Box Developer Documentation

Get File Information

Guides Files Get File Information
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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