Can I Directly Serve Downloaded Files in the Browser Using Dropbox/Google Drive Integrations or Should I Use an S3 Pre-signed URL Instead?

[user-1]

This topic was automatically generated from Slack. You can find the original thread here.

Hi team, I have a question around file handling with Dropbox/Google Drive integrations.
From the docs, I see that Dropbox has a download-file-to-tmp action, which stores the file temporarily in the execution environment and persists it only for the duration of the workflow. However, in my case we’re calling the actions via API (not using a workflow), and the actual requirement is simply to download the file in the browser.
I noticed that a lot of integrations use a similar download_to_tmp approach, but I haven’t found an action that directly supports my use case (e.g. with Dropbox).
I could add drag-and-drop support on the frontend, but I’m wondering:
• Is it possible to directly serve the downloaded file in the browser in this setup?
• Or would it be better to generate an S3 pre-signed URL and let the file upload/download flow go through that instead?
This seems a bit complex to implement in a stable way, so any guidance, best practices, or suggestions would be really helpful.
References I’ve looked at:
• Dropbox download-file-to-tmp action: pipedream/components/dropbox/actions/download-file-to-tmp/download-file-to-tmp.mjs at master · PipedreamHQ/pipedream · GitHub
• File stores documentation: File Stores - Pipedream
Thanks

[user-1]

Hey , I think it would better to use the presign url, as it is universal and can be used in multiple places (either Pipedream or your website)

[user-1]

I agree, that would be the best approach if we can do it this way, and I’ll go ahead and test it.

Could you please update me on whether Pipedream supports pre-signed URLs?

[user-1]

I found the Stash feature in Pipedream:
Stash docs
— I’m planning to test it and follow the same approach.
However, it seems Google Drive doesn’t have a download file action in the demo project, even though it exists in the GitHub repo:
GitHub download-file action
Can you please check? I’m unable to see the Download File option in the Google Drive demo:
Demo link

[user-1]

you can use the get file by id action and specify the field webContentLink or exportLinks

[user-1]

If such an option exists, we can definitely use it. However, after checking, I wasn’t able to find the flag you mentioned. Could you please share a screenshot in case I missed it?

[user-1]

You can use the Fields prop

[user-1]

Thanks, I missed that. I’ll give it a try.