Configuration

Create APP at dropbox.com

  1. Go to Developer area of dropbox.com

    Simply visit: https://www.dropbox.com/developers

    If this link is not valid anymore go to https://www.dropbox.com/, click the upper left menu icon with the 9 dots. Choose the App Center. In the left menu of the App Center you will find a link to Develop Apps. Now you should be in the developer corner of Dropbox.

  2. Create new Dropbox App

    Click the App Console button in the upper right corner. Now you see all your apps (if you have created some). Click the Create app button.

  3. Choose API

    With a free or simple Dropbox account you only have the possibility to choose the API with Scoped access. The TYPO3 Dropbox extension can only work with this API. Do not choose any other API.

  4. Choose App type

    For security reasons I prefer to choose App folder. But if you`re sure, you also can give your app full access to all of your Dropbox files.

  5. Give it a name

    Assign a Dropbox global unique name to your new app. Please consider, that words like dropbox are not allowed as part of the name.

    Confirm your settings with button Create App. You will be redirected to detail view of your app.

  6. Configure your new app

    Switch over to tab Permissions and activate following permissions:

    • files.metadata.read
    • files.content.write
    • files.content.read

  7. Locate App key

    For next section you will need to copy App key from tab Settings.

Create File Storage

  • Go to list module and choose PID 0 (Rootpage with TYPO3 logo in front).
  • Create a new record of type File Storage
  • On tab General choose a name like Dropbox
  • On tab Configuration you have to choose the Dropbox driver

Start Driver Wizard

While editing the File storage click on the + icon to start the wizard. Paste in the App Key from Dropbox App explained above. Click on Get AuthCode Link

Insert app key and app secret

On the next page you have to click on the authorization link which will open a new tab where you have to give access to your Dropbox App.

Copy the AuthCode from Dropbox page into the AuthCode field of the Wizard.

Get Access Toekn from Dropbox

With a click on Get AccessToken a further request to dropbox.com will start in the background. On success the Refresh Token will automatically inserted in File Storage record and the wizard will close.

Save the record. On success it will show you some user data.

Connection successfully

Performance

Deactivate countFilesInFolder

The extension provides an extension setting named countFilesInFolder, which is enabled by default. When activated, the extension performs an individual API request to Dropbox API for each listed folder in order to determine the number of contained files.

Each API call introduces a latency of approximately 300–400 milliseconds. For example, if a parent folder contains 10 subfolders, the total time required to render the file list may reach up to 4 seconds.

Since the file count is primarily a visual indicator, this feature can be disabled to optimize performance. When countFilesInFolder is set to 0, the file list will render significantly faster, but will display "0 files" for each subfolder.

Folder for manipulated and temporary images

Within the Configuration tab, at the bottom of the settings list, you will find the option Folder for manipulated and temporary images etc..

By default, this folder is located within the Dropbox file storage. As a result, all processed or temporary images are transferred via the Dropbox API, which significantly impacts performance due to the slow transfer rates.

To improve rendering speed and overall performance, it is recommended to relocate this folder to a fast local file storage. For example, if your fileadmin storage has the storage UID 1, you can set the value to: 1:/_processed_/dropbox. This ensures that temporary files are handled locally rather than being transferred through the Dropbox API.