New additional information about photo and video files

Richer media metadata in the Dropbox API

Following the release of Carousel, Dropbox has rolled out an update to its API that expands the metadata available for photo and video files. Developers can now pass the include_media_info parameter to the /metadata endpoint to pull back additional details for media assets.

http://api.dropbox.com/1/metadata/auto/?include_media_info=true

{
  path: "/",
  contents: [
    {
      path: "/flower.jpg",
      photo_info: {
        time_taken: "Wed, 28 Aug 2013 18:12:02 +0000",
        lat_long: [
          37.77256666666666,
          -122.45934166666667
        ]
      },
      ...
    },
    {
      path: "/beach.mov",
      video_info: {
        duration: 4463,
        time_taken: "Fri, 13 Dec 2013 17:54:38 +0000",
        lat_long: [
          37.770338,
          -122.513565
        ]
      },
      ...
    }
  ]
  ...
}

What's exposed

For each media file, the enriched response includes:

• Photos: time taken, GPS coordinates
• Videos: time taken, GPS coordinates, video duration

The time_taken and lat_long fields are derived from the Exif data embedded in the file, reformatted for easier consumption by applications. This lets developers work with the moment a file was captured rather than the upload timestamp, which is useful for building views sorted by creation date or for displaying timeline-style galleries.

GPS coordinates open up location-based capabilities—showing where a shot was taken on a map, for instance, or clustering photos and videos by geographic area.

Real-time use via /delta

The include_media_info parameter is also supported on the /delta endpoint, which tracks changes to a user's Dropbox. This combination enables scenarios such as detecting when a new photo or video is captured inside a defined geo-fence, in near real time.

Dropbox credits its developer community for pushing these additions and indicated that more media-related metadata is in the pipeline. Feedback is being collected on the developer forum.