Files listing api call

Hi @user49 ! Welcome to the Forum ! 😃

Very good question ! I don’t see any solution to retrieve all the files from a path.

You can try the SEARCH endpoint : https://developer.box.com/reference/get-search/

This would allow you to list files for a folder and a subfolder, but I think you would need to specify a search term in your query.

For your parameters, you can select :

-type : this will allow you to limit the search to file types

-ancestor_folder_ids : this will allow you to return results for a specific file path.

Thanks for the reply @CodeBoxSeb

I tried this API but “query” parameters seem to be a mandatory field, although is marked optional in the documentation. I get the error message “‘to_search’ is required” with 400 bad request error. Is there any way I can execute a wildcard search on the query parameter?

Hi,

You can recursively list all items…

Here is a python example:

from typing import List

from boxsdk import JWTAuth, Client

from boxsdk.object.item import Item

from boxsdk.object.folder import Folder





class SimpleItem:

    """simple item class"""



    box_type: str

    id: str

    name: str

    parent_id: str



    def __init__(self, item: Item, parent_id: str = None):

        self.box_type = item.type

        self.id = item.id

        self.name = item.name

        self.parent_id = parent_id



    def __repr__(self):

        return f"{self.box_type}\t{self.id}\t{self.name}\t{self.parent_id}\n"





class CFG:

    """config class"""



    JWT_CONFIG_FILE = ".jwt.config.json"

    AS_USER = "18622116055"

    PARENT_FOLDER_ID = "172599089223"  # folder id 0 is root folder





def get_box_client(as_user: bool = False):

    """get a box client"""

    auth = JWTAuth.from_settings_file(CFG.JWT_CONFIG_FILE)

    service_client = Client(auth)

    if not as_user:

        return service_client

    user = service_client.user(CFG.AS_USER)

    return service_client.as_user(user)





def folder_items(folder: Folder) -> List[Item]:

    """list folder items recursively"""

    items = folder.get_items()

    result = []

    for item in items:

        simple_item = SimpleItem(item, folder.id)

        result.append(simple_item)

        if item.type == "folder":

            result.extend(folder_items(item))

    return result





def main():

    """main function"""



    client = get_box_client(as_user=True)



    # get starting folder

    folder = client.folder(CFG.PARENT_FOLDER_ID).get()



    folder_list = folder_items(folder)



    print(folder_list)





if __name__ == "__main__":

    main()

    print("\n")

    print("-" * 80)

    print("All Done!")

Resulting in:

❯ python main.py

[folder	176840203842	Cenotes	172599089223

, folder	176841790581	2022-10-16	176840203842

, folder	176838913195	Jane Smith	176841790581

, file	1037492412345	Box-Dive-Waiver.pdf	176838913195

, folder	178059063249	2022-10-21	176840203842

, folder	178059476189	Barbosa	178059063249

, file	1044375500347	Box-Dive-Waiver.pdf	178059476189

, file	1044379452138	dan-sample.jpeg	178059476189

, file	1044391737893	padi-sample.jpeg	178059476189

, folder	176840211427	Eagle Ray Bay	172599089223

, folder	176840892622	2022-10-16	176840211427

, folder	176840808257	Jane Smith	176840892622

, file	1037494109933	Box-Dive-Waiver.pdf	176840808257

, folder	176841144813	Ras Mohamed	172599089223

, folder	176842575003	2022-10-16	176841144813

, folder	176840991040	Jane Smith	176842575003

, file	1037491776095	Box-Dive-Waiver.pdf	176840991040

, folder	176839738500	Sharks Bay	172599089223

, folder	176841319327	2022-10-16	176839738500

, folder	176841099298	Jane Smith	176841319327

, file	1037492217945	Box-Dive-Waiver.pdf	176841099298

, folder	176838773123	Thistlegorm	172599089223

, folder	176834671641	2022-10-16	176838773123

, folder	176840496781	Jane Smith	176834671641

, file	1037498578259	Box-Dive-Waiver.pdf	176840496781

, folder	191152978144	2023-01-21	176838773123

, folder	191155574713	John Smith	191152978144

, file	1118910257949	Box-Dive-Waiver.pdf	191155574713

, folder	175969946454	Tropicana	172599089223

, folder	175970887672	2022-10-05	175969946454

, folder	175971722615	Barbas	175970887672

, file	1032450614414	Box-Dive-Waiver.pdf	175971722615

, file	1032446518305	CARD-CERTIFICATION.jpg	175971722615

, file	1032444093760	CARD-INSURANCE.jpg	175971722615

, folder	176841518705	2022-10-16	175969946454

, folder	176841372656	Jane Smith	176841518705

, file	1037493295732	Box-Dive-Waiver.pdf	176841372656

]

Let us know if this helps.

Cheers