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Reading content from a file and show it WITHOUT downloading

hi all,

Currently I am developing an Android App with Android Studio and I got Dropbox API to get information from Dropbox. I am blocked with a method to get information from Dopbox account (.txt, .html, .jpg whatever file is displayed there) and display it on the screen of the simulator without download that file in any folder (reading directly from Dropbox). I am new with the API, could anyone share with me an example code to archieve it? or send me any information about that.

Thank you.

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Greg-DB

To use the Dropbox API from an Android app, we recommend using the official Dropbox API v2 Java SDK.

With that, you can use the download or downloadBuilder methods to access file data from the connected Dropbox account.

There's an example of calling the download method in an Android app here.

While that example happens to save the file to the local filesystem, you are not required to do so. You can use the returned DbxDownloader to write to an OutputStream, using DbxDownloader.download, or get an InputStream of the file content, using DbxDownloader.getInputStream, and then use that InputStream however you wish.

cris3c

I didn´t get it! Can please anyone help me out?

I am new on Android Studio, I need to know hoy to make the call from the On Create method, or life circle of the call.

Thanks!

Greg-DB

@cris3c Did you see my comment from earlier? Please refer to the links there for a number of useful resources.

If something isn't working as expected, or you're stuck on something, perhaps you could share what you have so far and what problem you're currently seeing.

cris3c

Hi,

I have cloned the example code in my local and opened it with Android Studio. Reading your tutorial in the following link: https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox-sdk-java#authorize

I started to follow the steps to build from source and run the examples, I could not pass the first step. It said that: "Follow the instructions in the "Build from source" section above." and that means that you have to run gradlew build code but when I run that it does not work due to next error:

photo 1

Could you help me out, please? Am I following the steps properly?

Thank you.

Greg-DB

Technically you don't need to build from source if you don't need to change the source code for the SDK (which you probably don't have reason to do). Instead, it's much easier to just install a released version. For example, you can replace this line from the Android example build.gradle:

    implementation group: 'com.dropbox.core', name: 'dropbox-core-sdk', version: '0-SNAPSHOT', changing: true

With this instead:

    implementation 'com.dropbox.core:dropbox-core-sdk:3.1.5'

Then once you do a Gradle sync for that change in Android Studio, it will download and install it for you.

cris3c

Hi,

The code lines you told me work perfectly but I found another error. I think android studio does not find the executable run.exe. I attach the following terminal message. It is in spanish but it can be read easily.

Could you help me out, please?

Greg-DB

I see you're now attempting to run the "authorize" example, and are trying to do so via a "run" command. That's actually referring to this "run" file which is a bash script, so you'd need to be running in an environment that can run bash scripts (such as cygwin).

If you're just trying to build an Android app though, I recommend just referring to the Android example app. The "authorize" example is just a command line app.

cris3c

Hi, I was trying to run the example in an environment that does not support bash scripts. So as you said, I built the android example, but when I try to run it this error comes:

API 'variant.getMappingFile()' is obsolete and has been replaced with 'variant.getMappingFileProvider()'.
API 'variantOutput.getPackageApplication()' is obsolete and has been replaced with 'variant.getPackageApplicationProvider()'.
src/main/java/com/dropbox/core/examples/android/DownloadFileTask.java
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot access DbxClientV2Base class file for com.dropbox.core.v2.DbxClientV2Base not found
src/main/java/com/dropbox/core/examples/android/FilesActivity.java
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FolderMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class ListFolderResult
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
uses or overrides a deprecated API.
src/main/java/com/dropbox/core/examples/android/FilesAdapter.java
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
cannot find symbol class Metadata
cannot find symbol class Metadata
cannot find symbol class Metadata
cannot find symbol class Metadata
cannot find symbol class FolderMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FolderMetadata
cannot find symbol class FolderMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FolderMetadata
src/main/java/com/dropbox/core/examples/android/FileThumbnailRequestHandler.java
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol variable ThumbnailSize
cannot find symbol variable ThumbnailFormat
cannot find symbol method files()
src/main/java/com/dropbox/core/examples/android/GetCurrentAccountTask.java
package com.dropbox.core.v2.users does not exist
cannot find symbol class FullAccount
cannot find symbol class FullAccount
cannot find symbol class FullAccount
cannot find symbol class FullAccount
cannot find symbol method users()
src/main/java/com/dropbox/core/examples/android/ListFolderTask.java
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
cannot find symbol class ListFolderResult
cannot find symbol class ListFolderResult
cannot find symbol class ListFolderResult
cannot find symbol class ListFolderResult
cannot find symbol method files()
src/main/java/com/dropbox/core/examples/android/UploadFileTask.java
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
package com.dropbox.core.v2.files does not exist
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol class FileMetadata
cannot find symbol variable WriteMode
cannot find symbol method files()
src/main/java/com/dropbox/core/examples/android/UserActivity.java
package com.dropbox.core.v2.users does not exist
cannot find symbol class FullAccount

I think the error is in the packages. Could you please help me out?

Greg-DB

This appears to indicate that the Dropbox library wasn't successfully loaded. Were you able to add it as instructed in my earlier comment? Did the Gradle sync complete successfully after that?

cris3c

Hi Greg,

Finally, I achieve to get into the Dropbox Android Application but it failed when I attempted to get the list of the files I have in my dropbox account, the error is:

Additional to this, I set in the permission in the app the following check:

With that, I thought the problem must have been solved, but it is not. Always the same problem. Could you help me out?

Greg-DB

The 'missing_scope' error indicates that while the app is permitted to use that scope, the particular access token you're using to make the API call does not have that scope granted. Be aware that just adding a scope to your app via the App Console does not retroactively grant that scope to existing access tokens.

That being the case, to make any API calls that require that scope, you'll need to get a new access token with that scope.

cris3c

Hi Greg,

Once I have checked all the scopes I need, everything I have to do is GENERATE an access token as you see in the image:

After that, have I to write that access token in any site of the android example code? If I have to, where? When it is generated, will everything be there or do I have to do something to write it somewhere in the code?

Thanks!

Greg-DB

Normally, you should implement the OAuth app authorization flow in your app, as shown in this example, in order to allow the end-user to connect their own Dropbox account so the app can receive the access token for that user's account programmatically once they approve it.

If you are only connecting your own account in particular though, you technically don't need to implement the app authorization flow. You can just hard-code your own access token like in this example. (Though, if you're using short-lived access tokens and refresh tokens for offline/background access, you'd want to use this constructor instead.) Note that access tokens allow access to your account though, so you shouldn't distribute them to other people.