Files listing api call

General
1

Hi Support,
I was looking for an API call to list all items in a folder including files inside the children and sub-children folders.
I checked the https://developer.box.com/reference/get-folders-id-items/ API call, but it lists only files and folders inside that exact folder rather than child folders.
I am looking forward to the community response.

1 Like
2

Hi @user49 ! Welcome to the Forum ! :smiley:

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.

3

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?

4

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