VB.NET Requires Chilkat v11.7.0+

Box: Resolve Folder and File IDs with the HttpCurl Dependency Engine

See more Box Examples

Download images/penguins.jpg using search-based HttpCurl dependencies and one DoYourThing call. Register search requests/output rules once, then supply names. Search results must each contain exactly one item; exact names and immediate parent IDs are checked before saving the downloaded bytes. The candidate content is downloaded into memory before validation, so this example is for small files. Multiple results are rejected instead of paginated or silently choosing a candidate. Search indexing can delay visibility of newly created or renamed items.

See the Box API guide for setup and the complete workflow.

VB.NET

Dim success As Boolean = False

'  Requires Chilkat 11.7.0 or later and a previously unlocked Chilkat bundle.
'  See Global Unlock Sample.
'  Guide: Box API Guide.

success = False

'  BEGIN ONE-TIME SETUP
'  Requires Chilkat 11.7.0. Registration sends no requests.
'  Run this once and keep the SAME HttpCurl object for later downloads.
'  This focused setup searches for a root folder and a file directly inside it.
Dim curl As New Chilkat.HttpCurl
curl.SetVar("access_token","BOX_ACCESS_TOKEN")
Dim setupCommand As New Chilkat.StringBuilder
Dim setupReplacements As Integer

'  searchFolder: Box searches names; quotes request a phrase match.
setupCommand.SetString("curl -X GET ""https://api.box.com/2.0/search?query={{folder_query}}&type=folder&content_types=name&fields=id,type,name,parent&limit=2"" -H ""Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN""")
setupReplacements = setupCommand.Replace("ACCESS_TOKEN",curl.GetVar("access_token"))
success = curl.AddFunction("searchFolder",setupCommand.GetAsString())
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

'  Deferred selection: folder_name need not be set during setup.
success = curl.AddOutput2("searchFolder","entries","name","{{folder_name}}",True,"id","folder_id")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

success = curl.AddOutput2("searchFolder","entries","name","{{folder_name}}",True,"name","folder_result_name")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

success = curl.AddOutput2("searchFolder","entries","name","{{folder_name}}",True,"parent.id","folder_parent_id")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

success = curl.AddOutput("searchFolder","total_count","folder_search_count")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


'  searchFile: Box searches names; quotes request a phrase match.
setupCommand.SetString("curl -X GET ""https://api.box.com/2.0/search?query={{file_query}}&type=file&content_types=name&fields=id,type,name,parent&limit=2&ancestor_folder_ids={{folder_id}}"" -H ""Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN""")
setupReplacements = setupCommand.Replace("ACCESS_TOKEN",curl.GetVar("access_token"))
success = curl.AddFunction("searchFile",setupCommand.GetAsString())
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

'  Deferred selection: file_name need not be set during setup.
success = curl.AddOutput2("searchFile","entries","name","{{file_name}}",True,"id","file_id")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

success = curl.AddOutput2("searchFile","entries","name","{{file_name}}",True,"name","file_result_name")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

success = curl.AddOutput2("searchFile","entries","name","{{file_name}}",True,"parent.id","file_parent_id")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

success = curl.AddOutput("searchFile","total_count","file_search_count")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

'  END ONE-TIME SETUP
'  Search is indexed: newly uploaded/renamed items may not appear immediately.
'  Search matches phrases, not exact strings, and ancestor filtering includes
'  subfolders. The operation validates counts, exact names, and immediate parents.
'  limit=2 is enough to demonstrate an ambiguous search; total_count covers all
'  results, not just this page. This introductory example requires exactly one
'  search result at each step and does not select among multiple candidates.

'  BEGIN OPERATION -- use the previously configured object.
'  Human-readable inputs. No resource IDs are supplied by the caller.
Dim folderName As String = "images"
Dim fileName As String = "penguins.jpg"
'  Encode the quoted search queries separately from the literal output filters.
'  In this build, URL variable substitution does not encode '&' in a name.
Dim queryText As New Chilkat.StringBuilder
queryText.SetString("""")
queryText.Append(folderName)
queryText.Append("""")
curl.SetVar("folder_query",queryText.GetEncoded("url","utf-8"))
queryText.SetString("""")
queryText.Append(fileName)
queryText.Append("""")
curl.SetVar("file_query",queryText.GetEncoded("url","utf-8"))
If (curl.GetVar("folder_name") <> folderName) Then
    curl.ClearVar("folder_id")
    curl.ClearVar("folder_result_name")
    curl.ClearVar("folder_parent_id")
    curl.ClearVar("folder_search_count")
    curl.ClearVar("file_id")
    curl.ClearVar("file_result_name")
    curl.ClearVar("file_parent_id")
    curl.ClearVar("file_search_count")
    curl.SetVar("folder_name",folderName)
End If

