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Trouble creating a new file from R using box_dir_create in boxr

  • May 22, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 9 views
C
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Hi all,

I've been having difficulty getting boxr to successfully create a file within my box directory. My code reads:

```
library(boxr)
box_auth()

my_file_dir <- box_setwd("7***phone number removed for privacy***")

box_dir_create(dir_name="TEST", parent_dir_id = my_file_dir)
```

after running which, I get the following output:

```
box.com remote folder reference

name :
dir id :
size :
modified at :
created at :
uploaded by :
owned by :
shared link : None

parent folder name :
parent folder id :
```

Checking my box directory, I find no folders have been created.

I've tried using additional arguments within box_dir_create, but according to the documentation only dir_name and parent_dir_name are accepted.

Any help is much appreciated. I understand this is a somewhat obscure R package, so I've included links to the documentation below:

https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/boxr/boxr.pdf
https://github.com/r-box/boxr

    2 replies

    C
    Forum|alt.badge.img

     I'm not familiar with this library, but in general the parent is a folder ID, not a name. Use folder `0` for the root folder.

    C
    Forum|alt.badge.img
    Hi all,
     
    I got an answer via the package's developer, and I figured I'd pay it forward for any fellow travelers in the future.

    It turns out that box_setwd() sets a default directory but returns nothing. Using

     

    box_dir_create(dir_name="TEST", parent_dir_id = "###########")

     

     

    creates the folder successfully. It will not do so if a folder of the same name is already created.

    After more digging, I was also told that box_dir_create() is quietly passing back a lot of useful information, including the newly created directory's ID. To access it you can save the function results as a variable, like so:

     

     

    b <- box_dir_create("test_dir")

names(b) # lots of info

b$id # what you want

box_ul(b$id, "image_file.jpg") # is this file by file? 
box_push(b$id, "image_directory/") # or a directory wide operation?

     

     

    Thanks for your help, and I hope this helps someone else down the road. Cheers!

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