So I've read the documentation for the dropbox api, and its quite rough around the edges, and Im not sure that I can do this. Basically what I want to do is make my app create a folder, give the user the link so that they can give it to other users. After those users have that link, they can paste it into the app and it will let them see whats in the folder. They don't even need to be able to see it, the app just needs to be able to download files from the folder. Its kinda exactly what a shared link would do in the normal dropbox. Is this at all possible? And if so, how would one go about doing this?
This certainly sounds possible, but you would probably need your own server-side component. The basic idea as I see it:
user A links the app to their Dropbox account
the app has the user pick a folder
the app generates its own link for that folder and supplies it to user A
user A supplies the link to user B
user B supplies the link to the app
the app looks up user A via the link, and uses /metadata or /delta to list files from user A's account, and then /files (GET) to serve file content to user B (from user A's account).
The server-side component is important in order to avoid exposing user A's access token to any other user.
This would be much easier, and wouldn't require a server-side component, if Dropbox offered an API for Dropbox shared links themselves, since you could then just use /shares to get one and pass that around directly. It doesn't though, so I'll pass this along as a request.
Related
I'm posting here because I'm hoping someone can help me edit the link to a google sheet. I haven't been able to find the answer online, but I'm hoping maybe someone understands how the link works better than I and can give me an answer.
I've been tasked with updating the application for funding (from a non-profit) to include a budget category. The application is in Google Forms, but there's no way to insert a table into the form for an applicant to fill out. I created the budget outline in a Google Sheet, but now I'm trying to find the best solution to create an individual link within the form that will lead them to the budget document. Essentially, I'm hoping the applicant can fill out the form, and when they reach the section about their budget, I want them to click the link to the google sheet, have it make a copy, but have the copy be shared with the organization's google account so we can see it when they submit their application.
I've experiment with the forced copy feature (editing the shared link by google), but when I test it from a different google account than the owner, it tells me I have to request permission. The share settings are set to allow anyone with the link to access, so I don't understand why it's asking me to request permission when I open the force copy link. This isn't going to work because the applicants need to access it when applying, and we can't have them waiting for us to accept the request every time.
I'm sure there could be a few solutions, so I'm open to any advice. The only other solution I can possibly think of is creating individual links for each applicant, if there's a way to automate that?
I recognize there could be a solution where I ask the applicant to download the file and re-upload, or share it themselves, but our applicants are not native english speakers and they are often non very comfortable with technology, so I want to automate the process as much as possible.
To summarize: The applicant should be able to
Fill out the google form
Receive an individual copy of the budget document (from google sheets) to fill out.
The budget document must be shared with the original owner so we can see it and see how it relates to the rest of their application.
Thank you for your consideration!
A solution for your use-case would be to make use of Apps Script.
Apps Script is a powerful development platform which can be used to build web apps and automate tasks. What makes it special is the fact that it is easy to use and to create applications that integrate with G Suite.
Taking this into account, you can create a script which will create a copy of the document whenever a new form submission is made and add the permissions needed for the user. Essentially, you will be the one owning the copy of the sheet as well and the candidates will have edit permissions.
Therefore, the script will end up looking something similar to this:
Code
function onFormSubmit() {
let sheetId = 'ORIGINAL_SPREADSHEET_ID';
let form = FormApp.getActiveForm();
let responses = form.getResponses();
let n = responses.length;
let currentUser = form.getResponse(responses[n-1].getId()).getRespondentEmail();
let newSpreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.openById(sheetId).copy("Sheet copy for " + currentUser);
let newSpreadsheetId = newSpreadsheet.getId();
DriveApp.getFileById(newSpreadsheetId).addEditor(currentUser);
}
Explanation
The above snippet makes use of the Apps Script's onFormSubmit installable trigger. Basically, whenever a new form submission is sent, the code above will run. The code will retrieve the last response which was submitted and get the user's email address by making use of the getRespondentEmail method. Afterwards, a copy of the original spreadsheet will get created and shared with the editor permission with the user who just submitted the form. Adding the permission is done by making use of the addEditor method from the DriveApp parent class. As for the user accessing the copy of the spreadsheet, this is easily done as the user will end up receiving an email telling them that a spreadsheet has been shared with them.
Setup
You will have to have the Collect emails option checked for the form;
Open the three dots icon and click on Script Editor;
Once you open the script editor, input the code from above and do not forget to modify the sheetId such that it matches the id of your original spreadsheet that you want to share.
Install the onFormSubmit trigger by going to the Triggers page and create a new trigger with the following options:
Send the URL form to the candidates and wait for submission to be sent.
Reference
Google Apps Script;
Apps Script Installable Triggers;
Apps Script SpreadsheetApp Class;
Apps Script FormApp Class;
Apps Script DriveApp Class.
Context/Background: I have an iOS app with a Firebase backend. Each user on the app has a couple of public stories or journals. I am working on the v2 of the app and one of the main features of v2 is to give users the ability to publish their stories as static webpages by a click of a button. The goal is to have a journal for a user with a username "johnhouse", for example, be available at www.the-app-domain.com/johnhouse.
