Uploading files with the File Storage API

The Apideck File Storage API supports two ways to upload files. The direct file upload API supports files up to 100MB in size and sends all the binary file data in a single API call.

The upload sessions API allows you to upload files of any size in parts. Note that some file storage connectors have their own limits.

Note 🚨

File upload API calls use https://upload.apideck.com as the base URL.

Direct upload

To upload a file via direct upload, make an API call to the POST /file-storage/files endpoint with the content of the file, the file name and parent_folder_id.

Request body

The request body should be the raw binary content of the file. Do not use form data.

File metadata

Provide the file's name and parent_folder_id as JSON in the x-apideck-metadata header.


curl  --request POST \
      --url https://upload.apideck.com/file-storage/files \
      --header 'Authorization: Bearer API_KEY' \
      --header 'Content-Type: video/mp4' \
      --header 'x-apideck-app-id: APP_ID' \
      --header 'x-apideck-consumer-id: CONSUMER_ID' \
      --header 'x-apideck-metadata: {"name": "video.mp4", "parent_folder_id": "root"}' \
      --header 'x-apideck-service-id: google-drive' \
      --data-binary @sample_hd.mp4

Upload sessions

The upload sessions API requires you to make multiple API calls:

Note 🚨

Our Node.js SDK includes a utility to handle file uploads. You can find it

here

1. Create upload session

To create an upload session, make an API call to the POST /file-storage/upload-sessions endpoint with the file name, file size and parent_folder_id.


curl  --request POST \
      --url https://upload.apideck.com/file-storage/upload-sessions \
      --header 'Authorization: Bearer API_KEY' \
      --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
      --header 'x-apideck-app-id: APP_ID' \
      --header 'x-apideck-consumer-id: CONSUMER_ID' \
      --header 'x-apideck-service-id: google-drive' \
      --data '{"size":30228718,"name": "video.mp4","parent_folder_id": "root"}'

2. Get upload session

After creating an upload session, make an API call to GET /file-storage/upload-sessions/ID. Use the ID you received after creating the upload session.


curl  --request GET \
      --url https://upload.apideck.com/file-storage/upload-sessions/ID \
      --header 'Authorization: Bearer API_KEY' \
      --header 'x-apideck-app-id: APP_ID' \
      --header 'x-apideck-consumer-id: CONSUMER_ID' \
      --header 'x-apideck-metadata: {"name": "video.mp4","parent_folder_id": "root"}' \
      --header 'x-apideck-service-id: google-drive'

3. Upload parts of file

Use the part_size from the previous step to split the file to be uploaded into parts. You can use the split command to do this:


split -b part_size video.mp4 part

Upload the parts in sequence to the PUT /file-storage/upload-sessions/ID endpoint. Send a valid part_number with each request (part_number starts at 0). Always provide valid Content-Type and Content-Length headers. If you are unsure of the content type of the uploaded file, use application/octet-stream.


curl  --request PUT \
      --url https://upload.apideck.com/file-storage/upload-sessions/ID?part_number=0 \
      --header 'Authorization: Bearer API_KEY' \
      --header 'Content-Type: video/mp4' \
      --header 'x-apideck-app-id: APP_ID' \
      --header 'x-apideck-consumer-id: CONSUMER_ID' \
      --header 'x-apideck-service-id: google-drive' \
      --header 'Digest: sha=pnDkxRveXuqyu1hxTYrO5megpvc=' \
      --data-binary @partaa

Note 🚨

For the Box connector it is required to send a Digest header with a hash of the part’s contents. More info in the Box API documentation

here

4. Finish upload session

The final step is to finish the session using the POST /file-storage/upload-sessions/ID/finish endpoint. The result of the API call is a complete File resource.


curl  --request POST \
      --url https://upload.apideck.com/file-storage/upload-sessions/ID/finish \
      --header 'Authorization: Bearer API_KEY' \
      --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
      --header 'x-apideck-app-id: APP_ID' \
      --header 'x-apideck-consumer-id: CONSUMER_ID' \
      --header 'x-apideck-service-id: google-drive' \
      --header 'Digest: sha=pnDkxRveXuqyu1hxTYrO5megpvc=' \
      --data '{}'

Note 🚨

For the Box connector it is required to send a Digest header with a hash of the whole file’s contents. More info in the Box API documentation

here

FAQ and troubleshooting

What happens if I upload image.png but image.png already exists?

When there is a conflict (file with same name), these are behaviors that can happen:

Autorename: renames file (image (2).png)
Replace: silently replaces the current file
Error: returns an error
New: creates a new file with the same name (files are not unique by name)

When mapping these behaviors to the integrations, we end up with this matrix:

Connector	Autorename	Replace	Error	New
Dropbox	✅	☑️	☑️	🔴
Box	🔴	🔴	✅	🔴
OneDrive	☑️	✅	☑️	🔴
SharePoint	☑️	✅	☑️	🔴
Google Drive	🔴	🔴	🔴	✅

✅ Supported by the integration and supported by Unify
☑️ Supported by the integration but not supported by Unify at this moment
🔴 Not supported by the integration

The different integrations have different behaviors for handling conflicts with files. Because of these differences it is not possible to "unify" the way handling of duplicate/conflict files, because there is no behavior that is supported for all connectors. Error comes closest, only Google Drive doesn't support it.