Got an interesting question from a developer:
Hi Team
iI am new to Box REST API. Is it possible to download folder and all of its sub folder/files in 1 call ?
if yes, whats the code for that in Python?
I checked available docs and at link https://developer.box.com/guides/downloads/folder/
I can see there is some code to download folder contents but thats in .Net, Java and Node.
Do we have something in python?
You have 2 options:
Download the folder as a zip file:
from boxsdk import JWTAuth, Client
def main():
auth = JWTAuth.from_settings_file('.jwt.config.json')
auth.authenticate_instance()
client = Client(auth)
folder_id = '163422716106'
user = client.user().get()
print(f"User: {user.id}:{user.name}")
folder = client.folder(folder_id).get()
print(f"Shared Folder: {folder.id}:{folder.name}")
print("#" * 80)
print("Type\tID\t\tName")
items = folder.get_items()
download_items=[]
for item in items:
print(f"{item.type}\t{item.id}\t{item.name}")
download_items.append(item)
print("#" * 80)
with open(folder.name+'.zip', "wb") as download_file:
status = client.download_zip(folder.name, download_items, download_file)
print(f"Download status: {status}")
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
print("Done")
Resulting in:
User: 20344589936:UI-Elements-Sample
Shared Folder: 163422716106:Box UI Elements Demo
################################################################################
Type ID Name
folder 168248338385 test
folder 163436720758 Uploads
file 960391244732 Box-unsplash.jpg
file 1031018607151 test.txt
################################################################################
Download status: {'total_file_count': 19, 'downloaded_file_count': 19, 'skipped_file_count': 0,
'skipped_folder_count': 0, 'state': 'succeeded', ...}
Done
(file in folder 15M Feb 3 10:21 Box UI Elements Demo.zip)
The other option is to recursively download each item one by one:
import os
from boxsdk import JWTAuth, Client
def main():
auth = JWTAuth.from_settings_file('.jwt.config.json')
auth.authenticate_instance()
client = Client(auth)
folder_id = '163422716106'
user = client.user().get()
print(f"User: {user.id}:{user.name}")
folder = client.folder(folder_id).get()
print(f"Downloadin folder: {folder.id}:{folder.name}")
print("#" * 80)
print("Type\tID\t\tName")
os.chdir('downloads')
items = folder.get_items()
download_items(items)
os.chdir('..')
def download_items(items):
for item in items:
if item.type == 'folder':
os.mkdir(item.name)
os.chdir(item.name)
download_items(item.get_items())
os.chdir('..')
if item.type == 'file':
print(f"{item.type}\t{item.id}\t{item.name}",end='')
with open(item.name,'wb') as download_file:
item.download_to(download_file)
print("\tdone")
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
print("Done")
Resulting in:
User: 20344589936:UI-Elements-Sample
Downloadin folder: 163422716106:Box UI Elements Demo
################################################################################
Type ID Name
file 992001466707 7091F798-2502-40A9-B2A2-0561FC3FA84B.jpeg done
file 992008414626 A4794839-9F81-43BE-B3EE-B7D3BF07E8E5.webp done
file 962025972260 Audio.mp3 done
file 960488030766 AWS Prime - Pre-Requisites.pdf done
file 960483183051 AWS Prime Workshop.pdf done
...
Done
Hope this helps.