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Forum Discussion
Authorisation flow for a Python client console app
I am trying to integrate Dropbox into my Python console application. I understand there are two types of authorisation flows: "code" and "token". Since my app is a client app, I don't want to have to...
No, the Dropbox API only supports the "token" and "code" OAuth 2 flows, both of which require user interaction in the browser.
So in your case, given the interaction is with a remote machine, it sounds like having the user copy/paste the token may be the most reasonable option. You can use this page as your redirect URI for that if you want: https://www.dropbox.com/1/oauth2/display_token
Greg-DB
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffThat's correct, using the "token" flow is preferred for client-side applications like this, as it doesn't require the use of the app secret.
As you mentioned though, the access token is returned on the URL fragment of the required redirect URI, so it's not acessible to the server. So, to get the access token back to a console app, you'll need to retrieve the access token via another means. Some options are:
- display the access token on your redirect URI page, and have the user manually copy and paste it into the app
- run some JavaScript on your redirect URI page to get the access token from the fragment and send it to your app via a mechanism of your choosing (e.g., some other HTTPS/AJAX request)
Thanks for your reply. I'll try out these solutions!
This is a tricky situation for my app, since it will be mainly used on a remote cluster, where users connect via SSH and there is no desktop environment. I'm guessing there are no ways to authorise wholly in the command line?
- Greg-DB
No, the Dropbox API only supports the "token" and "code" OAuth 2 flows, both of which require user interaction in the browser.
So in your case, given the interaction is with a remote machine, it sounds like having the user copy/paste the token may be the most reasonable option. You can use this page as your redirect URI for that if you want: https://www.dropbox.com/1/oauth2/display_token
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