Dropbox In

Use the Dropbox In collection node to connect to a Dropbox account, including a Dropbox Business Standard or Advanced account, to monitor the configured folder for new files at regular intervals. Dropbox is a file hosting service that offers Cloud storage and file synchronization.

Dropbox In supports Personal, Team, and Shared folders, and can filter files by name, size, or modified date prior to passing documents along a workflow for processing and routing.

Important! You must have an available device license to save your Dropbox In node configuration.

To open the Dropbox In node’s configuration window, add a Collection node for Dropbox to your workflow and double-click on it.

Configuring the Dropbox In Node

The Dropbox In node appears in the following illustration:

• Enabled - To enable this node in the current workflow, ensure the Enabled toggle is to the right. By default, nodes are enabled upon creation. If you disable the node, the workflow will ignore it. While the workflow will still validate, documents will not be output from this node and may be lost. Note that a disabled node does not check for logic or error conditions.

• Node Name - The node name defaults to this field. This name appears in the workflow below the node icon. Use this field to specify a meaningful name for the node that indicates its use in the workflow.

• Node Description - Enter an optional description for this node. A description can help you remember the purpose of the node in the workflow or distinguish nodes from each other.

Buttons

• Help - To access Online Help, click this button.
• Cancel - To exit the window without saving any changes, click this button.
• Save - To preserve your node configuration and exit the window, click this button.

Connecting to Dropbox

To connect to Dropbox, do the following:

1. Click the Add Account button. This will open the Dropbox login.

   

2. Enter the login information for the Dropbox account. Note that the Dropbox In node also supports Google and Apple logins. Then, click Log In.

This will bring you back to the Dropbox In node to complete configuration. If there is more than one account available, you can select the account you want by clicking the radio button next to the desired account.

To modify the default Connection Timeout (the seconds allotted for the time without communication, after initial connection to the server, before a timeout occurs), enter a value in the Connection Timeout field.

Deleting an Account

To delete an account, click the Delete icon next to the account you would like to delete. This will open a window with the following options:

• No - This cancels the delete action and returns you to the node configuration window.

• Yes This deletes the account in this node. The account can be added again later.

• Yes, Permanently - This deletes the account from the tenant, including all workflows. The account can be added again later.To continue with this action, select Yes.

  Caution! Selecting this option can impact workflow performance.

  

Collection Option

In the Collection option section, you have the following options:

• Process as group - To process files from the selected folder as a group, check this box. To process files individually, leave the box blank.
• Delete document from server - To delete files from the Dropbox server on collection, check this box. Otherwise, leave the box blank.

Dropbox Explorer Area

Once the connection with Dropbox has been established, the Dropbox Explorer area populates with the folder structure of the selected Dropbox account. Select the Dropbox folder you want to monitor.

The current folder path displays in the top bar of the Dropbox area. You can use this folder path to navigate back through your folder structure. The Folder Path field below the explorer area also displays the current path.

In the following illustration, the folder path displays and the Dropbox area shows the Tree view :

Folder Types

The following folder types may appear in the Dropbox Explorer area, depending on your Dropbox version:

Dropbox Personal folder

Dropbox Team folder

Dropbox Team Member folder

Dropbox Shared folder

Filter

Use the Filter drop-down in the upper-right corner of the Properties window to specify the conditions, if any, for collecting files. For any filters you apply, the workflow collects only files from Dropbox that meet the specified criteria.

• Filter by File Name - To filter files based on a specified file name, check the box. The following fields activate:

  • File name - Enter the complete file name, including the file extension, that you want to collect from Dropbox. You can use wildcards in the name you enter. For example entering *.jpg will return all files with an extension of “jpg”.

    • Regular expression - To dynamically filter files using a pattern describing a certain amount of text, check this box. Note that if you select this option, the Match case checkbox inactivates.
    • Match case - If your search is case-sensitive, check this box. Note that if you select this option, the Regular Expression checkbox inactivates.

• Filter by File Size - To filter files based on file size, check this box. If you check the box at this field, the following options activate:

  • File size - Filter files relative to the size specified below. Select one of the following conditions:

    • Greater than
    • Less than
    • Greater than or equal
    • Less than or equal
    • in between (specify the low and high values in the range)

    Specify a file size, and then specify the file size measurement unit. You have the following options:

    • Bytes
    • KB
    • MB
    • GB
    • TB

• Filter by Modified Date - To filter files based on the modified date, check the box at this field. The following fields activate:

  • File Date - Filter files relative to the date specified below. Select one of the following conditions:

    • Newer Than

    • Older Than

    • In Between (specify the low and high dates in the range)

    • Equal

    • Select a date - To specify a date, click the Calendar and select a date. You can also enter a date directly using one of the following formats:

      • MM/DD/YY
      • MM/DD/YYYY
      • MONTH DD, YYYY

• Filter criteria

  • Match any one filter criteria - If any one of the filter criteria is met, the file will be collected from Dropbox.
  • Match all filter criteria - If all of the filter criteria are met, the file will be collected from Dropbox. If any one of the filter criteria is not met, the file will not be collected from Dropbox.

Options

There are several options that allow you to customize your view of files and folders within the Dropbox In node:

• Show files - To show files within the folder browsing view, select this option.
• New folder - To create a new folder in the currently selected folder path on Dropbox, select this option. The Create New Folder window appears.
• Refresh - To refresh the folder browser view (Show tree view or Show files) in Dropbox Explorer, select this option.
• Change View - To toggle between a tree view and a folder view, select this option.

Folder Path

The Folder path field below the folder tree auto-populates when you make your folder selection in the Dropbox Explorer. If you do not want to navigate the file explorer, you can manually enter the folder path in this field.

Metadata

The following metadata is created in the Dropbox In node: