When we did this at Omnidrive we worked with other online storage providers and web app prodivers to do it in a standard way so that instead of 'Upload from Dropbox' you could specify any online service that implements the interface.
for eg. the upload form could let you pick your Google Docs, or another account.
We called it WebFS. I think the idea was too early and most of us ended up running out of money or being sold.
I'd like to see the same idea implemented here again. Web app developers can implement an upload button that can open any URL. Similar to WebDAV but for web apps.
I have two accounts also, share a folder between them to sync. You have to pay double if you have a lot of data but with the new cheaper 100GB plans it doesn't burn a hole through your pocket.
Yup, it's great to see that Dropbox shares our vision of helping connect online storage to online applications, so the spirit is the right one.
Our goal is for users to be able to connect directly to their online content, and we're working with Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Skydrive, Facebook and others to make this happen.
Any project that lasts longer than a few months inevitably encounters some form of duplication from elsewhere. There should be a Metcalfe-esque law for that.
Love the enthusiasm! To us, anything that helps makes products work more seamlessly together online is a win for the web and the world we want to see.
It also seems like Dropbox is encouraging a different use case, in that the links they provide by default are Dropbox share links that route back to Dropbox, and even the direct ones expire after 4 hours. With Filepicker.io, we want to be a more complete filesystem solution, offering things like store to S3, read/write on the URLs, conversion, etc.
My immediate impression was this was going to be a way to switch Dropbox accounts. That would have been super cool. Not that having a Dropbox API for selecting files is bad.
Right Click on the Dropbox Icon in your system tray -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Selective Sync Settings. Works for me on mac, pc and linux. Haven't tried in on my mobile devices.
EDIT: You can only choose which folders to sync, not specific files so that may or may not be what you were looking for.
Heartily agree with this. I don't need my library of vintage drum machine samples at work, but would love to have my personal txt file wiki along for the ride.
This is a brilliant move by Dropbox. It is now becoming part of the Internet fabric and, if the move is successful, it will likely remain dominant--at least essential--for a very long time.
Now if anyone knows how I can invest in it as soon as possible, I'd appreciate to know. (Email in profile.)
It's worth noting that Dropbox Chooser is a javascript tool and intended for web applications.
Native applications might still find it easier to directly access the dropbox folder (no need to know the user's account credentials and faster syncing than through the API with its rate limits).
Trello was amongst the firsts to add file picker support (great feature we use frequently).
Funny to see that the first player Dropbox picks is Asana ..
Yeah, there's some services like this, but most of them have size caps (or in that case, deal with small files anyway). While it would be great for browsing on my phone, I'd really take advantage of this for downloading large files that would take a long time to download otherwise (especially since they'd then have to get uploaded by dropbox).
I'm all for making it easier to work with the cloud, but... is this application really all that useful, considering that the whole concept of the Dropbox app is that all your Dropbox files are constantly kept in sync on your local machine?
I think of this as the very essence of what Dropbox does, are there really very many situations where local copies would be unavailable?
I mainly use Dropbox to only keep copies of things I need right away (small footprint mentality). The selective sync is fantastic for letting things be out of sight until I need them. Backups are great for this concept, I can keep tons of photos in my dropbox account but don't need them hogging my drive space. Enter the benefit of server > server & not needing a local copy of it.
While syncing files is the main attraction for me with Dropbox, there are other useful features too. You can set which folders sync with other machines or only upload to Dropbox, as well as generate links for files in your Dropbox.
for eg. the upload form could let you pick your Google Docs, or another account.
We called it WebFS. I think the idea was too early and most of us ended up running out of money or being sold.
I'd like to see the same idea implemented here again. Web app developers can implement an upload button that can open any URL. Similar to WebDAV but for web apps.