Is there a way to return a list of all the image file names in a folder using only Javascript?

Question

I have a dropbox account. I put a bunch of images in a public folder. I'd like to display the images using shadowbox.

Right now, I'm manually entering the filenames into this html file. Is there a way to dynamically update the gallery when I drag new images into the images folder?

I'd prefer javascript if it's possible. If it's not possible with javascript, any other suggestions to use shadowbox to automatically show a gallery of images stored on dropbox?

I know dropbox has their own gallery feature, but I'd like to use my own that's unbranded. Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

Bad News First...

Javascript cannot read remote directories on the server, for security reasons. You'll have to use a server-side language instead.

Good News Last...

There appears to be a PHP Script that can access your dropbox account, and return the filenames to Javascript: http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=15660 - a demo can be viewed online at http://2boandco.com/demo-php-dropbox-gallery

Answer 2

The only think you could possibly do is name the files contiguously (1.jpg, 2.jpg), get the HEAD of them one by one, and then stop when you get a 404.

Answer 3

I ended up creating a python script that outputs the html I need to work with Shadowbox.

I just need to have a folder called "shadowbox" with the shadowbox files in it, a folder called "Full" with the actual images, and a folder called "Thumbs" with thumbnails that have the same name as the full image. Then the script will automatically create a file called "gallery.html".

Here's a sample.. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/154234/Images/gallery.html

Here's the python script for anyone interested in using it. I'm just a novice programmer, so any suggestions on how to make the code more elegant would be appreciated. Thanks!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/154234/Images/update.py