm encountering the same problem, I tested many other sources like Google, Salesforce, Twitter, they all support variable port for localhost. This is very useful when changing embedded browser to system browser.
@qedi Thanks for the feedback!
I know this is an old thread but is there any update on this? Does the Dropbox API support variable localhost loopback ports or are we still forced to have our users copy/paste a code or guess a random unused port when the app is registered?
Thanks
@nicocizik No, unfortunately I don't have an update on this feature request.
Thanks Greg, I appreciate the update.
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