Retrieve all files in App shared folder (respecting folder tree)

sixdesign

Hi!

I'd like to display all files of from a shared folder, using DropBox API respecting my folder hierachy. I followed 2 different ways :

1) My first idea was to use the files/list_folder endpoint (and recursive parameter as true) then files/list_folder/continue as mentionned in lot of answers here to get all files and folders.

It works quite nice, but I get all files and folders regardless of the folders tree. And was not able to recreate the initial folder hierarchy by myself cause file doesn't contain his parent folder id.

2) Second idea. Get the list of the first level of folders using files/list_folder, then for each folder found, request the files/list_folder endpoint again to get the list of folder files.

It works but it takes lot of time... I have got 15 folders and the all 16 requests (the root one and one for each folder) takes at least 6s !! (I use guzzle and PHP)

There is a way to know the id of direct parent folder ? (case 1)
Or a better way to retrieve files with better performance ? (case 2)

Thanks.

TaylorKrusen

Hi! Happy to help. A couple clarifying questions:

- Could you clarify what you mean by 'respecting folder heirarchy'? 
- What is the final way you want your files displayed?

In general, your #1 solution is the better way to go. I reccommend continuing to iterate on that solution. 

A response from a successful list_folder response will typically look like this: 

{
    "entries": [
        {
            ".tag": "file",
            "name": "Prime_Numbers.txt",
            "id": "id:a4ayc_80_OEAAAAAAAAAXw",
            "client_modified": "2015-05-12T15:50:38Z",
            "server_modified": "2015-05-12T15:50:38Z",
            "rev": "a1c10ce0dd78",
            "size": 7212,
            "path_lower": "/homework/math/prime_numbers.txt",
            "path_display": "/Homework/math/Prime_Numbers.txt",
            "sharing_info": {
                "read_only": true,
                "parent_shared_folder_id": "84528192421",
                "modified_by": "dbid:AAH4f99T0taONIb-OurWxbNQ6ywGRopQngc"
            },
            "is_downloadable": true,
            "property_groups": [
                {
                    "template_id": "ptid:1a5n2i6d3OYEAAAAAAAAAYa",
                    "fields": [
                        {
                            "name": "Security Policy",
                            "value": "Confidential"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "has_explicit_shared_members": false,
            "content_hash": "e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855"
        },
        // other entries
    ];

The property named 'path_lower' (or path_display) contains the explicit path to your file. Those strings contain all the information about where your file lives in relation to your folder heirarchy.

You can either parse the string manually (using a built-in method like `split('/')`) or bring in a module to help work with the path. In both cases you should be able to use the path information to handle your files according to that heirarchy.