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Forum Discussion
23W
6 years agoHelpful | Level 5
How can I list content of sharded folder that has not mounted yet?
How can I list content of sharded folder that has not been mounted yet?
- 6 years ago
The Dropbox API functionality for listing folders is generally only meant for mounted content, but you can technically list the contents of an unmounted folder by calling /2/files/list_folder with the 'preview_url' (e.g., from the shared folder metadata) as the 'shared_link.url' parameter, like:
curl -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder \ --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \ --header "Content-Type: application/json" \ --data "{\"path\": \"\", \"shared_link\": {\"url\": \"<PREVIEW_URL>\"}}"
Greg-DB
Dropbox Staff
The Dropbox API functionality for listing folders is generally only meant for mounted content, but you can technically list the contents of an unmounted folder by calling /2/files/list_folder with the 'preview_url' (e.g., from the shared folder metadata) as the 'shared_link.url' parameter, like:
curl -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder \ --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \ --header "Content-Type: application/json" \ --data "{\"path\": \"\", \"shared_link\": {\"url\": \"<PREVIEW_URL>\"}}"
23W
6 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Greg-DB, thank you. It really works.
But next question appears: if such folder contains sub-folders, how to browse them?
"/2/files/lits_folder" returns list of sub-folders with theirs Ids. Direct attempt to use one of them with "/2/files/lits_folder" returns error "path not found". If i try to use "/2/sharing/get_folder_metadata" with sub-folder's id, i receive error "invalid id".
All those Ids have prefix like "id:_XXXXXX".
- Greg-DB6 years agoDropbox Staff
The "id" values for the listed items, starting file "id:", is the "file ID", which is different than a "shared folder ID", so you can't use that for /2/sharing/get_folder_metadata,
You can use the "path" parameter to list a subfolder when accessing a shared link via /2/files/list_folder though. That would look like:
curl -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder \ --header "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" \ --header "Content-Type: application/json" \ --data "{\"path\": \"/subfoldername\", \"shared_link\": {\"url\": \"<PREVIEW_URL>\"}}"
- 23W6 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Greg-DB
Thank you. So if I for example have following structure in shared folder:- Shared Folder
- Sub Folder 1
- Sub Folder 2
- file 1 in Sub Folder 1
- file 2 in Sub Folder 1
- file 1 in Shared Foder
- Sub Folder 1
And I want to browse contenten of "Sub Folder 1", I have to use "/2/files/list_folder" endpoint with "shared_link" of "Shared Folder" and "path" equal to "/Sub Folder 1".
If I want to do the same but for "Sub Folder 2", "path" parameter should be "/Sub Folder1/Sub Folder 2". Am I right?
It is not convenient way as for me because in my application it's possible that I know only "id" of "Sub Folder 2" and "shared id" of "Shared Folder", so I don't know exact relative path from "Shared Folder" to "Sub Folder 2". :(
From other side, I've found that I can use "namespace" of "Shared Folder" to browse it content and use "id"s of files and folder directly as "path" parameter, without building "shared_link" url from PreviewUrl of "Shared Folder". As soon as I'm using your C# SDK, I build client via following method:
client = client.WithPathRoot(new Dropbox.Api.Common.PathRoot.NamespaceId(sharedFolder.SharedFolderId));
And looks like it works.
So can I use this method to work with Shared Folders that are NOT mounted to the user's storage? "Work" in this case means browse, upload, download, delete files, create sub folders and so on.As I understand from documentation this method is suitable for Team Folders also, correct?
- Greg-DB6 years agoDropbox Staff
For the first way, note that you can determine the relative nested path from the responses from /2/files/list_folder. For example:
- call /2/files/list_folder with the 'shared_link', and 'path:""' => the result shows the "Sub Folder 1"
- call /2/files/list_folder with the 'shared_link', and 'path:"/Sub Folder 1"' => the result shows the "Sub Folder 2"
- call /2/files/list_folder with the 'shared_link', and 'path:"/Sub Folder 1/Sub Folder 2"' => the result shows the contents of "Sub Folder 2".
And yes, if that other way works for your use case, that's fine too. You can find more information on that functionality in the Namespace Guide.
- Shared Folder
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