I really hope they don't remove this. This is the only reason I pay them instead of Google Drive.
Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon
121–130 of 153 posts
Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon
#122Houston, we have a problem. Just about the only thing I use Dropbox for is the public folder. I've gotten many of my friends and collaborators to sign up for the service, based on the recommendation of this very feature. It's been a real boon for rapidly iterating front end mock ups. Dropping support for what Dropbox evidently regards as "edge use cases" is not how you "build the next Apple or Google". The Public fol…
I think you are overreacting. Are you serious about using the public folder for "rapidly iterating front end mock ups"? Why would you want to put sensitive and confidential data for everyone in the world to see?
I use it in the same way too.
Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon
#123Wow, how are people using their "Public" folders? I'm honestly surprised at all this outrage. I was unaware you could share any folder/file before so I just played around with it. From your file manager, right click any dropbox file or folder and select 'Get Link'. The browser will open and send you to a page displaying all those files and folders. You can copy/paste that link to anyone. Is the only difference that i…
If you host an html file with a relative img tag in the public folder it will just work. If you do it with the get link method, you'd have to get a link for each resource. Public folder is really helpful for hosting sites that are in development that you want to share with your clients.
Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon
#124While they are cleaning up one singleton folder, I hope they will clean up another set of singleton folders. Namely, app folders. I realize that giving every app access to your entire Dropbox is a bad idea, but apps only being able to access "Apps/The App Name/" is like only being able to share files in "People/theiremail@example.com/". For one, it completely kills the ability to have multiple apps use the same files.
What would work better is an "Add to App" model. If I want to use a folder as, say, my Calepin blog, I would go to the Dropbox Web interface (maybe even the GUI client) and click "Add to Calepin." Then if I also wanted to use it as my Epistle Notes folder, there are absolutely zero issues.
Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any reason why the marketing department would do it?
It drives recipients to the Dropbox website. Eg, right now I can put an image file in my /public, get the link and embed it in an img src tag without the anyone else ever having to know it's on Dropbox. This way, I can't do that. I can make a clickable link and paste that. Then people have to click to see the picture on the Dropbox website. Where Dropbox can constructively engage them in a dynamic exciting conversati…
> Eg, right now I can put an image file in my /public, get the link and embed it in an img src tag without the anyone else ever having to know it's on Dropbox.
> This way, I can't do that.
And it sucks. Embedding public/ images on university discussion group was one of my primary uses of Dropbox and I would have never ever suspected that of all the features, they would phase this one.
Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon
#126Does anyone else think this can be easily fixed with a Powershell (or batch) script? Preconfigure it with your public folder url "id" and make it so it copies the generic url to the clipboard (complete with filename) and just appends a "?dl=1" at the end. Make a shortcut to the script and send it to the context menu. Don't say Dropbox creates a unique token for every link made, which means in that case, we'd have to…
It seems that although the id of a certain folder always stays constant, every file in that folder would have a random string before its filename which makes this method useless. I should learn to think more thoroughly.
Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon
#127I like the change, and also consider the Public folder to be redundant. I hated having to move files to the Public folder every time I wanted to send a link to someone. I am satisfied with https://www.dropbox.com/links as a way to see which links are shared with the world. Some cynics say it's a marketing tactic, but I actually like the preview as well. I don't have any esoteric use cases like using Dropbox to host w…
Ok so say you're bashing out a HTML site with some other frontend people, so you throw it up on your Public folder, and they can access it at /u/8798798/whatever/index.html, and their browsers can access associated content (html, css). This is used a LOT in the web design industry, and taking this out is going to piss a lot of people off.
I'd speculate that this is, in fact, why they're phasing it out: Too many people were using it as a free web host. I doubt it's profitable to be GeoCities Without Ads - GeoCities couldn't even stay up _with_ ads.
Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon
#128A hint to everyone: If you got the link, made by "Get link", and you don't like the innecessary preview in browser, just add "?dl=1" to the end of the link example: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1axoy96uwa80wko/matfyzak%20%281%29... - ugly preview page https://www.dropbox.com/s/1axoy96uwa80wko/matfyzak%20%281%29... - sane PDF link
Dropbox support offered up the ?dl=1 querystring as the solution to permanent, public URLs when I emailed them, but I have the same issue with the fact that the files are forced to download. If they're going to stick with Dropbox branded preview for public URLs, I'd like to at least see a similar ?view=1 querystring to keep images/pdfs/etc.. displaying directly in the browser.
The problem there is that it doesn't solve their hotlinking problem.
Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
A staffer (?) mentions further down that almost no one was using their Public folder, so I really doubt that the average Dropbox user wants any of the things you listed. Dropbox is a file storage and sharing service, not a CDN or web host. Just because it could be hacked to make it a CDN or web host doesn't mean those things are highly desirable to customers or good for their actual business.
> almost no one was using their Public folder I almost exclusively use my public folder. I mean, I keep things in other folders as well, but my main use case is typically "I want to send this file to $friend, so I'll just save it in my public folder and send them the link."
They made it easier to do this. You can send a public link to any file anywhere in Dropbox now.
Re: Dropbox' Public/ folders will be phased out soon
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people (as in the majority of the population with access to digital media) have a very difficult time understanding that the filesystem is a hierarchy. I'm always espousing the necessity of backups to my friends/family, which means I've usually got the role of setting up a Dropbox account for someone without a technical background. When I say that their "My Documents" folder is a level above their Dropbox folder…
"When I say that their "My Documents" folder is a level above their Dropbox folder, I get a blank stare." You might get a blank stare, because Windows itself has been trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to move away from this hierarchical model, blurring this metaphor. Consider the Libraries feature, which can essentially collect many folders (My Documents, Dropbox\Documents) and can represent them as a single virtual l…
"Consider the Libraries feature"
My gawd, I can't even figure out what's where in the Libraries context.