Unresolved variable or type `Dropbox`

Before you start Have you checked StackOverflow, previous issues, and Dropbox Developer Forums for help? Yes

What is your question? I’m trying to adjust a JSDoc annotation for Dropbox 6.x.x but face an issue with Dropbox type.

I’m importing Dropbox:

import dropbox from "dropbox";

And then I get a warning «Unresolved variable or type Dropbox»:

Is it a Dropbox or IDEA/WebStorm issue?

Versions

• What version of the SDK are you using? 6.0.2
• What version of the language are you using? 2020
• Are you using Javascript or Typescript? JS
• What platform are you using? (if applicable) Windows, Node.js + NPM

[rogebrd]

Unfortunately, with the way the SDK is structured, it doesn’t make sense to have a default export. We have two main objects Dropbox which handles all of the main route logic, and DropboxAuth which handles all auth related logic.

What this means in the case of this is that when you import the entire package, you cannot reference it as a default object. However, if you use named imports, you can reference it directly. This example gives no errors and correctly links to the classes when I command+click into them (both JetBrains & VSCode):

import { Dropbox, DropboxAuth } from "dropbox";

/**
 * Dropbox Factory
 * 
 * @function
 * @param {DropboxAuth} DropboxAuth instance
 * @returns {Dropbox} Dropbox instance
 * @private
 */
const factory = function factory(auth){
    const dbx = new Dropbox({
        auth: auth
    });
    return dbx;
};

Still working through the import error when this example is run but from a JSDoc standpoint it should be fine.

From what I understand, there would be no case in which the return variable type would not match the constructor. Meaning if you construct via new Dropbox.Dropbox() then the return JSDoc annotation would be * @return {Dropbox.Dropbox} .... This is because the plain Dropbox object contains the entire package not a default export. If you inspect that object directly, it contains Dropbox and DropboxAuth which is what we expect.

When I try to run this example however:

import Dropbox from "dropbox";

/**
 * Dropbox Factory
 * 
 * @function
 * @param {Dropbox.DropboxAuth} DropboxAuth instance
 * @returns {Dropbox.Dropbox} Dropbox instance
 * @private
 */
const factory = function factory(auth){
    const dbx = new Dropbox.Dropbox({
        auth: auth
    });
    return dbx;
};

I am able to successfully see the class definitions in VSCode and am unable to see them in JetBrains. I added this comment to the ticket you posted above also.

[rogebrd]

I see, yes we did migrate away from the DropboxTypes because internally it was a mess of local references to itself. I do believe that it should work if you use dropbox.Dropbox, or at least this works in VSCode. I will continue to investigate this issue though.