Error: property_groups: expected list, got string

@toki4004 wrote:
..., and now I want to view a folder list with items + see their properties. I get this error:
"Error in call to API function "files/list_folder": request body: include_property_groups.filter_some: expected list, got string".
Here is my code below. What format is expecting for "include_property_group"?
...

Even when you have one property group it should be a list with one entry, not just a single string, as you have passed. If you take a look on 'filter_some', you will see that expected type is list, not something else (list of ids, not just one id itself - even when it's alone). Wrap your id' string with array.

All comments

Hi @toki4004,

It's a good idea to prototype API call when you are not sure about something. 😉 So you can easy find out all differences and what's wrong. In particular (for /2/files/upload) you can take a look here. Click on "Show Code" to see how the call look like. Most valuable for you may be the "HTTP request" form of view (PHP is not supported).

Good luck.

@toki4004 As Здравко linked to, the API v2 Explorer is a good tool for prototyping and inspecting how API calls should be formatted.

I see in your code you're using json_encode on the property_groups value directly. The value is supposed to be a list, but note that json_encode itself returns a string, you're actually sending that parameter value as a string instead of the expected list. It looks like you could do so by removing that first json_encode call and just supplying the $meta variable itself.

Thanks, I am a newbie, wondering if you could help:

From the explorer page, I get this error

... "Dropbox-API-Arg": property_groups.template_id: '' must be at least 1 characters, got 0

Is the template required? All I am trying to do is save a custom metadata snippet with the file.

I tried removing that first json_encode call and just supplying the $meta variable. Now I get the error:

"... property_groups: expected list, got builtins.dict"

@Greg-DB

@toki4004, did you prototype your calls? As seems not yet... Yes, property group is list/array. The elements of this list are dicts. The fields of each element is list also.

Take a bit more care. 🙋

@Здравко

I am trying to but I get that error 400 - it's asking for template_id. What template is it referring to?

@toki4004 The 'property_groups' parameter on the /2/files/upload endpoint is optional. (You can find that in the documentation for /2/files/upload.) You should only set it if you are using the "file properties" feature. If you do set the 'property_groups' parameter though, the 'template_id' field in any given PropertyGroup object is required and must not be empty.

You can find information on the file properties feature, such as what templates are and how to work with them, in the documentation for it here.

Where before I was getting en error

property_groups: expected list, got string

now with this change:

	$meta = array(
		array("cat", "dog")
    );
	

    $fields = array(
        "path" => "/ba.txt",
        "autorename" => false,
        "mode" => "overwrite",
        "mute" => false,
        "strict_conflict" => false,
        "property_groups" => $meta
    );

I am getting:

property_groups: expected object, got list

So now it's NOT expecting a list...? I am confused on the format that it wants to receive.

@Greg-DB Ah, ok, so the template is required. I guess I'll have to set that.

My end goal is to assign a custom meta data to a file/folder. It sounds like I'll need to set template and then deal with that property.

Also don't nest lists one in other directly..

@toki4004 The "property_groups: expected object, got list" error is referring to the items in the property_groups list; the items are supposed to be objects of type PropertyGroup, but you're instead supplying a list via `array("cat", "dog")`.

It should look more like this:

    $meta = array(
        array("template_id" => "ptid:TEMPLATEID", "fields" => array(array("name" => "FIELDNAME", "value" => "FIELDVALUE")))
    );

You'd need to replace the CAPITALIZED values with your actual values of course.

I created a template in my app and got a response with a template id. I can also make a call in my app "get_for_user" and view the schema for the new template. BUT when I go to your API explorer, I get nothing back
templates/list_for_user:

"template_ids": []

Also, get_for_user:

{
  "error_summary": "restricted_content/..",
  "error": {
    ".tag": "restricted_content"
  }
}

Why am I able to get_for_user via my app but not the explorer?

Also, can you please explain: does the add_template needs to be called only once and then it's stored? If yes, until you delete it?

@toki4004 wrote:
I created a template in my app and got a response with a template id. I can also make a call in my app "get_for_user" and view the schema for the new template. BUT when I go to your API explorer, I get nothing back ...

Yes, of course @toki4004. Every template is valid for application-user pair (neither for user alone nor application itself). You had created your template in one application (your application) and tried access it in another one (API explorer). 😉

Hope this clarifies matter.

@toki4004 Здравко is correct; the template is specific to the app-user pair, so you can't list or use the templates from one app when calling with a different app.

And yes, you only need to create the template once per app-user, after which it's recorded on the Dropbox servers so you can use it for that app-user without creating it every time.

I've been struggling getting my properties to show. I created a template fine, assigned a property to an item, and now I want to view a folder list with items + see their properties. I get this error:

"Error in call to API function "files/list_folder": request body: include_property_groups.filter_some: expected list, got string".

Here is my code below. What format is expecting for "include_property_group"?

    $meta = array(
        ".tag" => "filter_some",
        "filter_some" => "ptid:-ynhqttM3GkAAAAAAAAeOg"
    );


    $fields = array(
        "path" => "/folder 2",
        "include_property_groups" => $meta,
        "recursive" => false,
        "include_media_info" => false,
        "include_deleted" => false,
        "include_has_explicit_shared_members" => false,
        "include_mounted_folders" => false
    );

    $headers = array(
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $auth_token,
        'Content-Type: application/json'
    );

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode( $fields ) );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST" );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder' );

@toki4004 wrote:
..., and now I want to view a folder list with items + see their properties. I get this error:
"Error in call to API function "files/list_folder": request body: include_property_groups.filter_some: expected list, got string".
Here is my code below. What format is expecting for "include_property_group"?
...