Skip to main content

Dropbox releases API for developers

[PLACEHOLDER]

By: Herak
 
Dropbox hosted their first developer conference called DBX this month and they had some exciting news for developers. Dropbox released their API (Application Programming Interface) for developers which will allow developers to build apps that can store program level data on Dropbox and retrieve them. Dropbox calls them Datastores and as Houston says it’s “Dropbox’s way of moving beyond files and storing other information”. The Datastores will run in the background and will constantly sync up program level data to the cloud from whichever devices the program is running. Thus when a user switches between devices the program will always remember it’s latest state.  


Imagine you are building an app like Angry Birds for multiple devices. Now if you take advantage of Dropbox API you can give the user a seamless experience of playing the game when he switches between devices. For instance let’s assume a user is playing the game on his smartphone while commuting from work. However when he reaches home he wants to continue playing the game where he left off on his smartphone. By storing the program level data such as level, score, etc on Dropbox you can allow the user to do exactly that. And the best part is you don’t have to implement all these features from scratch. You can simply take advantage of the Dropbox API.


I think this is a smart move by Dropbox to tap into a new market. Dropbox have been hugely successful in the consumer market with more than 175 million users worldwide. Now with Datastores they are hoping to do the same in the developer (Business to Business) market. This will also create a new revenue stream for the company as other app developers and companies take advantage of this feature they would need more and more cloud space and I am sure Dropbox won’t be providing that space without charging.


As Dropbox CEO Drew Houston puts it “We are replacing the hard drive, I don’t mean that you’re going to unscrew your MacBook and find a Dropbox inside, but the spiritual successor to the hard drive is what we’re launching.” With Datastores they are one step closer to this vision. 

Trending posts

Apple's App Tracking Transparency sealing Meta's fate

If you have been following the recent news on Meta (formerly Facebook) you may have read that Meta recently projected their ad revenue will be cut by a staggering $10 billion in 2022 due to Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency feature (also known as ATT). This has resulted in Meta’s stock to plummet by over 20%. Photo by julien Tromeur on Unsplash - modified by Beolle So what is Apple’s ATT and how does it impact ad revenue? Apple has been releasing multiple privacy features for the last few years. This included Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection and Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature. You can learn more about Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection in our earlier post by clicking here .  Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) was launched in iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 where it prompted users to select if they wanted the app to track their activities across other apps on the device. The prompt is displayed when the user opens an app like Facebook or Instagram for the first time o...

Building MCP with TypeScript

MCP servers are popular these days. We’ve been researching and exploring a few code repos, some where missing modularity, others just not having pieces that we were looking for… therefore we decided to build our own, simple and foundational that could be a starting point for those trying to solve for the similar things we were… and we decided to share it with the community, via our public github. MCP host, server,data sources     Before we start.  Using Typescript and NodeJS was one of our requirements. This proved somewhat challenging because I don't code as frequently these days due to my leadership responsibilities, and I typically prefer working with C# or Python. Colleagues in my tech community have been working with their teams on some of their MCPs going the Python route. Therefore, I said, “I guess we are trying the other route” 😊. One of our reasons to go with TypeScript was due to the need of the integration with APIs, and based on the research, it seems t...

SLA-SLO-SLI and DevOps metrics

Companies are in need of the metrics that will allow them to stay in business by making sure they meet the expectations of their customers. The name of the game is higher customer satisfaction by winning their trust and loyalty. To do so, you want to provide good products and services. Therefore you need to find ways to monitor performance, drive continuous improvements and deliver the quality expected by the consumer in this highly competitive market. Photos from AlphaTradeZone via Pexel and Spacejoy via Unsplash SLAs, SLOs and SLIs are a good way to achieve the above. They allow clients and vendors to be on the same page when it comes to expected system performance. If we go one level deeper, vendors/providers work on NFRs (Non-Functional Requirements) when working on their solutions. NFRs define the quality attributes of a system. I bring them up because the relationship between them and the SLAs is that they provide, in a way, foundational aspects for the SLA-SLO-SL...

Democratizing AI

Democratizing AI is all about empowering others to use it, by making it available to them. Audiences, such as marketers in a company, will be able to access AI capabilities as part of their MarTech solutions, without the need of being technical. It could also be schools, where the younger generations are learning how to use it in responsible, secure, innovative, and creative ways. This is the year where companies, after discovery phases and teams experimenting, are looking to activate and take advantage of the AI advances. Generated with Microsoft Designer   And so, questions emerge, such as “What to democratize when leveraging AI?” There are common scenarios, as well as specific ones, that will depend on the company, and the industry they belong to. A common scenario, seen in many industries, when democratizing data is the data visualization and reporting . In digital marketing, as an example, data scientists and data analysts can automate reporting, making them available to the c...

This blog uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. Simple analytics might be in place for pageviews purposes. They are harmless and never personally identify you.

Agreed