Action Step: Dropbox

Dropbox is an online file sync service.

Drafts has action steps which can create, replace, prepend or append to files in your Dropbox. Dropbox actions connect directly with Dropbox APIs and require a network connection to operate.

Many ready to use Dropbox example actions for Dropbox are available in the Action Directory, like:

• Save to Dropbox
• Save to Dropbox as...

Installing and modifying one of these actions is a great way to get started.

When a Dropbox action step is added, the follow values can be configured to control how and where the file is created:

• Path: The folder path to target. This can point to any folder in your Dropbox. “/” will write to files at the root level of your Dropbox. If the folder does not already exist, it will be created the first time you use the action. Tags can be used to create dynamic values.
• File: The file name.
• Ext: The extension to use. Typically “txt”, “markdown”, but can be anything.
• Write: One of four possible output strategies:
  • Create: Write to a new file each time the action is used. If a file with the same file name exists already, Dropbox will create a new file with the same name and a parenthetic number attached, like “File (1)”, “File (2)”, etc.
  • Append: Add to the end of a file.
  • Prepend: Add to beginning of a file.
  • Replace: Similar to “Create”, but instead of creating a new file if the file already exists, this will completely replace the contents of the existing file with the output of the action.
• Template: The template can be used to wrap the draft with some additional text when the action is used. Several tags are supported to add timestamps, but any other text – such as separator lines – can be added as well. Read more about supported template tags.

 

Notes

• Prepend/Append actions may become somewhat inefficient if the target file becomes very large.
• If you want to find a starting place for your action, some importable samples are available at the Drafts Action Directory.