If (curl.GetVar("file_name") <> fileName) Then
    curl.ClearVar("file_id")
    curl.ClearVar("file_result_name")
    curl.ClearVar("file_parent_id")
    curl.ClearVar("file_search_count")
    curl.SetVar("file_name",fileName)
End If

'  With unchanged names, cached IDs and validation fields can be reused.
'  Clear the corresponding cached fields to refresh after a remote rename/move.
Dim localPath As String = "qa_output/penguins.jpg"
'  A cold plan is searchFolder -> searchFile -> targetCurl.
'  No listing endpoint or manual search call is used.
Dim plan As New Chilkat.JsonObject
plan.EmitCompact = False
Dim authorizedCommand1 As New Chilkat.StringBuilder
authorizedCommand1.SetString("curl -X GET ""https://api.box.com/2.0/files/{{file_id}}/content"" -H ""Authorization: Bearer {{access_token}}"" -L")
Dim headerReplacement1 As Integer = authorizedCommand1.Replace("{{access_token}}",curl.GetVar("access_token"))
success = curl.ExaminePlan(authorizedCommand1.GetAsString(),plan)
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.WriteLine(plan.Emit())
'  Keep the candidate download in memory; do not write an unvalidated result.
curl.ResponseFilePath = ""
curl.ClearTargetOutput("*")
Dim authorizedCommand2 As New Chilkat.StringBuilder
authorizedCommand2.SetString("curl -X GET ""https://api.box.com/2.0/files/{{file_id}}/content"" -H ""Authorization: Bearer {{access_token}}"" -L")
Dim headerReplacement2 As Integer = authorizedCommand2.Replace("{{access_token}}",curl.GetVar("access_token"))
success = curl.DoYourThing(authorizedCommand2.GetAsString())
If ((success <> True) Or (curl.StatusCode <> 200)) Then
    Debug.WriteLine("Box request failed. HTTP status: " & curl.StatusCode)
    Debug.WriteLine("Failure reason: " & curl.FailReason)
    Exit Sub
End If

'  AddOutput2 supplies candidate IDs. Box's phrase search and recursive
'  ancestor filter are not an exact path lookup, so validate before saving.
If ((curl.GetVar("folder_search_count") <> "1") Or (curl.GetVar("file_search_count") <> "1")) Then
    Debug.WriteLine("Search was ambiguous or incomplete. Expected exactly one result per search; no file was saved.")
    Debug.WriteLine("Folder results: " & curl.GetVar("folder_search_count") & " File results: " & curl.GetVar("file_search_count"))
    curl.ClearVar("folder_id")
    curl.ClearVar("folder_result_name")
    curl.ClearVar("folder_parent_id")
    curl.ClearVar("folder_search_count")
    curl.ClearVar("file_id")
    curl.ClearVar("file_result_name")
    curl.ClearVar("file_parent_id")
    curl.ClearVar("file_search_count")
    Exit Sub
End If

If ((curl.GetVar("folder_result_name") <> folderName) Or (curl.GetVar("folder_parent_id") <> "0") Or (curl.GetVar("file_result_name") <> fileName) Or (curl.GetVar("file_parent_id") <> curl.GetVar("folder_id"))) Then
    Debug.WriteLine("The search result is not the exact root-folder/filename requested; no file was saved.")
    curl.ClearVar("folder_id")
    curl.ClearVar("folder_result_name")
    curl.ClearVar("folder_parent_id")
    curl.ClearVar("folder_search_count")
    curl.ClearVar("file_id")
    curl.ClearVar("file_result_name")
    curl.ClearVar("file_parent_id")
    curl.ClearVar("file_search_count")
    Exit Sub
End If

'  Validation is after the network download but before writing the destination.
'  This in-memory example is intended for small files such as penguins.jpg.
'  Create qa_output before running it.
Dim contents As New Chilkat.BinData
success = curl.GetResponseBd(contents)
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(curl.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

success = contents.WriteFile(localPath)
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(contents.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.WriteLine("Downloaded to " & localPath)