Dropbox for Business
- Andrea Harvey
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Overview
The Dropbox connector in DryvIQ allows you to analyze, migrate, copy, and synchronize files to your Dropbox account from cloud storage repositories and on-premise network file shares. The first step is to create the Dropbox connection by providing the connection information required for DryvIQ to connect to the server. When creating a connection using a Dropbox for Business account, you must use an Administrator account.
A Team Administrator account is recommended for migrating into or out of Dropbox. The administrator account will impersonate other users and let DryvIQ act on their behalf.
Creating a Connection
Expand the Manage section in the left navigation menu.
Click Connections.
Click Add connection.
Select Dropbox for Business as the platform on the Add connection modal.
Enter the connection information. Reference the table below for details about each field.
Click Sign in with Dropbox for Business.
On the Dropbox API Request Authorization modal, enter the Email and Password required to log in to the account and click Sign In. Only an Administrator account can be used for Dropbox for Business. Standard accounts will return an error from the Dropbox for Business platform.
Click Allow when prompted to authorize the connection.
You will see a green "Connected” message on the bottom of the modal when DryvIQ establishes connection. (If the connection fails, verify the information you entered.)
Click Done to finish creating the connection.Â
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Add Connection Modal for Dropbox for Business
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Field | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
Display as | Enter the display name for the connection. If you will be creating multiple connections, ensure the name readily identifies the connection. The name displays in the application, and you can use it to search for the connection and filter lists. If you do not add a display name, the connection will automatically be named, "Dropbox for Business." DryvIQ recommends that you edit the name to more readily identify the connection. | Optional |
Platform API client credentials | Required | |
Use the system default client credentials | Select this option to use the default DryvIQ client application. | Â |
Use custom client credentials | Select this option to use custom client credentials provided by your administrator. When selected, two additional fields will be available to enter the credentials. | Â |
Client ID | This field displays only when you select Use custom client credentials. This value will be provided by your administrator. | Required when using custom credentials |
Client Secret | This field displays only when you select Use custom client credentials. This value will be provided by your administrator. | Required when using custom credentials |
Include unmounted folders | Indicate if you want to DryvIQ to show unmounted folders owned by the user. The default option is No, so unmounted folders do not display. If you select Yes, DryvIQ will display unmounted folders owned by the user. Only folders will display; the contents for the folders will not display. DryvIQ will not migrate the unmounted folders if used in a job. The DryvIQ will be slow to return folders when you include unmounted folders due to the response times of the Dropbox API required to obtain this information. | Optional |
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Dropbox for Business Login
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Allow Access to DropboxÂ
Features and LimitationsÂ
Platforms all have unique features and limitations. DryvIQ’s transfer engine manages these differences between platforms and allows you to configure actions based on Job Policies and Behaviors. Use the Platform Comparison tool to see how your integration platforms may interact regarding features and limitations.Â
Supported | Unsupported | Other Features/Limitations |
|---|---|---|
Invalid characters: < > \\ / : ? * \ | ~ | ||
File size maximum: 50 GB or smaller | ||
Author/Owner preservation | Path length maximum: n/a | |
Segment path length: 255 | ||
 | Maximum number of files per folder: 10,000 | |
 | No trailing spaces after file extensions | |
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Author Preservation
The Dropbox connector uses "per-request impersonation." This means DryvIQ makes requests to the platform on behalf of the account owner, not the administrator. Therefore, files created by other users will fail to upload unless the account owner mounts the shared parent folder into their Dropbox drive before uploading the file. (See https://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/add-shared-folder  for more information.) Failed uploads will be logged with a message similar to the following example: "[PermissionFailure] The account 'Joe Smith' is not authorized to perform the requested operation."
Missing or unknown account in Dropbox
If a job is set to impersonate an invalid or unknown Dropbox user during author preservation, DryvIQ will log an error in the Job Activity report. You will see an “Unknown failure” in the job activity with an error description that reads, “Missing or unknown account in Dropbox: <email address>” (where <email address> will be the invalid account that was encountered).
Business Team Folders
Team folders transfer automatically with any transfer job; however, Team and Shared folders must first be mounted in Dropbox (Dropbox for Business API only surfaces mounted Team and Shared folders). If you choose to ignore shared items, Team Folders will not be transferred. The Dropbox for Business connector creates shared user folders by default. To create shared folders in a Team Folder, the root Team Folder must be created in the Dropbox UI and selected as the root of the job. Shared folders that are created in a Team Folder support permission disinheritance. Shared folders created in a user folder do not support disinheritance and will log a warning.
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Character Sanitization
DryvIQ will sanitize file names that contain combined Unicode characters by replacing the characters with an underscore (_).
Dropbox Paper
DryvIQ does not support Dropbox paper. Dropbox Paper is a separate work space that stores Paper documents in your account on http://paper.dropbox.com . DryvIQ doesn't support have access to these documents as part of your Dropbox connection.Â
Path Lengths
Dropbox does not impose restrictions for the total path length.
Segment path lengths are limited to 255 character. Segments are delimited by a forward slash (/). For example, <max 255 characters>/<max 255 characters>.
Rate Limits in Containerized Environments
The Dropbox for Business API organizes content into namespaces, which can represent a user's home folder (their personal namespace ID), a shared folder, or a team folder within a team space. The API enforces limits on concurrent operations within a namespace and will return a too_many_write_operations error if these limits are exceeded. The DryvIQ Dropbox for Business connector adheres to Dropbox's best practices to minimize the likelihood of hitting these rate limits. However, in a containerized environment (or across multiple nodes), it is important to avoid running folder mapping jobs or multiple concurrent operations within the same namespace. (For example, avoid mapping folders into subfolders of a user's drive.) The locking mechanism used to prevent concurrent operations does not function across containers, which could lead to higher instances of rate limit errors.
Shared Links
Editor access is preserved for shared links on containers only in Dropbox; shared links for files only support viewer access.
Versioning
The Dropbox platform treats content version history differently than other cloud platforms, with each native move and rename tracked as a new version. When Dropbox for Business is the source storage provider for a migration, preserving and transferring all versions will result in more versions transferring to the destination storage platform. In order to only transfer true version history, enable the Scripting option on step 6 during job creation and copy the following JSON into the scripting box:
{
"transfer": {
"versioning": {
"preserve": "native",
"select": "published"
}
}
}Â
Version Expiration
Version Expiration
Dropbox for Business limits file version history based on the plan your plan. When the version history exceeds the period outlined by your plan, the expired versions are no longer available to be restored by Dropbox or migrated by DryvIQ.
For more information, please visit Dropbox:
Version Limits
While Dropbox allows you to store unlimited versions, the platform restricts version downloads to 100. This means only the most recent 100 versions for a given file will be transferred to the destination. Refer to the Dropbox API Documentation for more information. You can also find additional information in the Dropbox Forum.
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