How to Let Your WordPress Blog Visitors Upload Files To Your Dropbox

Dropbox is one of our favorite pieces of software here at Techerator.  Every day, people are coming up with new ways to use the free online file backup and syncing service.  When used with other software, Dropbox can be utilized for just about anything.

The Dropbox Upload Form plugin for WordPress is a small plugin that adds a file upload form to a WordPress Post or Page and adds the uploaded file to your personal Dropbox.

Start by downloading and installing the Dropbox Upload Form plugin to your WordPress blog.  Activate the plugin once it is installed.  You can then navigate to Settings -> WP-Dropbox to configure the plugin.

Fill in the requested information to connect your Dropbox to the form.  Once the plugin has been configured properly, click Save options.

Now you need to add the proper code to your Page or Post to show the upload form.  Add [wp-dropbox] to a post or page to show the upload form in that part of the post and save when finished.

Below is how the upload form will look in your WordPress site.  Any files submitted through this form will appear in the Dropbox folder you specified in the settings above.  The date of submission is added to the end of the file name.

One thing you should be aware of when using this plugin is that the size of the upload file is limited by the PHP configuration of your web host.  You can check with your host to find out the maximum file upload size limit.

Know of any other ways to integrate Dropbox with WordPress?  Let us know by commenting below!

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Comments

22 responses to “How to Let Your WordPress Blog Visitors Upload Files To Your Dropbox”

  1. ipad application development Avatar
    ipad application development

    Thanks a lot for the article. I have never thoght about adding such an ability into my WP blog, but you've explained everything clearly, and now I will think it over and maybe add this feature.

  2. Dfrayne Avatar
    Dfrayne

    Thanks for the clear instructions. It works perfectly until the file has been sent. All I see then is a line that the file was uploaded successfully, but if someone wants to send another file, the “Browse” and “Submit” form options are gone. Even refreshing the page does not help – you need to go to another page and then come back.

  3. Mike Panic Avatar
    Mike Panic

    Doesn’t work on 3.0.1, failed to create temp directory?

  4. Dustin Patterson Avatar
    Dustin Patterson

    Yes, I noticed this as well when using the plugin myself. It would be nice if there was a little more development on it to take care of this.

  5. Dustin Patterson Avatar
    Dustin Patterson

    Mike,

    I’m currently using this on a WordPress 3.0.1 site without and problems.

    It looks like the error you are receiving is due to a problem with the temporary path entered. In the screenshot above I have /tmp entered as that is the path to the temporary directory on my web server. It may be different for yours. Your web host should be able to provide you with the path to your temporary directory.

    1. jr Avatar
      jr

      Im getting thesame error. I tried having the tmp folder on the root of my webserver but it still doesnt work. . . could you point us to your website and see if this plugin really works. . .

  6. alexgalpin Avatar
    alexgalpin

    I get this DropboxUploader requires the cURL extension.

  7. Evan Wondrasek Avatar
    Evan Wondrasek

    This is most likely a problem with your web server. You should try contacting your hosting provider to see if they can install or enable the cURL component.

    Hope that helps!

  8. alexgalpin Avatar
    alexgalpin

    I am running a local apache server (XAMPPLITE) and have enabled the curl extension, but it then gives me a different error about a SSL certificate? I have already deactivated the plugin, so I cannot show you the error I received. Thanks for your response.

  9. Evan Wondrasek Avatar
    Evan Wondrasek

    To clarify, is the error about the SSL certificate coming from the Dropbox Upload plugin or from your Apache server?

  10. alexgalpin Avatar
    alexgalpin

    This is the error I get: Error: Cannot execute request: SSL certificate problem, verify that the CA cert is OK. Details: error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed

    But I think it’s my apache server and not the plugin – I have tried methods to try and fix this, but havnt been successful thus far.

  11. Evan Wondrasek Avatar
    Evan Wondrasek

    This post may be of some help: http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html

    There also appears to be a relevant post at the top of this page: http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=4558&page=3 – with the second post saying “You need to have the certificate authority’s root certificate installed.”

  12. alexgalpin Avatar
    alexgalpin

    Thanks for your help Evan!

  13. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    Hi Dustin. In Dropbox, does my application have to be “Applied for production status”? Also I set the temp folder to /cgi-bin/tmp . That’s where the temp folder is on my web hosting server, but it seems to create problems because when I try upload a file, an error message appears:

    Warning: mkdir() [function.mkdir]: No such file or directory in /hermes/bosweb/web205/b2058/ipg.blognamecom1/wp-content/plugins/dropbox-upload-form/wp-dropbox.php on line 96
    Error: Cannot create temporary directory!

    Do you know how to fix that?
    Thanks a lot
    Alex

  14. Shag Avatar
    Shag

    Great Plugin. Any thoughts on getting an email notification and adding some fields to the form? So basically, there would be name, email, comments, fields and when the file gets uploaded, I (site admin) get a notification email? I looked on Dropbox but didn’t see an option for email notifications on new file uploads. I’m willing to hack at it myself if anyone has guidance on where to begin.

    thanks!

  15. wpgeek Avatar
    wpgeek

    Hi I was hoping to display the list of files from dropbox folder in… maybe a post. Is there a plugin that can help do the job?

  16. datnatikid Avatar
    datnatikid

    Works fine with smaller files. but when I try to upload something that is 30MB. It does not work. any ideas why?

  17. alex Avatar
    alex

    This plugin is exactly what I’ve been looking for, thank you.

    However, I’m having issues getting it working on wordpress v 3.2.1.  I downloaded and installed it today and when filling in the settings info, I get the error ‘You’re using an older version of the Dropbox API with a new API key. Please use the latest version.’Any suggestions on where I should go from here?

    1. Thomas Avatar
      Thomas

      I’m getting the exact same issue of anyone has a solution.  When adding the shortcode I also receive the notice: “Error: Need to configure plugin!”  , yet everything is configured perfectly.

    2. BigGuh Avatar
      BigGuh

      I’m having the same issue as well.

  18. Ryan Avatar
    Ryan

    I think this plugin is quite dead now. It looks like dropbox updated their API and this plugin has been left behind. On the WP forum page for the plug there are nothing but comments about it not working. That means there is no DB plugin for WP!! Every single one I’ve seen is really crappy with non-existant support. Can a real web developer take this challenge on please?!?

  19. Joeboboguest Avatar
    Joeboboguest

    unfortunately, it doesn’t work.

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