Dropbox Paths and Shared Folders

When the connector retrieves content from a single Dropbox account, or content from a Dropbox for Business account that is not in a shared folder, it creates a document for each file. Each document contains the path to the source file in a field named DROPBOX_PATH.

Users in a Dropbox for Business team can share files with other users in the team. This section describes how the connector handles paths for these shared files.

Consider the following scenario:

  • User1 has a folder at /My/Shared/Folder, and they share this folder with User2.
  • User2 accepts the sharing request and places the shared folder at /SharedFolders/User1.
  • User1 then places a document in the shared folder called MyDocument.txt.

The document is accessible from two locations:

  • For User1 the full path is /My/Shared/Folder/MyDocument.txt.
  • For User2 the full path is /SharedFolders/User1/MyDocument.txt.

The connector therefore indexes the following:

  • A metadata-only document that represents the shared folder from the perspective of User1. This document has only User1 in the ACL, and contains the following metadata:

    DROPBOX_PATH=/My/Shared/Folder
    DROPBOX_SHARED_FOLDER_ID=12456ABCDE
  • A metadata-only document that represents the shared folder from the perspective of User2. This document has only User2 in the ACL, and contains the following metadata:

    DROPBOX_PATH=/SharedFolders/User1
    DROPBOX_SHARED_FOLDER_ID=12456ABCDE
  • A document that represents MyDocument.txt. This document includes the file content and the following metadata, and has both User1 and User2 in the ACL:

    DROPBOX_PATH_IN_SHARED_FOLDER=/MyDocument.txt
    DROPBOX_PARENT_SHARED_FOLDER_ID=12456ABCDE

    The field DROPBOX_PATH_IN_SHARED_FOLDER contains the path of the document relative to the shared folder. The field DROPBOX_PARENT_SHARED_FOLDER_ID contains the ID of the shared folder.

    You can obtain the full path of a document in a shared folder by concatenating the value from the field DROPBOX_PATH_IN_SHARED_FOLDER to the value of the field DROPBOX_PATH in the document that represents the shared folder. You can match the document to the correct folder by matching the value of the field DROPBOX_PARENT_SHARED_FOLDER_ID to the value of the field DROPBOX_SHARED_FOLDER_ID in the document that represents the shared folder.

NOTE: To index documents that represent folders, you must set the configuration parameter IndexFolders to TRUE.