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General URL for many files from 1 shared folder

Hello community,

In my dropbox I have a folder with 200 country flags which I would like to download automatically using the respective URLs.
My problem is that the URL of every single file contains a key which is unique.
Example:
- for the USA flag the URL is https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/rzateuez21i5c95/us.png?dl=0
- for the Gereat Britain flag the URL is https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2ct7i7ov5zf6r0z/gb.png?dl=0
Every URL consists of four parts: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com s/XXXXXXXXXXXXX/ FILENAME.FILEFORMAT ?dl=0
So every shared file gets its own key s/XXXXXXXXXXXXX/ which is unique.

Is is it somehow possible to create a URL without this unique key part s/XXXXXXXXXXXXX/ ?
Something like this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/us.png?dl=0

Thank you

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Accepted answers

Greg-DB

Dropbox API v2 now supports listing the contents of a shared link for a folder. This can be accomplished using the same interface as listing a folder in a connected user's account, via the list_folder functionality. To list the contents of a shared link for a folder, you instead provide the shared link URL in the `shared_link` parameter to list_folder:

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation#files-list_folder

You can also get the shared link metadata and file data using:

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation#sharing-get_shared_link_metadata

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation#sharing-get_shared_link_file

If you're using an official SDK, there will also be corresponding methods for these endpoints.

So, you could use a shared link for a folder and then programmatically list and access the contents.

All comments

Sanchez

Hey @denne, welcome to our forum!

As far as getting these links in a different format… I’m afraid not, because that’s just the way our links work. However, to see if there is something else we can come up with, I require a bit of clarification on what you’d like to be able to do here :thinking:

Can you give me a bit more detail? We may be able to this a different way.

Thanks, and have a great weekend

denne

Hey @Sanchez,

thank you for your feedback.

What I'm trying to do is the following:

I'd like my code to use the dropbox URL and get files depending from the value of a variable.

My code is able to get the static part of the dropbbox URL and the variable name of the file (for example, for the Great Britain it is gb.png), but it fails to get the unique key (/s/xxxxxxxxxx).

Example: in case of Great Britain the value of the variable is "gb"

- the whole URL is https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2ct7i7ov5zf6r0z/gb.png?dl=0

- the static part of the URL is https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ ?dl=0

- the variable part of the URL is 2ct7i7ov5zf6r0z and gb.png

My code is able to get the file name ( gb.png ) but not the unique keys ( 2ct7i7ov5zf6r0z )

Is it somehow possible to create dropbox URL without unique keys (like 2ct7i7ov5zf6r0z) ?

Thank you,

Denne

Mark

Is this for an app you are developing Denne?

If so I'll move this to the API area where the API team may be able to help

denne

Hi Mark,

yes, it is for an app I'm playing with.

My idea was: to show country flags which I hold in my dropbox, but every single flag-file has not only a file name (like gb.png) but also a dropbox key (/s/xxxxxxxxxxx) for that file which makes the whole URL unique and thus impossible to generalize the call of the URL.

Thank you,
Denne

Greg-DB

Hi Denne, Sanchez is correct, there isn't a way to get a general shared link like this, but I'll pass this along as a feature request.

Greg-DB

denne

Thank you Greg! I'll give it a try

duckladydinh

I confirmed that this method is not going to work. The json response contains entries with id, tag and so one, but you cannot really download the subfolders or anything with them.

Greg-DB

@duckladydinh I'm not sure I understand your comment. If something isn't working as documented, please share the details so we can look into it for you.

For example, you can use the /2/files/list_folder endpoint to list the contents of a folder from a shared link for the folder:

curl -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data "{\"path\": \"\",\"shared_link\": {\"url\": \"<SHARED_LINK_FOR_FOLDER>\"}}"

# {
#   "entries": [
#     {
#       ".tag": "folder",
#       "name": "Test",
#       "path_lower": "/test shared folder/test",
#       "path_display": "/test shared folder/Test",
#       "parent_shared_folder_id": "248930168",
#       "id": "id:uKXaztDfaPQAAAAAAAAABA",
#       "sharing_info": {
#         "read_only": false,
#         "parent_shared_folder_id": "248930168",
#         "traverse_only": false,
#         "no_access": false
#       }
#     },
# <redacted for brevity>
#   ],
#   "cursor": "<redacted for brevity>",
#   "has_more": false
# }

And you can also list sub-folders like that using the "path" parameter:

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

# {
#   "entries": [
# <redacted for brevity>
#     {
#       ".tag": "file",
#       "name": "test.txt",
#       "path_lower": "/test shared folder/test/test.txt",
#       "path_display": "/test shared folder/Test/test.txt",
#       "parent_shared_folder_id": "248930168",
#       "id": "id:uKXaztDfaPQAAAAAAAAB3w",
#       "client_modified": "2018-05-10T17:07:46Z",
#       "server_modified": "2019-10-18T20:35:37Z",
#       "rev": "5953546d8c26e0ed65f78",
#       "size": 4,
#       "sharing_info": {
#         "read_only": false,
#         "parent_shared_folder_id": "248930168",
#         "modified_by": "<redacted for brevity>"
#       },
#       "is_downloadable": true,
#       "content_hash": "954d5a49fd70d9b8bcdb35d252267829957f7ef7fa6c74f88419bdc5e82209f4"
#     }
#   ],
#   "cursor": "<redacted for brevity>",
#   "has_more": false
# }

And then you can download a listed file using /2/sharing/get_shared_link_file by likewise using the relative path:

curl -X POST https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/sharing/get_shared_link_file \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \
    --header "Dropbox-API-Arg: {\"url\": \"<SHARED_LINK_FOR_FOLDER>\",\"path\": \"/test.txt\"}"

# test file contents

duckladydinh

Hi, thank you Grek. K for your very helpful comment. I did not look at the 'get_shared_link_file' and yes, it can fix my current problem. I am sorry for jumping to an early conclusion reconfirmed that the solution works.

Just a little question: Is there any way to do the same for 'folder'?

Greg-DB

@duckladydinh No, unfortunately there currently isn't a way to download a whole sub-folder from a a shared link for a folder via the API, but I'll pass this along as a feature request. I can't promise if or when that might be implemented though.

Note that you can download the top-level folder as a zip from the shared link as documented here, but that doesn't provide a mechanism for downloading a specific sub-folder.

Greg-DB

Update: The Dropbox API now returns the shared link for the nested item as 'url' when requesting the metadata for that item using the "path" parameter on /2/sharing/get_shared_link_metadata (instead of the original parent link). You could use that to download a specific sub-folder.