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Forum Discussion
Key Command/Shortcut to "Copy Dropbox Link" from Mac Finder.
I copy download links all day from the Mac Finder. It would be great to assign a key command so that you can highlight a file in your Dropbox via Mac Finder, and press a key command to copy the link ...
Update (2023-01-17)
I've moved the script to a repository and expanded on the instructions.
I wanted this now, so I wrote a Python script to get the URL from the command line and created an Automator QuickAction that calls the script with the selected file(s) in Finder:
Now, ^⌘L copies the Dropbox URL of any number of files selected in the Dropbox folder.
Gene_Parmesan thanks for the additional help on this! I've made some progress with the new script and instructions. I took your suggestion to pin urllib3 to version 1.26.6, and that allowed me to generate the API access code. However, now when I try running my Automator workflow I get the following error:
The action “Run Shell Script” encountered an error: “usage: get_dropbox_link.py [-h] [--verbose] paths [paths ...]
get_dropbox_link.py: error: the following arguments are required: paths” in macro “Copy Dropbox Link”
Would this have something to do with the fact that either a) I use a Dropbox business account (I've changed the AccountType variable in your script accordingly), or b) I keep my Dropbox files on a removable drive, and not the standard ~/Dropbox path?
I do appreciate for all the thought and attention you've put into this thus far!
You're almost there! This output means that the script IS running successfully, but it's not receiving the list of selected paths. My guess is that you are passing input "to stdin" instead of "as arguments". Either that, or your script in the Automator action doesn't have "$0" after it. Might either of these be the culprit?
Or what about "Workflow receives current files or folders in Finder"?
Ack, that's my error! It should be "$@" like you had it, I'm sorry. Please change it back.
Just to be clear, when you're getting this error, are you pressing Run within Automator? If so, that won't work. You need to do the next steps to set up the Finder keyboard shortcut. That way the Workflow will be run as a Quick Action via the Services menu and thus have selected files in Finder to pass into the Quick Action.
Gene_ParmesanSuccess! Previously I had been using a Keyboard Maestro macro to run the Automator workflow, but I've just tried triggering it from the services menu with a keyboard shortcut, and voila! It works!
I'm curious how the two methods differ. I had used KM to run your previous version of the script without any trouble. In any case, this method works great and the link seems to be generated much much quicker than before! A massive improvement -- thank you again for this!!
Huzzah! So glad we got there in the end, thanks for helping me debug the script, LOL. And I'm really pleased to hear it's faster now!
My guess is that the difference comes from this version of the workflow requiring Finder items to be passed in at the top. Previously, I was using a Get Selected Finder Items action, which was resulting in links being duplicated given the "Workflow receives files from Finder" preamble. But if you add back that Get Selected Finder Items action and then go back to using KM (and I presume set the workflow to receive "no input", since that's how you'd now be using it)… I think it would work that way as well. You can read up on this a bit on AskDifferent.
I'd be interested to hear if my hypothesis is correct. 😀 I had assumed these two approaches were completely equivalent, but perhaps using an action is actually more flexible.
That was it! When I restored "Get selected item from Finder" and changed the input to none, my Keyboard Maestro macro worked. But after a quick and dirty test, it looks like it's just a hair faster to run the workflow as a service, so I'm going to keep it that way after all.
Thanks Gene_Parmesan !!
Great, glad we could lay that mystery to rest. Yeah, I'm not surprised that it's faster via the Services menu. As far as I understand it, having that extra Workflow step means another AppleScript invocation, and AppleScript is notoriously sluggish.
Gene_Parmesanthe update did the trick! Thank you!!
Gene_ParmesanI had used "$@" in the automator script per the instructions and the Automator workflow you posted. I tried switching that to "$0" instead, but now I get a slightly different error:
2023-05-24 16:08:45 !ActionCanFail() for Action Execute “Get Dropbox Link.workflow” Automator Workflow in macro Copy Dropbox Link with failure Execute an Automator Workflow failed with script error: The action “Run Shell Script” encountered an error: “ERROR:root:'/Users/dherman/-' is not in the subpath of '/Volumes/STUDIO D DROPBOX/Good Studio Dropbox/David Herman' OR one path is relative and the other is absolute.”
2023-05-24 16:08:45 Action 441 failed: Execute an Automator Workflow failed with script error: The action “Run Shell Script” encountered an error: “ERROR:root:'/Users/dherman/-' is not in the subpath of '/Volumes/STUDIO D DROPBOX/Good Studio Dropbox/David Herman' OR one path is relative and the other is absolute.”
2023-05-24 16:08:45 Execute an Automator Workflow failed with script error: The action “Run Shell Script” encountered an error: “ERROR:root:'/Users/dherman/-' is not in the subpath of '/Volumes/STUDIO D DROPBOX/Good Studio Dropbox/David Herman' OR one path is relative and the other is absolute.” in macro “Copy Dropbox Link” (while executing Execute “Get Dropbox Link.workflow” Automator Workflow).I'm attaching a screenshot of my Automator workflow below. It looks like I do have Pass inputs set to "as arguments."
My Dropbox Volume name has spaces in it — could that be part of the issue?
I should clarify, that screenshot is of my original workflow, before I changed the script to "$0"
Just discovered another small issue, which I have now fixed. The recent Dropbox update changed where the folder is located. Files are now actually stored in ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox, and ~/Dropbox is just s symlink. This means that passing a path to a file within ~/Dropbox will fail.
Easy enough fix, and it will only affect users trying to get links from the command line. (It looks like Finder passes the resolved path in ~/Library, so if you never plan to use this from the command line, then you should be OK without an upgrade.)
This has been working so well for me, thank you Gene_Parmesan!!
FWIW, I wanted to report a small quirk that I've noticed, which is that a link can only be copied once the file has completed syncing. If it hasn't completed yet, I get the following error message:
Interestingly, if I right-click the file and use Dropbox's "Copy Dropbox link" action, it will work even if file hasn't completed its sync. Do you have any thoughts as to whether or not this is something that can be addressed by the script, or is this a limitation of the Dropbox API?
