We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here.
Forum Discussion
Sharing - how to share a folder with edit access when don't know my friend's dropbox user id?
I have an App built on the Dropbox API (https://songdocs.io).
I want to send a link to a folder to a friend, and I know I can get a shared link (which gives anyone with it view permissions) and...
The 'sharing_info' is only set on a folder if the folder is itself shared as a shared folder (or is inside a shared folder). Note that this is different than the kind of sharing offered by /2/sharing/create_shared_link_with_settings. Calling /2/sharing/create_shared_link_with_settings for a folder will not make it a "shared folder"; it only creates a "shared link" for it.
To first share the folder as a shared folder, so that it will receive 'sharing_info' with a 'shared_folder_id' that you can then use with /2/sharing/add_folder_member, you should first call /2/sharing/share_folder.
Greg-DB
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffIf you don't already have a connection to the other user in Dropbox, there isn't a way to retrieve it. Instead, you can share it with them via their email address.
To give them access to mount and edit the folder, you would first share the folder, then add them to the folder. In that second step, you can specify the recipient either by Dropbox ID or email address.
What if I do already have a connection to the other user in dropbox (we've previously shared some things)? How would I go about getting their dropbox id? Is there a way (short of just walking through every file and every share bit on it) that I can access my contacts in dropbox?
Also what if I send it to user #2's email but it's not precisely the dropbox account email that user #2 uses?
- Greg-DB
The Dropbox API doesn't offer a way to list all known contacts, so you'd need to find the account by listing the members of the relevant existing shared folder(s).
The recipient can still accept the invitation if they happen to use a different email address on their Dropbox account.
My application wouldn't know existing folders my user has shared with their friends, but could walk their dropbox and amass a contacts list (yucky though).
Looking at SharingAddFolderMemberError it does appear that if I tried to share with an incorrect email it might not work though.. if I shared a SharedLink would there be any way for the receiving user to request access to mount it / gain edit privileges using the API?
I think it's more intuitive that I should send my friend a shared link and then either they do or don't have a dropbox account and then could gain edit access if they did (it would match my goals and I think help incentivize a user to login with their Dropbox account to be able to contribute vs just view/participate/lurk).
- Greg-DB
By "it does appear that if I tried to share with an incorrect email it might not work", are you referring to the 'email_unverified' or 'invalid_email' errors, perhaps? Those actually just refer to the connected user's account (i.e., for the access token you're using) not being verified, or the email address value for the recipient not being in the expected email address format, respectively. Those are not referring to the state, or lack thereof, of the recipient's Dropbox account.
Anyway, there isn't a way for a recipient of a shared link for a folder to both view and optionally then directly get access to mount and edit the folder in their Dropbox account using just the one shared link unfortunately. These are different types of Dropbox sharing that don't directly connect to each other.
You can accomplish this using multiple links though. You can create shared links to send to the other users so they can view/download the content, and also get the "preview_url" of the shared folder which other users can use to request access to the shared folder for mounting and editing.
About Dropbox API Support & Feedback
Find help with the Dropbox API from other developers.
