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How to get last modified date for folders in Dropbox V2 API ?

Hi,
I am trying migrate from v1 to v2 and get to the user's root folder and view all the list of files and folders with last modified date. I am passing "https://api.dropbox.com/2/files/list_folder" to get the list.

Currently I am getting "NaN/NaN/NaN" as last modified date for folders, the list is not in sorted order and size of file is not proper. And, I am also not able to open the folders.

I am using OAuthClientRequest and passing the json as

String requestJson = "{\"path\": \"\",\"recursive\": true,\"include_media_info\": true,\"include_deleted\": false,\"include_has_explicit_shared_members\": false}";

requestQ.setBody(String.valueOf(requestJson));
requestQ.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");

For response I am using :

OAuthClient clientResponse = new OAuthClient(new URLConnectionClient());
OAuthResourceResponse resourceResponse= clientResponse.resource(requestQ, OAuth.HttpMethod.POST, OAuthResourceResponse.class);

Please suggest me !

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Comments

Greg-DB

API v2 doesn't return modified time in FolderMetadata, but I'll be sure to pass this along as a feature request.

Regarding the order of items returned by list_folder, your app should process them in the order given in order to get an accurate representation of the state of the account. Once you have all of the metadata, you can sort items as desired on the client.

I'm not sure what you mean by "size of file is not proper" or "I am also not able to open the folders" though. Can you elaborate on those issues?

Ankita W.

Hi Gregory,

Thanks for your reply ! My other queries got fixed. Is there any other way by which we can get last modified date for folders ?

Greg-DB

The only workaround would be to use list_folder to list all of the contents of the folder and monitor for changes to them, recording the latest time as the modified time for the folder.

Saar A.

Are there any news regarding this issue?

Greg-DB

No, unfortunately I don't have any news on this request.

haktech

Hey Greg K., I'm really getting confused between the ClientModifiedDate and ServerModifiedDate. Can you please help me to figure this out? I have been testing this and each time i updated a file via the API, i noticed both of them were being updated with exactly the same datetime value..

What is the difference between them? In my app, i have filters and one of these is filtering by modified date. Which one is more accurate to refer to, ClientModifiedDate or ServerModifiedDate? The modified date that is showing in the Dropbox portal, is the server one or client one?

Thanks.

Greg-DB

@haktech You can find descriptions of client_modified and server_modified under the documentation for FileMetadata, e.g., under the return value documentation for /2/files/get_metadata.

In short, the server_modified time is the time from the server when the file was modified. This is more trustworthy, since only the Dropbox server can set this.

The client_modified time is supplied by the client, and not verified by the server, so it should only be used for display purposes.

You can set the client_modified time explicitly, by using the client_modified parameter when uploading files, e.g., via /2/files/upload. If that isn't supplied, client_modified will automatically be set to the same as server_modified.

The dropbox.com site displays the client_modified value.

PowZone

Hello,
I need the last modification date on folders too.

Any news on this feature?

thanks

Greg-DB

@PowZone No, unfortunately I don't have any news on this.

BouzianeAmineLocalfr

Hello,

Is there any updates regarding this subject ? if it's the case can you point me to the doc.

And thanks.

Greg-DB

@BouzianeAmineLocalfr No, unfortunately I don't have an update on this feature request.

BouzianeAmineLocalfr

Thanks for replaying, so fast.

Miros

Seriously? Is it really not possible to get create/modify date/time for files and folders using the Dropbox API?

Greg-DB

@Miros Modified time is available for files, but not folders. Created time is not available for either. You can find the full documentation on the different pieces of metadata that are available for different types in the documentation, such as for /2/files/get_metadata.

Diegovsky

Watching for changes isn't feasible if the user turns off their computer or loses connectivity. It seems that dropbox.com is able to show the last modified dates for folders so why isn't that exposed thorugh the V2 API?

Also, maintaining a live connection with dropbox would kinda suck since it would keep constantly polling for changes (which is expensive) and will consume a lot of band/API requests. What does the dev team recommend to solve this issue (that is: noticing server changes)? Is there a better way to know if there were any changes on the server?

My application is a oneshot app, which means it only compares disk changes and server changes once, synchronizes what has changed and then shuts off.

Здравко

@Diegovsky wrote:
Watching for changes isn't feasible if the user turns off their computer or loses connectivity. ...
Also, maintaining a live connection with dropbox would kinda suck since it would keep constantly polling for changes (which is expensive) and will consume a lot of band/API requests. ... Is there a better way to know if there were any changes on the server?

My application is a oneshot app, which means it only compares disk changes and server changes once, synchronizes what has changed and then shuts off.

Hi @Diegovsky,

In your case it's easy. You don't have to "keep constantly polling for changes". Just keep the last list cursor and whenever you want (i.e. you application runs next time) just try listing continuation. If the resulting list is empty,... no any changes. Just save the received cursor for next use and nothing more. If there are entries, they are last modified entries. Sync them, save received cursor for the next try and... it's ready. 😉

Hope this helps.

PS: By the way, there are no any timestamps for directory changes in dropbox.com. Where you have seen them? 🧐

Diegovsky

Indeed. I was using the python SDK so I didn't look much into this continuation API. Thanks for pointing me towards the right direction 👍

Regarding timestamps of folders, I just selected this folder and it shows me this info ("Modificado" meaning "modified" in english):

Здравко

It's meaningless if you are using direct API calls or some SDK. You should be able access the same features anyhow (to the discussed context, at least).

@Diegovsky wrote:
...
Regarding timestamps of folders, I just selected this folder and it shows me this info ...

😁Don't mess you local folder properties with those available throughout Dropbox website! 😉 What's on your screenshot?! Is it dropbox.com content?! 🤔😜 Your local folder will always have properties like any other local folder (either in sync by hand or using Dropbox app). Those properties are not in sync (they are no object of sync)! Till some future moment when this will change.

Hope this clarifies matter.

Edit: Oh... Sorry! There really are such "Modified" labels. You can easy see that they are incorrect. Looks like those moments are derived calculations... anyway - unusable.

Diegovsky

I seems to be derived, indeed.

Здравко

@Greg-DB wrote:
... for files, but not folders. Created time is not available for either. ...

Hmm... 🤔 Not entirely true! It seems Dropbox (as system) keeps folders creation moment internally (I have no idea why). It's another thing that this creation time is not accessible using Dropbox API for the folders. 😉 Actually there is no creation time field in all API structures at all.

File creation moment and folder last change moment are unavailable in Dropbox at all (not only in API and SDK or I haven't seen any symptoms to something else at least).

Greg-DB

@Diegovsky Thanks for the feedback! For reference, not all of the functionality used in the Dropbox product itself is available via the API, but I'll pass this along to the team. In addition to Здравко's guidance, be sure to check out the File Access Guide and Detecting Changes Guide, if you haven't already.