Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Using the Dropbox Datastore API in Python

dropbox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 26 posts

Re: Using the Dropbox Datastore API in Python

#4

Post by bsimpson »

This could be a fantastic opportunity for startups to scale more quickly without most of the per-user costs. If the user brings his own storage, I don't have to pay Google/Amazon/etc. to put the user's data in my app's datastore. Since Dropbox has utility to the user beyond just my app, I don't have to convince the user to start a subscription with me to cover his share of my costs; he already has a Dropbox account. As long as Dropbox comes with 2GB free storage, he doesn't even have to be a paying customer.

Re: Using the Dropbox Datastore API in Python

#5

Post by instaheat »

I love the sound of this but remain cautiously optimistic. One thing that immediately comes to mind: How do you prevent the user from breaking their own user experience by deleting folder X or moving file Z?

My thought would be to create a locked folder accessible only by APPX and then if the user decides they don't want to use the service any more and revokes permission to APPX the folder gets deleted.

Re: Using the Dropbox Datastore API in Python

#6

Post by instaheat »

instaheat wrote: post #5

I love the sound of this but remain cautiously optimistic. One thing that immediately comes to mind: How do you prevent the user from breaking their own user experience by deleting folder X or moving file Z? My thought would be to create a locked folder accessible only by APPX and then if the user decides they don't want to use the service any more and revokes permission to APPX the folder gets deleted.

Or is the datastore invisible to the front end UI and Dropbox application?

Re: Using the Dropbox Datastore API in Python

#7

Post by camus2 »

smarx wrote: post #3
bsimpson wrote: post #2

I wonder if Guido is behind this. He wrote the Datastore API for AppEngine, and transferred to Dropbox last year.

Yes, Guido wrote the datastores part of the Python SDK and also played a big role in the design of the Datastore API itself.

Are dropbox front-end and apis built with Python at first place?

Re: Using the Dropbox Datastore API in Python

#8

Post by smarx »

instaheat wrote: post #6
instaheat wrote: post #5

I love the sound of this but remain cautiously optimistic. One thing that immediately comes to mind: How do you prevent the user from breaking their own user experience by deleting folder X or moving file Z? My thought would be to create a locked folder accessible only by APPX and then if the user decides they don't want to use the service any more and revokes permission to APPX the folder gets deleted.

Or is the datastore invisible to the front end UI and Dropbox application?

Datastores are only visible on dropbox.com (but somewhat buried there) and via the API, so this isn't much of a concern.

Re: Using the Dropbox Datastore API in Python

#9

Post by smarx »

camus2 wrote: post #7
smarx wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Guido wrote the datastores part of the Python SDK and also played a big role in the design of the Datastore API itself.

Are dropbox front-end and apis built with Python at first place?

I'm not sure I understand the question. Dropbox uses Python heavily both server-side and client-side. Does that help?
Post reply on HN