Question: How do can I create web pages on the fly from an iOS app? Im not sure where to start. Which online services should I look at?
I thought of spinning up a server and hosting www.the-app-domain.com on it, getting the app to ssh into the server and creating a directory called "johnhouse" (from the example above) inside the website's root directory and then pasting an index.html file inside it, But this doesn't only sound like a bad idea, it also sounds complicated as hell If I were to generate the html files on the app, how would I get them to the server? how would I get them into the right location?
There are a great many ways you might implement this behavior but I'll suggest one.
Consider what this product might look like if the app had no knowledge of how these static pages were published. All the app needs to be able to do is allow users to set which of their stories are published or not and to inform those users of the url at which their published stories will be available.
There may be real advantages to removing the app from your page-creation process.
If you find that you need to make change to the formatting of your pages you can do so without requiring an app update and you can choose if you want to rebuild every page or just have changes apply to new pages. This might be important if you discover that your pages don't render well on some devices or are not indexed the way you would like by search engines.
If you need to change where your pages are hosted you can do so (and provide redirects from the old location) without needing everyone to update to a new app version.
If you need to add moderation or curation of the content you publish you can do so more easily than if clients (your app) have direct control of your site content. This may be important when someone starts publishing SEO spam links to your site, or registers the username admin or login, or publishes a story containing malicious javascript, or publishes content which gets you a copyright infringement notice.
You don't need to give clients direct access to your web server which could allow them to edit each other's content or overwrite your site with their own malicious content.
Since you're already using Firebase take a look at how you might run your own web server as another client of this backend. One which looks for "published" stories (however you identify those in your data model) and generates appropriate pages for them. Depending on the tools you elect to use these could be dynamically generated pages (client side js or a web app) or static pages build by some backend process periodically or whenever stories change and added to a web server. Without any idea what server side tools would be most appropriate for you it's hard to know what specifically to suggest here.
I'm developing a little app in which users can create their own content. Most content is taken from a MYSQL db and images from AWS S3 and brought to the front through regular jquery/php/html. All content a user has created is private and can only be accessed via a login. However, I would like the users to be able to send selected parts of their content to other users and people via links which they can click on and see that selected content. Much like sending a link to a users image on Facebook to someone outside the community.
I have never done this before and have no idea in how to even begin. If anyone could point me in the correct direction it would be highly appreciated. I have searched around about this but don't really know what to search for.
If this is against SO's rules (as it's a general question about a topic and not specialized enough), please let me know and I'll remove it.
I think the best way to achieve this is to have a private bucket in which each user has distinct permissions on his own folder, and be the only one that can access it. This is something you should probably implement on the application level - allowing only the app to access the bucket, and denying every other type of access.
For the public content - you should create a different bucket which will be publicly available for everyone, and move all public content there.
These are my 2 cents, might be better practices in the field, but IMO it's a nice solution which is not to complicated.
I'm trying to do something a bit complicated and I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. Could you please give me some pointers on the tech I should use and how I should go about implementing this. Here's what I need to do:
Create an iOS app that allows the user to upload pictures from his camera roll and modify variables with sliders. (so far so good)
These variables and graphics are used to modify some htlm5 code (i.e. the graphics the user supplies are called by the hmtl code and the variables modify some set variables in the script) (Do I just edit the code as a string?)
The code is put together and uploaded to a server where it is accessible at a unique URL. The user can save multiple times and each time it creates a new URL. (Do I need an FTP here?)
Your question is too general, but as far as I can help, Yes you have to create and edit some html source texts, and append every object that user is adding to the page as some html codes, files, css, etc.
and for uploading, if you want the user to upload the site to his/her own ftp server or web hosting service, yes you need FTP connection to create with the server.
But if you want your user to upload the website to a space you're providing for the user, then you need some server part and maybe some APIs. then you may use FTP or even some APIs to create and update files on your server. It highly depends on the service you want to provide.
In the Simperium documentation/help section there is the following text:
All the data that is created seems like it must be tied to a user - is
that correct? Is it possible to have data that isn't tied to a user -
say a database of locations or beers?
Yes, though this isn't very clear yet. You can create a public user
(i.e., a public namespace) with an access token you share with other
users of your app so anyone can read/write to that namespace.
It's possible to limit this to read-only access as well if you need to
authoritatively publish data from a backend service.
Is there an actual example with this?
The scenario I have is as follows
My app will have a calendar
The primary user can add and remove data from the calendar
They will want to invite other users to add and remove data, my thought is that they can give them a token, the user can use their email address and this token to sign in
Am I on the right track?
You're definitely on the right track, but a little too far ahead on that track. The scenario you described is a great fit for Simperium, but sharing and collaboration features aren't yet released.
The help text you quoted is for authoritatively pushing content, for example from a custom backend to all users of your app. An example of this would be a news stream that updates on all clients as new content is added.
This is quite different than sharing calendar data among a group of users who have different access permissions, which is actually a better use of Simperium's strengths. We have a solution for this that we've tested internally, but we're using what we've learned to build a better version of it that will be more scalable for production use.
There's no timeline for this yet, but you'll see it announced on your dashboard at simperium.com.