Box Developer Documentation

Join BoxWorks 2024 to discover what's possible with content and AI!

Register now!

Get File Information

Guides Files Get File Information
Edit this page

Get File Information

To get a file's information, not it's content, call the GET /files/:id API with the id of the file.

cURL
curl -i -X GET "https://api.box.com/2.0/files/12345" \
     -H "authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>"
TypeScript Gen
await client.files.getFileById(fileId, {
  queryParams: {
    fields: ['is_associated_with_app_item' as string],
  } satisfies GetFileByIdQueryParams,
} satisfies GetFileByIdOptionalsInput);
Python Gen
client.files.get_file_by_id(file_id, fields=["is_associated_with_app_item"])
.NET Gen
await client.Files.GetFileByIdAsync(fileId: fileId, queryParams: new GetFileByIdQueryParams() { Fields = Array.AsReadOnly(new [] {"is_associated_with_app_item"}) });
Swift Gen (Beta)
try await client.files.getFileById(fileId: fileId, queryParams: GetFileByIdQueryParams(fields: ["is_associated_with_app_item"]))
Java
BoxFile file = new BoxFile(api, "id");
BoxFile.Info info = file.getInfo();
Python
file_id = '11111'
file_info = client.file(file_id).get()
print(f'File "{file_info.name}" has a size of {file_info.size} bytes')
.NET
BoxFile file = await client.FilesManager.GetInformationAsync(id: "11111");
Node
client.files.get('11111')
	.then(file => {
		/* file -> {
			type: 'file',
			id: '11111',
			file_version: 
			{ type: 'file_version',
				id: '22222',
				sha1: '97b3dbba6eab7ad0f058240744c8636b7c7bea93' },
			sequence_id: '1',
			etag: '1',
			sha1: '97b3dbba6eab7ad0f058240744c8636b7c7bea93',
			name: 'Puppy.png',
			description: '',
			size: 106833,
			path_collection: 
			{ total_count: 2,
				entries: 
				[ { type: 'folder',
					id: '0',
					sequence_id: null,
					etag: null,
					name: 'All Files' },
					{ type: 'folder',
					id: '33333',
					sequence_id: '0',
					etag: '0',
					name: 'Collaborated Folder' } ] },
			created_at: '2016-11-16T22:01:44-08:00',
			modified_at: '2016-11-16T22:01:51-08:00',
			trashed_at: null,
			purged_at: null,
			content_created_at: '2016-10-29T18:33:50-07:00',
			content_modified_at: '2016-10-29T18:33:50-07:00',
			created_by: 
			{ type: 'user',
				id: '44444',
				name: 'Owner',
				login: 'owner@example.com' },
			modified_by: 
			{ type: 'user',
				id: '44444',
				name: 'Owner',
				login: 'owner@example.com' },
			owned_by: 
			{ type: 'user',
				id: '44444',
				name: 'Owner',
				login: 'owner@example.com' },
			shared_link: null,
			parent: 
			{ type: 'folder',
				id: '33333',
				sequence_id: '0',
				etag: '0',
				name: 'Collaborated Folder' },
			item_status: 'active' }

		*/
	});
iOS
client.files.get(fileId: "11111", fields: ["name", "created_at"]) { (result: Result<File, BoxSDKError>) in
    guard case let .success(file) = result else {
        print("Error retrieving file information")
        return
    }

    print("File \(file.name) was created at \(file.createdAt)")
}

File ID

The id for any file can be determined by visiting a file in the web application and copying the id from the URL. For example, for the URL https://*.app.box.com/file/123 the file_id is 123.

Additional fields

To get more of the fields for a file, make sure to pass along the fields query parameter.

Learn about requesting extra fields