Uploading file from the path but not as a string/buffer?

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

What is your question? I want to implement a direct file uploading from a client to the Dropbox without a need of creating a buffer on the application server. This is critical in case of big files, which can’t be stored as a buffer on the application server in a whole.

I’ve found a thread from 2017: Url of the file instead of a buffer in uploadSessionAppendV2?, where it is stated: «No, unfortunately the API v2 JavaScript SDK only supports supplying the file content as string or buffer, but I’ll be sure to pass this along as a feature request.» Are there any changes since that time?

As a middleware, I’m using formidable, which contains fileWriteStreamHandler: «If you are looking to write the file uploaded in other types of cloud storages (AWS S3, Azure blob storage, Google cloud storage) or private file storage, this is the option you’re looking for.»

Is there any way to forward an uploading file directly to Dropbox and minimize an application server CPU & RAM overloading?

This is especially critically when we’re talking about uploading big files, which application server can’t handle in the RAM in whole.

Versions

• What version of the SDK are you using? 10.4.3
• What version of the language are you using? ES-2021
• Are you using Javascript or Typescript? JS
• What platform are you using? (if applicable) Node.js

[greg-db]

It’s not possible to securely hide an access token on the client, so if you’re using an access token that the end-user shouldn’t have access to, you do need to make sure you do not send it to the client at all. (The typical way of using the Dropbox API is that the end-user would interact with their own account, so it’s okay for them to have access to the access token since it’s just for their own account.)

In this case though, you should look into the filesGetTemporaryUploadLink method. You can call that on the server, and then pass down the resulting link to the client, which can be used without the access token. It doesn’t support large files like upload sessions though, so that would only work for files less than 150 MB in size.

[greg-db]

I see, thanks, that’s a helpful example. I’ve sent this along to the team.