Dropbox

Introduction

Connecting Dropbox to your ownCloud installation requires only a few steps. Then you can easily keep a Dropbox folder in sync with an ownCloud folder. This guide assumes you already have a Dropbox account.

Install the ownCloud Dropbox App

Install the External Storage Dropbox app from the ownCloud Marketplace

  1. Click Market in the ownCloud web UI drop-down menu on the left side

  2. Go to the Storage category

  3. Select External Storage: Dropbox App

  4. Click INSTALL

Create a Dropbox App

Next, you need to create a Dropbox app. To do that, open the new app creation form, where you see three settings:

  1. "Choose an API" –> "Scoped access"

  2. "Choose the type of access" –> "App folder"

  3. "Name your app"

Read and agree to the Dropbox API Terms and Conditions before clicking the blue Create app button. After you do that, the settings page for the application loads.

Dropbox app configuration settings
Redirect URI: Here you must enter the exact URL of the page where you configure the storage.

Examples:

When configuring as an admin:

http(s)://<<Server_Address>>/settings/admin?sectionid=storage

When configuring as a user:

http(s)://<<Server_Address>>/settings/personal?sectionid=storage

Take note of the App key and App secret since you’ll need them in the next step.

Create a Dropbox Share

Return to the ownCloud web interface. Under Admin  Settings  Storage, check the Enable external storage checkbox if it’s not already checked. Then, in the drop-down list under External storage, select Dropbox V2.

Then, you need to provide a name for the folder in the "Folder name" field and a "client key" and "client secret" under "Configuration". The client key and client secret values are the "App key" and "App secret" which you saw earlier in your Dropbox app configuration settings.

After you have entered these values, click Grant access. ownCloud then interacts with the Dropbox API to set up the new shared folder. If the process is successful, a green circle icon appears at the far left-hand side of the row next to the folder name.

A Dropbox share successfully created

Other Options

If you want to grant access to the share to a select list of users and groups, you can add them to the field in the "Available for" column.

Using the Dropbox Share

After a Dropbox share is created, a new folder is available under "All Files" with the name you provided when you created the share. It is represented by an external share folder icon as in the image below.

A Dropbox share successfully created

This links to a new folder in your Dropbox account under Dropbox  Apps with the name of the Dropbox app that you created.

A new Dropbox share is available

Now, if you add files and folders in either the new Dropbox folder or the new ownCloud folder, they will be visible in both after they’ve been synced.

The Dropbox Apps folders