How to use getRefreshedAccessToken ?

[Clemweb]

Hello,

I need to share specifics docs from my Dropbox to end user.

All is ok to get and use the AccessToken from my back office. But the token expire like mentioned in doc, so I need to refresh token for my front office users.

How use getRefreshedAccessToken ??

The documentation is very poor and not clear: why passed $accessToken to it ?

Somebody can share me a full example ?

Thanks

[Pixelao]

Hello @Clemweb, this example script will return a URL where you have to login with the account you want to authenticate in the application, when you login it will give you a one-time auth key, but im using this fork https://github.com/internacionalweb/dropbox-php-sdk

Example:

use Kunnu\Dropbox\Dropbox;
use Kunnu\Dropbox\DropboxApp;
use Kunnu\Dropbox\Authentication\DropboxAuthHelper;

$appKey = 'YOUR_APP_KEY';
$appSecret = 'YOUR_APP_SECRET';
$authToken = 'YOUR_APP_AUTH_TOKEN';

$app = new DropboxApp($appKey, $appSecret, $authToken);

$dropboxClient = new Dropbox($app);

$authHelper = $dropboxClient->getAuthHelper();
$authHelper->setAccessTokenType(DropboxAuthHelper::TOKEN_ACCESS_TYPE_OFFLINE);

echo 'AUTH URL: ' . $authHelper->getAuthUrl();

With that key use $authHelper->getAccessToken('YOUR_AUTH_KEY') It will return an AccessToken object in which we can find the refresh_token. This is a permanent token with which we can generate Short Live tokens for a duration of 4 hours.

Example:

use Kunnu\Dropbox\Dropbox;
use Kunnu\Dropbox\DropboxApp;

$appKey = 'YOUR_APP_KEY';
$appSecret = 'YOUR_APP_SECRET';
$authToken = 'YOUR_APP_AUTH_TOKEN';

$app = new DropboxApp($appKey, $appSecret, $authToken);
$dropboxClient = new Dropbox($app);
$authHelper = $dropboxClient->getAuthHelper();

var_dump($authHelper->getAccessToken('YOUR_AUTH_KEY'));

I hope this helps 👍

[stccorp]

That function does not exists

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined method Kunnu\Dropbox\Authentication\DropboxAuthHelper::setAccessTokenType()

[saracubillas]

@Pixelao what version are you using?

[Pixelao]

@saracubillas

@Pixelao what version are you using?

I'm using a fork, which introduces new functionality for working with short-lived tokens.
https://github.com/internacionalweb/dropbox-php-sdk

[SilverOkami42]

I cant se the fix working either. I did implement my own solution though by saving some things to the session myself, and doing some time checks based on that.

• I saw there is this to get the access token from a refresh token: $dropboxClient->getAuthHelper()->getOAuth2Client()->getAccessToken()
• And I first got my refresh token to start by following these steps: https://www.codemzy.com/blog/dropbox-long-lived-access-refresh-token

`

		if( self::DROPBOX_REFRESH_TOKEN() ):
			$sessionAccess = \PSHelper\Session\Data::get('dropbox_'.self::DROPBOX_APPKEY().'_accessToken');
			$sessionEx = \PSHelper\Session\Data::get('dropbox_'.self::DROPBOX_APPKEY().'_expires');
			$sessionExTime = \PSHelper\Session\Data::get('dropbox_'.self::DROPBOX_APPKEY().'_expires','time');
			if(
				!empty($sessionEx)
				&& time() < ( $sessionExTime + strtotime(($sessionEx - (60*10 /*refresh if within 10 mins*/)).' seconds') - time() )
			):
				$accessToken = $sessionAccess;
			else:
				$dropboxApp = new \Kunnu\Dropbox\DropboxApp(self::DROPBOX_APPKEY(), self::DROPBOX_SECRET(), null);
				$dropboxClient = new \Kunnu\Dropbox\Dropbox($dropboxApp);
				$getRefreshToken = $dropboxClient->getAuthHelper()->getOAuth2Client()->getAccessToken(self::DROPBOX_REFRESH_TOKEN(),null,'refresh_token');
				$accessToken = $getRefreshToken['access_token'] ?? self::DROPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN(); 
				if(
					!empty($getRefreshToken['access_token'])
					&& !empty($getRefreshToken['expires_in'])
				):
					 \PSHelper\Session\Data::set('dropbox_'.self::DROPBOX_APPKEY().'_accessToken',$getRefreshToken['access_token']);
					 \PSHelper\Session\Data::set('dropbox_'.self::DROPBOX_APPKEY().'_expires',$getRefreshToken['expires_in']);
				endif;
			endif;
		endif;

