Connect Dropbox To Google Sheets

How to connect the Dropbox API to Google Sheets

Dropbox is a home for all your work. You can store and share files, collaborate on projects, and bring your best ideas to life—whether you’re working alone or with colleagues and clients. With Dropbox, all your files are backed up to the cloud and available online. We can use the Dropbox API to import data from Dropbox into Google Sheets. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to connect the Dropbox REST API to Google Sheets in 5 steps:

Install the Apipheny add-on
Create an app
Choose a Dropbox endpoint
Enter your Dropbox API request into Apipheny
Run the Dropbox API request in your Google Sheet

Step 1.) Install and open the Apipheny add-on for Google Sheets

Apipheny is a free API connector for Google Sheets. You can use Apipheny to connect your Google Sheets to API data sources, easily.

1.) Install Apipheny by opening the following link on desktop and then clicking the Install button in the Google Marketplace: https://apipheny.io/install

2.) After you’ve installed Apipheny, open a Google Sheet and then click on the Extensions dropdown in the menu at the top.

In the dropdown list you should see Apipheny. Click Apipheny then click Import API to open the Apipheny sidebar in your Google Sheet.

Tip: you can open a new Google Sheet by entering this URL in your browser: sheet.new

Step 2.) Create an app

Click the Create app button:

Choose the type of access you need (App folder or Full Dropbox), name your app, check the terms and conditions checkbox and click the Create app button:

Click over to the Permissions tab, check the boxes for all data you’d like to access, and then click the Submit button.

Note: this step must be done before you generate your token, as the token’s scopes can’t be updated later (if you need to change or add scopes, you’ll need to delete your app and create a new one).

The Permissions section — The **Permissions** section

Go to the Settings tab of your app. Scroll down the page and click Generate to get your token.

Your token is now generated:

Copy this token to a safe location because you’ll need it later.

Step 3.) Choose a Dropbox API endpoint

In this section, we’ll show you how to browse the Dropbox API documentation, to find the endpoint that retrieves the information you need from your account. If you already know your URL, or you want to use the same example URL as us, just skip to Step 4.

First, open the Dropbox API documentation page: https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation

The menu on the right contains a list of categorized endpoints:

In this case, we will describe the POST /properties/search endpoint, which searches across property templates for particular property field values:

https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/file_properties/properties/search

The documentation for this endpoint contains its HTTP method and URL path, a short description of the endpoint’s purpose, the required scopes, parameters, the cURL command and example response:

POST /properties/search endpoint documentation page — **POST /properties/search** endpoint documentation page

All API calls to the Dropbox should be made using the https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/ base domain. All endpoints and parameters would be appended to this base domain.

Step 4.) Enter your Dropbox API request into Apipheny

Now go back to your Google Sheet and make sure that the Apipheny add-on is open on the “Import” tab. With the Import tab open, enter these details into the add-on:

Method: At the top of the Apipheny sidebar, select the HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE) required by your API endpoint. For this example, we are using the POST method.

API URL: In Step 3, we explained how you can find the Dropbox API endpoint that you need. Now copy and paste your complete Dropbox API URL into the Apipheny add-on, where it says API URL Path, followed by any parameters required for your query (if applicable).

For this example, we are using the POST /list endpoint, which returns a list of file requests owned by this user. This is what the whole URL looks like:

https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/file_requests/list_v2

If you’re following the same example as us, you can copy and paste this URL into Apipheny.

Headers: In the Headers section of Apipheny, add one row with the following key and value:

Header 
Key:
Authorization 

Value:
Bearer token

Here’s what our Dropbox API request looks like in Apipheny:

Dropbox API request entered in the Apipheny add-on

Step 5.) Run the Dropbox API request in your Google Sheet

Finally, the last step is to click the Run button at the bottom of the Apipheny add-on and then wait for the Dropbox API data to be imported into your Google Sheet. Here’s what our request looked like when completed: