Dropbox - any API to cli_link?

Question

I'm using the dropboxd service under Linux, which requires you to log into their website e.g. https://www.dropbox.com/cli_link?host_id=2173bf325f94beee3b1879d2c7b49e69 to link the machine to your account.

Is there any programatic way to do this (ideally using Java)? To access the website above it seems you need to login using forms (which seems tricky to do programatically), and their basic REST API (https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs) doesnt seem to cover the cli_link command.

I could write an app to do the sync using their full API, but it seems like overkill since aside from the cli_link requirement the basic dropboxd does all that I need.

Shouldn't you only have to link a machine to your account once ever? Could you elaborate on what you're doing? — CornSmith, Jun 11 '13 at 04:47
Ok, after reading some of the docs it looks like even if you used the full API you'd still have to do an initial http authentication with a click on a web page. I think it might be easiest to just write a program to [click the original link using javascript](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4515944/click-button-using-javascript). Just find the ID of the button from the page code. — CornSmith, Jun 11 '13 at 05:00

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 11 '13 at 21:42

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The official Dropbox desktop client is unrelated to the API, though both the API and the Linux CLI require user interaction on the Dropbox web site (once per link) to authorize the linking. Also, note that automating/scraping the site itself is not allowed by the terms:

https://www.dropbox.com/terms#acceptable_use

answered Jun 11 '13 at 21:42

Greg

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+1, since it wasnt obvious that even with the API you still have to manually link to the Dropbox website. – steve cook Jun 18 '13 at 03:13
I've flagged this as the answer - though it doesnt solve the problem, it does answer the question. – steve cook Jul 02 '13 at 03:54

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 18 '13 at 03:12

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Not really a solution for DropBox users, but in the end we just moved over to use MediaFire instead. That has a full REST API and doesnt require any manual intervention.

answered Jun 18 '13 at 03:12

steve cook

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Dropbox - any API to cli_link?

2 Answers2