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Forum Discussion
why is FolderId / SharedParentFolderId null or just missing for FileMetadata retrievals?
static void Main(string[] args)
{
DropboxClientConfig config = new DropboxClientConfig
{
MaxRetriesOnError = 0
};
DropboxClient dropboxClient = new DropboxClient(AccessToken.ValidToken, config);
var result = dropboxClient.Files.ListFolderAsync("").Result;
var folderMetadata = result.Entries.Where(e => e.IsFolder).First() as FolderMetadata;
result = dropboxClient.Files.ListFolderAsync(folderMetadata?.PathLower).Result;
var fileMetadata = result.Entries.Where(e => e.IsFile).First() as FileMetadata;
Debug.WriteLine($"fileMetadata is null: {fileMetadata == null} - folderId from ListFolderAsync: {fileMetadata?.ParentSharedFolderId}");
fileMetadata = dropboxClient.Files.GetMetadataAsync(fileMetadata?.Id).Result as FileMetadata;
Debug.WriteLine($"fileMetadata is null: {fileMetadata == null} - folderId from GetMetadataAsync: {fileMetadata?.ParentSharedFolderId}");
}
Running above code returns the following:
A feature request has been filed to include the parent folder ID in the metadata response object.
I cannot promise when and if this will be implemented.
- Greg-DB
Dropbox Staff
The parent shared folder ID is only returned if the item is contained inside a shared folder. (Note that new folders in your home folder are not shared by default.) If the item is not in a shared folder, then ParentSharedFolderId will not be set. The output you shared indicates that the file you're checking is not in a shared folder.
By the way, note that Metadata.ParentSharedFolderId is deprecated in favor of FileSharingInfo.SharingInfo.ParentSharedFolderId and FolderSharingInfo.SharingInfo.ParentSharedFolderId, so you should use fileMetadata?.SharingInfo?.ParentSharedFolderId instead. Note that SharingInfo will likewise not be set if the file is not in a shared folder.
Feature request please for a File / Folder metadata item to always return its parent FolderId (whether it is shared or not). Both path and parent FolderId are very important metadata items for these types.
- Greg-DB
To clarify, FolderMetadata.Id and Metadata.ParentSharedFolderId are different types of identifiers.
Shared folder IDs (such as in ParentSharedFolderId) are only created once a folder is shared. They can't always be returned since they may not exist yet.
File and folder IDs (such as in FileMetadata.Id and FolderMetadata.Id) however, exist for all non-deleted files and folders. You can get always them from the FileMetadata or FolderMetadata. For example, that would be folderMetadata.Id or fileMetadata.Id in your sample code. If you have only the FileMetadata, you can get the FolderMetadata for its parent by using GetMetadataAsync and passing in the path of the parent (that is, the path of the file without its last path component).
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