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Copy files from Dropbox to a server using CLI

Nate Williams edited this page Apr 18, 2017 · 3 revisions

Copy files from Dropbox to a server using CLI

User problem

Tom manages IT infrastructure for a small organization with 50 employees. The organization uses Dropbox heavily, and Tom regularly needs to transfer files from Dropbox onto multiple servers. However, he does not want to install Dropbox on these servers, and only wants to copy selected files from certain Dropbox folders, and so he has been using his own workstation to copy the files from Dropbox and them manually loading them onto the server. However, he'd prefer to access these files on the server via the command line without having to install or sync files from Dropbox.

Solution

Create a pipe to that copies selected files from a Dropbox connection to standard out on the command line. Select Dropbox as the input source and the command line interface as the output destination. Create a pipe alias and configure the CLI with the API key, if needed. Test the pipe using the CLI using and then run the pipe from the command line whenever new files need to be copied onto various servers.

Workflow

  • Select Dropbox as an input source
  • Select the CLI as an output destination
  • Set up API key and/or pipe alias for configuring the CLI, if needed
  • Configure the CLI with the information for the pipe
  • Run a test to verify that the pipe can access and copy files from Dropbox
  • Turn the pipe "on" to enable it to run via the CLI

To-Do List

  • Display API key for the CLI in the output panel
  • Display pipe alias for the CLI in the output panel
  • Allow user to edit/update the pipe alias
  • Display notification if API key is not set up, and/or an option to generate API key
  • Display code examples for using the pipe with the CLI

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