Need Replacement for DropBox Public Folder

General
1

First let me preface this by saying I am fairly ignorant about networking stuff and web technologies…

My company does not have a server (file or web) that I can use. Some years back I wrote a Xojo desktop app for in-house use at work that runs both on Mac and Windows and uses SQLite.

The users never write to the DB, but it does need to get updated periodically with new information. The way I handled that (with help from people here) is by storing the encrypted database (and a short text filed with last update date) in a DropBox public folder. The admin (me) uploads the new file to Dropbox when changes need to be made.

The app silently checks weekly to see if the DB has been updated, and if it has it automatically downloads the updated DB. (there is also an update now option that just downloads the file on demand).

The nature of that app is such that multiple people within a department are likely to use the same copy so it does not use, store or ask for passwords. The encrypted DB ensures no one who does not have a copy of the app can read the DB and that is all the security required in this case. (no needs to keep anything i private within the company)

This has worked well for years and has been very convenient for the uses. The new versions of the DB file use the same URL to download, so nothing special besides uploading the modified DB has to be done for updates, so it’s very simple.

Unfortunately DropBox is discontinuing Public folders and with that direct download links, and it’s not realistic to install the Dropbox app on all the machines my app is running on, so I need a replacement… and likely some help with how to do it… Any solution needs to be free as this is something I did on my own.

Does anyone know what my options might be? if worst comes to worst I can Email DB updates to all users and tell people where to put the file, but that just about guarantees that all the users won’t be on the same version of the DB, so I want to avoid that if at all possible.

As my company uses Gmail, I guess Google drive might be a possibility… Does anyone know if it can be made to work as described above in our environment, and if so point me in the right direction…

If there is another good alternative, whatever the service, some example code would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks,

  • karen
2

since they are removing the public folder in dropbox, i don’t know what to do with the screenshot i include on the forum using the public folder??

3

You could put up OwnCloud server, that would do it but you would need to host it. I run a 4 Terabyte Own Cloud server my self powered by small $15 Orange PI machine. (Own cloud is pretty much replica of Dropbox in many ways except you host it your self)

There are also hosts offering owncloud hosting.

4

You can (obviously) rent web space for peanuts.
You don’t actually need to point a domain name at it.
The hosting company gives you an IP address that works just as well.

So if they rent you space at 72.100.65.100/Karen.A/public_html/ or whatever, you can use that as a direct replacement for
www.mydomainname.com/

stick your db in that space and away you go.

You administer the file/s via an FTP account or a control panel file explorer.

GoDaddy has a sale on for £1 a month, (with a free domain included) at the moment…

5

cjoint.com is a free alternative to download links.

6

You can use imgur.com

7

Hi Karen,

You might want to check out XFS, a free Xojo Web App, by Tim Dietrich and I: http://campsoftware.com/products/xfs-for-xojo.php

In short, you just post files to top upload and use simple links to download!

XFS comes with a ‘server’ project and a sample ‘Uploader’ project. To make it work like dropbox, you could just run the server on a computer and add files or folders in the ‘files’ folder on that computer or via file sharing.

8

[quote=303991:@Hal Gumbert]Hi Karen,

You might want to check out XFS, a free Xojo Web App, by Tim Dietrich and I: http://campsoftware.com/products/xfs-for-xojo.php
[/quote]

Thanks Hal, I will check it out… though I don’t have a web license… But I DO have a console license… (I renewed pre Xojo for a LONG time so I have a current console license until Feb 2018 even though I do no have Pro) so maybe I can do something with that.

BTW does anyone know if I can do this with Google Drive as we use Gmail internally?

  • karen
9

Another service to consider is Rackspace’s CloudFiles. They charge $0.12 per gigabyte. You could just make your app check a URL and download when it’s new.

10

It is still possible to share files without requiring dropbox to be installed. Take for example this file which is not in my public folder https://xojo.io/b3dfcadb72d3. This is the standard link, but notice the parameter dl=0, change that to dl=1 and you get https://www.dropbox.com/s/0en1kqff8fnjh8d/axis-logo-256px.png?dl=1 a file that is automatically downloaded by your browser.

This doesn’t work for images here and all the links we’ve used in the past will be broken unless Xojo work out a way of letting us change the links on existing conversations, but it will still work for file sharing.

11

Thanks but I am not going to pay for a service for my employer! Heck I have had one raise in the last 3 years!!!

  • Karen
12

[quote=304003:@Wayne Golding]It is still possible to share files without requiring dropbox to be installed. Take for example this file which is not in my public folder https://xojo.io/b3dfcadb72d3. This is the standard link, but notice the parameter dl=0, change that to dl=1 and you get https://www.dropbox.com/s/0en1kqff8fnjh8d/axis-logo-256px.png?dl=1 a file that is automatically downloaded by your browser.

This doesn’t work for images here and all the links we’ve used in the past will be broken unless Xojo work out a way of letting us change the links on existing conversations, but it will still work for file sharing.[/quote]

Thanks Wayne,

I though I had tried that and it did not work… Must have copied the URL incorrectly!

  • Karen
13

You should show your app to a supervisor, if it increases productivity they should be happy to budget a few dollars a month to it.

14

Good idea… But the images already in forum would not show in future. Thanks for suggestion

15

[quote=304003:@Wayne Golding]t is still possible to share files without requiring dropbox to be installed. Take for example this file which is not in my public folder https://xojo.io/b3dfcadb72d3 . This is the standard link, but notice the parameter dl=0, change that to dl=1 and you get https://www.dropbox.com/s/0en1kqff8fnjh8d/axis-logo-256px.png?dl=1 a file that is automatically downloaded by your browser.

[/quote]

When I tried that in Safari it works… But when I try it in code that works with the public folder file I get HTTPSecureSocket Error 302 which I can’t find in the Xojo docs… When I google Error 302 it says it os redirect error… How would I get this t work?

I’m on OSX 10.9.5 using the old framework, if that matters.

  • karen
16

Let’s just say I work in a very unusual and unpredictable organization and it would be much better not to do that.

  • karen
17

Karen, I really feel for you providing IT services for nothing for all these years. This is worth of a Dickens tale. Is your boss Scrooge himself ?

18

Karen place this code

If httpStatus = 302 Then Dim redirectLocation As String = headers.Value("location") me.Get(redirectLocation) End If
In the headersreceived event handler of your socket. HTTP Status 302 tells the browser to go elsewhere.

20

[quote=304023:@Wayne Golding]Karen place this code

If httpStatus = 302 Then Dim redirectLocation As String = headers.Value("location") me.Get(redirectLocation) End If
In the headersreceived event handler of your socket. HTTP Status 302 tells the browser to go elsewhere.[/quote]

Thanks Wayne,

That works!

  • karen
21

Keep in mind that the other part of the Public folder function was to provide the same url for the same file. Replacing the file might yield a new dropbox link (not sure entirely)

Would you let us know if you run into any issues with the link changing? That would be awesome.