		$elFndr->opts['roots'][] = array_merge($baseConfig,$tmbConfig,[
			'fa_icon'      => '\f16b',
			'phash'        => 'g_cloudvol_Lw', // set parent to Volume group (g_cloudvol_) root "/" (Lw)
			'id'           => 'dropbox001',
			'driver'       => 'Dropbox2',
			'alias'	       => 'Dropbox Files',
			'path'         => '/', // or folder path as root
			'app_key'	   => self::DROPBOX_APPKEY(),
			'app_secret'   => self::DROPBOX_SECRET(),
			'access_token' => $accessToken ?? self::DROPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN(),  // @String your access token
			'attributes'	=> [
				[
					'pattern' 	=> '/.*/', // any file
					'read'		=> true,
					'write'		=> false,
					'hidden'	=> false,
					'locked'	=> true,
				]
			],
		]);

`

[Pixelao]

@SilverOkami42 You can point your package to the latest commit on this branch from the fork, and it should work as expected:

👉 https://github.com/Barymont/dropbox-php-sdk/tree/refresh_tokens_support_guzzle7_2025_07

Example:

use Kunnu\Dropbox\Dropbox;
use Kunnu\Dropbox\DropboxApp;
use Kunnu\Dropbox\Authentication\DropboxAuthHelper;

$appKey = 'YOUR_APP_KEY';
$appSecret = 'YOUR_APP_SECRET';
$authToken = 'YOUR_APP_AUTH_TOKEN';

$app = new DropboxApp($appKey, $appSecret, $authToken);

$dropboxClient = new Dropbox($app);

$authHelper = $dropboxClient->getAuthHelper();
$authHelper->setAccessTokenType(DropboxAuthHelper::TOKEN_ACCESS_TYPE_OFFLINE);

echo 'AUTH URL: ' . $authHelper->getAuthUrl();
With that key use $authHelper->getAccessToken('YOUR_AUTH_KEY') It will return an AccessToken object in which we can find the refresh_token. This is a permanent token with which we can generate Short Live tokens for a duration of 4 hours.

Example:

use Kunnu\Dropbox\Dropbox;
use Kunnu\Dropbox\DropboxApp;

$appKey = 'YOUR_APP_KEY';
$appSecret = 'YOUR_APP_SECRET';
$authToken = 'YOUR_APP_AUTH_TOKEN';

$app = new DropboxApp($appKey, $appSecret, $authToken);
$dropboxClient = new Dropbox($app);
$authHelper = $dropboxClient->getAuthHelper();

var_dump($authHelper->getAccessToken('YOUR_AUTH_KEY'));

I hope this helps 👍

[SilverOkami42]

@Pixelao - that looks great in concept... but I'm not familiar enough with Composer to know how to reference that branch/fork as your suggested. I tried a few things with adding it to a custom repository and such, but no luck. Right now I have this:

[Pixelao]

@SilverOkami42, you can use it like that

1. Adds a custom VCS repository to your composer.json file.

   	"repositories": {
   	  "dropbox": {
   	    "type": "vcs",
   	    "url": "https://github.com/Barymont/dropbox-php-sdk"
   	  }
   	}

   • Composer normally resolves packages from Packagist.
   • The repositories block tells Composer to also look at the GitHub fork Barymont/dropbox-php-sdk whenever it tries to satisfy a package that lives in that repo (in this case, the Dropbox SDK).
   • type: "vcs" means “treat this URL as a version-controlled source (git).”
2. Pin the Dropbox SDK to a specific branch

   "require": {
     "kunalvarma05/dropbox-php-sdk": "dev-refresh_tokens_support_guzzle7_2025_07"
   }

   • kunalvarma05/dropbox-php-sdk is the package name registered on Packagist.
   • The version constraint dev-refresh_tokens_support_guzzle7_2025_07 tells Composer:
     “Use the branch refresh_tokens_support_guzzle7_2025_07 instead of a tagged release.”
   • Because that branch lives only in the fork you listed above, Composer will fetch the code from the fork and lock your project to that commit range.

That’s it!

[SilverOkami42]

@Pixelao - that worked wonderfully, thank you! I almost had the right syntax, just didn't have the "dropbox" key on it, and never loaded from the default repo before so wasn't sure if I was close or just dumb. lol