Dropbox allows you to synchronize and access files across multiple devices by cloud hosting your files. While Dropbox can be used to synchronize the complete content of an account, selective access to files is possible as well. This can be used to transfer files between multiple endpoints like a number of devices in the field (Clients) and a central management instance (Host).

Dropbox access in this example allows the host to publish files like firmware updates or control instructions to the clients by storing them in your Dropbox account. The clients can then fetch these files at any time they are available without the need for the host to be available at the same time.

In the same manner the clients are able to store files like log output onto the account that can be fetched by the host at any desired time without the clients being online all the time.

The following is a step-by-step guide showing you the preparations necessary to use a third-party Dropbox application with your Dropbox account. These steps are common for unofficial applications using the Dropbox API to access your account and are required to restrict access to your account to what you permit.

To evaluate emDropbox you need a Dropbox account. If you do not already have an account you can register a free personal account here (https://www.dropbox.com).

You will be asked three questions about the application:

• 1. Choose an API
  Select "Dropbox API".
• 2. Choose the type of access you need
  You can grant the application full access to your Dropbox or access to a folder with the applications name only. emDropbox works with both.
• 3. Name your app
  Use whatever name you would like to use. Note, there are some restrictions like not having "Dropbox" in the name.

Using the access token with emDropbox Setting up the access token for use with the Dropbox sample can be done in two ways.

Using the "token" command

Start emDropbox and using the command "token xyz" where "xyz" has to be replaced by your access token.

Using the startup.cli file

You can enter commands to be executed during startup of emDropbox into the file "startup.cli" that resides in the same folder as emDropbox. You can open the file with your preferred text editor and exchange the "xyz" for your access token, resulting in the "token" command being executed automatically on each start of emDropbox.

emDropbox comes with several commands like listing the directory content, file management and upload/download, that allow you to operate on your Dropbox account.

You should be ale to confirm access to your Dropbox by using the "dir" command to list the contents of your Dropbox.

For a list of commands you can show an online help by executing the command "?".

For "put/get" operations, the application tries to find out the current directory for use as local directory by itself. To use another local directory for the "put" and "get" command, you can use the "setlocaldir" command: "setlocaldir C:\Data\".