Dropbox Public Folder and HTML Previews

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So I was trying to send a colleague the files for a simple HTML page and decided to just throw it into my Dropbox Public Folder in case he loses it. When I went for the Public Link I noticed that the index page did not download but showed up in the browser.

It did show anything though as the links were wrong obviously so I decided to see how far I can push and try to link the files back through the public links. This is the result. Is it wrong to use the public folder in this way? And if not, how far can I go with it in terms of HTML pages?

Best Answer

I think this is fine if you are only testing something for a few friends. However, there is an issue with using too much bandwidth if you try to host something through your public folder that becomes too popular. As per https://www.dropbox.com/help/45:

There are currently no hard limits on public bandwidth usage. We do, however, have an automated system for detecting and flagging unusual amounts of bandwidth usage. We will send an email notification whenever an account is flagged. Once flagged, public links will be temporarily disabled and users who use the links will see an error page instead of your file.

Related Solutions

Find the Dropbox public folder URL

I don't think you can actually share the Public folder, just files inside it.

Drop a file into the folder, right click it → Dropbox → Copy Public Link.

If you have delete the public folder by mistaken then create new one and that's all.

One more time: Files must be in the public folder for you to share a url

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You probably want to look at shared folders;

https://www.dropbox.com/help/19

Hope this helps.

Dropbox Links – How to Create a Public Link from a Shared Folder

The link generated for a file is something like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/_someRandomStrings_/_theNameOfTheFile

If you replace www with dl it will take you directly to the respective file. Alternatively, adding ?dl=1 at the end of the link above, will redirect it to the dl.dropbox.com URL.

Now, if you have the link to a folder and you add ?dl=1 at the end, it will start downloading it as an archive.

Source. And the official source.

(I have tested the method and it works.)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Find the Dropbox public folder URL

Dropbox Links – How to Create a Public Link from a Shared Folder

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