You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
Pysio13
2 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Shared Link / "scl" to "s"
Hello. My question concerns my recent issue with file sharing. Usually, my links were generated in this way: 'https://www.dropbox.com/s/'. However, lately, every file is being generated in this way: ...
- 2 years agoThank you BenDBX for splitting off a new thread specific to the 3rd party integrations issue, and especially for doing it in a way that migrates all the relevant posts to date! To properly wrap up this thread, below is a summary.
Why the new "/scl" link format?Dropbox is moving to an updated shared link architecture where links are based on the content being shared rather than on the user doing the sharing. This new content-based link architecture is already in place for edit access links to folders and newly created links to files, and can be identified by the presence of an ‘rlkey’ parameter in the URL. (They also begin with "/scl" instead of the previous architecture's "/s".) It is the rlkey parameter which grants access to the content. That is why removing that parameter results in visitors having to sign in and request access. I talk more about this transition in this forum thread.Over the next few months, we’ll round out the shared link portfolio by bringing this new architecture to newly created view-only access folder links, or view folder links for short.Direct Download on new link architecture is Solved
Regarding this thread on “direct / forced” download not working on new links, this should be solved since a fix was implemented 2 weeks ago. That is, all new links should now function the same as legacy links for these purposes. This can be accomplished in two ways.- modifying the dl parameter in the URL
- modifying using dl.dropbox.com or dl.dropboxusercontent.com.
👉 In both cases you must retain the rlkey parameter for the URL to grant your recipients permission rights to access your file.
What is the DL parameter?
Anything following the ? in a URL are query parameters. It’s worth reemphasizing that dl parameter in new links did not break and will continue to function identically to those in legacy links. Manually changing the dl parameter does the following:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0
- Default link. This will render the content in the Dropbox file viewer.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=1
- Downloads the content of the link (if the user has access to the content based on link settings). This query parameter takes precedence even if raw=1 is also added.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&raw=1
- Directly renders the content in the browser (if the link has a public audience and no other restrictions). Note that this link has an HTTP 302 redirect, so the application or browser must be able to follow the redirect.
What are the dl.dropbox... modifications?
These are link transformations from the early days of Dropbox. While we don't "officially" list these anymore in our Help Center, we are continuing to support them for now.https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0- Replacing www with dl works exactly like a ?raw=1 link: this will directly render content for public links in the browser. It requires following an HTTP 302 redirect.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0- Works like a ?raw=1 link, but the application or browser will not need to follow an HTTP 302 redirect to access the content.
aaronpanganiban21
Helpful | Level 7
I have a website via Webflow I'm using Dropbox to host content on.
There was a weird issue where it wouldn't upload the files to the folder via the integrated Mac Desktop thing and I tried adding and then removing it via browser. This froze up my Finder menu and I had to restart my machine.
Since then, the links have had the phrase "key" in its url. That line in the url has stopped me from being able to put the content up for preview because the previews wouldn't play anymore. However, days prior, Dropbox and the other files were working fine; and when you try to manage permissions, the files don't have an option to add passwords to them.
There's a workaround where my web developer removes them on his end and re-uploads them, but I'm frustrated it seems I can no longer add content by myself.
Has anyone had this issue? I went to support and as much as it was helpful, they couldn't go into it any further citing it was Webflow's fault (even though it was Dropbox creating the links. Not Webflow)
Has anyone found a way to turn off the add passwords feature entirely (not even the slideable button) or has dealt with this recently?
Hannah
2 years agoDropbox Staff
Hey aaronpanganiban21, thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Can you please guide us through the steps you're following to create the links?
Also, can you give us an example of how a link used to look for you and how it looks now?
Just make sure it's not a real link, but a made up one, so you don't have to post your link publicly.
As for the link permissions, have you tried this through a different browser or a private browsing window, to see if that helps?
Thanks.
- aaronpanganiban212 years agoHelpful | Level 7So the process goes:
Create MP3 bounced from my program for making music.
Going into desktop integrated Dropbox and uploading it that way to a folder shared between me and my web developer for the site.
Then, on the browser, in that shared folder, hitting “copy link” so I can use that link to paste it into the url zone for website on Webflow.
That’s it. Nothing out of the ordinary as far as I know.
It’s worked before with two other files, and then after the Finder freeze and restart, it’s having issues.
My developer had found another forum post after he noticed the file links were different; the files that work had /s as their sub folder, but the one that didn’t had scl/fi. And the forum post had someone dealing with a similar issue- Nancy2 years agoDropbox Staff
Hi from me as well, aaronpanganiban21!
Setting permissions for shared links is currently available to Dropbox Professional/Business users.
Can you please visit this page, and let me know what’s the type of plan you see there?
Thanks.
- aaronpanganiban212 years agoHelpful | Level 7I currently have plus.
The thing was the previous two files did NOT even have the option to set those permissions. There was not a create password option with the links at all. But after being forced to restart my Mac it started making them.
And if I can ask, are you meaning to tell me after being forced to restart my Mac, something updated to essentially make me have to pay more for a function I originally had literally a few days prior?
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