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Alex_Ch's avatar
Alex_Ch
Helpful | Level 5
2 years ago

How can i get an acces token without a login?

why am I using Dropbox?

I´m developing a project with react. It's pretty simple, just a form where ussers send a pdf file. The thing I want to do is just that the ussers send their file and its uploaded to my dropbox account in its app folder. 

 

what im having trouble with:

I were testing with the generated token in app console, but i need a way to have an access token. How could i get an access token witout a login?, i just need that the ussers send the files to my app folder in my dropbox

 

I apologize for my poor choice of words, I`m new in this topic

  • Hi Alex_Ch,

    Since you want to access your own account (not user's accounts), the best way would be to implement the entire communication to your Dropbox account (or the communication management, at least) on your server side. In such a way you can use pre-generated refresh token usable to refresh your access token (generation whenever needed - something performed automatically when official SDK is in use). There is no way access token to be generated completely without user confirmation (the your confirmation in particular case - your account is the target), but once refresh token is generated you can use it without further interaction from your side or your site's users.

    One scenario is on post the pdf, it flows to your site and next from your site to Dropbox (i.e. your site behave like a proxy). Other scenario is on user intent to post, on your site a temporary upload link to be generated and the pdf to be uploaded directly to Dropbox (without passing through your site) using this link. In the both cases you don't expose any credentials to the user's browser, something that should be followed (or is advisable, at least).

    Hope this gives direction.

  • Здравко's avatar
    Здравко
    Legendary | Level 20

    Hi Alex_Ch,

    Since you want to access your own account (not user's accounts), the best way would be to implement the entire communication to your Dropbox account (or the communication management, at least) on your server side. In such a way you can use pre-generated refresh token usable to refresh your access token (generation whenever needed - something performed automatically when official SDK is in use). There is no way access token to be generated completely without user confirmation (the your confirmation in particular case - your account is the target), but once refresh token is generated you can use it without further interaction from your side or your site's users.

    One scenario is on post the pdf, it flows to your site and next from your site to Dropbox (i.e. your site behave like a proxy). Other scenario is on user intent to post, on your site a temporary upload link to be generated and the pdf to be uploaded directly to Dropbox (without passing through your site) using this link. In the both cases you don't expose any credentials to the user's browser, something that should be followed (or is advisable, at least).

    Hope this gives direction.

  • Greg-DB's avatar
    Greg-DB
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Alex_Ch I see Здравко already offered some helpful guidance.

     

    For more information on the OAuth flow, for retrieving a refresh token, refer to the following resources:

    And the documentation for the endpoint for generating a temporary upload link can be found here:

    • Alex_Ch's avatar
      Alex_Ch
      Helpful | Level 5

      excuse me but, how could i use the http request to refresh the access token in the sdk for javascript? 

      • Здравко's avatar
        Здравко
        Legendary | Level 20

        Alex_Ch wrote:

        excuse me but, how could i use the http request to refresh the access token in the sdk for javascript? 


        You can use raw http request, but you don't need to do that. As I said you can use SDK and in every SDK (including Dropbox Javascript SDK) are equivalent calls. It's your decision what you will use (depending on your development environment server side - you haven't mentioned what are you using there till now).

         

        Add: You may have skipped what I wrote above and I will repeat again. When your use some SDK (doesn't matter what exactly) the refreshing is performed automatic internally. You don't need to do more that proper client object initialization. Everything else is the same.

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