Dropbox File Path via Shell Or Similar?

[Scott Rossi]

On 5/14/14 12:55 PM, "J. Landman Gay" <jacque at hyperactivesw.com> wrote:

>On 5/14/14, 1:59 PM, Scott Rossi wrote:
>> Right, I'm not looking to upload/download, I'm trying to get a
>> Dropbox-formatted file path.
>
>I had to deal with that in AirLaunch and I don't think it's possible
>without asking the user at least once. After you do that you can
>generate links using the same format, as long as the files are in the
>same folder as the one the user supplied.
>
>Dropbox generates a different cryptic string for each folder. The
>general format is:
>
>https://www.dropbox.com/s/<long random string>/filename.txt
>
>As long as a file is in the same folder, you can use that URL and just
>replace the filename at the end with a different one. But since each
>folder has its own random string, you can't know what the URL will be
>for any other location.
>
>The Dropbox app probably knows, but it isn't telling.


Actually, I'm trying to work out a solution for myself, not for other
users, and this is for local files with Dropbox installed, not using the
web service.  Pretty sure the cryptic string is based on the filename as
it's different for every file in the same folder, and replacing a file
with one of the same name generates the same shared link.

A right-click on the file is able to retrieve this link, so I'm hoping
there's some way to do this through the system.  Because there's a bit of
delay before the link is revealed, I'm guessing there's a web/server query
going on behind the scenes.  The dropbox.py script is supposedly able to
grab the link, but again, only on Linux it seems.

Maybe the Dropbox gurus out there (Guglielmo?  Andre?) can chime in and
say if this is hopeless.

Thanks for the responses.

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, UX/UI Design