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Lets say I have a web URL to a file on a cloud storage (like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc). How do I convert that to the corresponding file path on my pc? On Android? On iOS?

Assuming of course I have the utilities/apps installed locally.

EDIT: I interested in file name the reverse direction too. (I.e. when I have the local file path, what is the web path?)

EDIT 2: @Greg just made me realize that the problem with file name is much worse on Google Drive than on Dropbox.

And that is very bad. :-(

The reason? Google has good search capabilities on Drive and therefor I and many, many others have put their documents on Drive. However, once I found it I must locate it on my on computer/device. (If I want to edit a pdf for example.)

EDIT 3: @Dan McGrath kindly asked what parts remain unsolved. Short answer: All. ;-) Long answer: My actual use case, see below.

My actual use case is a Zotero web app. Zotero is a reference database where you store references to scientific articles, web pages, etc. The items stored in Zotero may include PDF files or - which I prefer - links to PDF files.

I just want to be able to easy access (read) this PDF files from any computer through the web app. And on my own computer I want to be able to edit the files with my local PDF editor. (Be it Android, Windows or whatever.)

By using a cloud storage I do not have to download/upload the files myself. The cloud storage takes care of that part.

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I can't speak to other, but Dropbox shared links don't offer an API for retrieving the full/original path of the linked file. - Greg
I don't know why, just that it's not currently something that is implemented and available. - Greg
I'm a developer advocate at Dropbox (and I just sent this along as a feature request). - Greg
Hey Leo, if you are running the Drive sync client and use a Chrome Browser, you can actually open a file from the web UI directly in a local program: googledrive.blogspot.com/2014/11/… - Dan McGrath
What other parts remain unsolved for your use case? - Dan McGrath

1 Answers

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For the "reverse" scenario, that is, you have a file and you want the Dropbox shared link, you can use this API endpoint, assuming you're connected to the account via the API:

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#shares