Integrating DropBox with Worldox

Clients occasionally ask me: “Can I integrate DropBox with Worldox?” The short answer is “no.” Fortunately there is a longer answer.

Programs such as DropBox, Box.net or Smartsync allow for automatic synchronization between a folder on your hard drive with a location on the internet. This can be useful for collaboration – multiple users modifying the same file – or as an extranet, where you put client files up on the web for them to see and possibly modify.

Normally, you do not want to put all of a client’s files on the internet for them to see. (Use your lurid imagination on those memos you don’t want to publicize). You want a selection of important files or files that are currently being worked on. In this scenario, it is feasible to synchronize with DropBox on a relatively small scale.

First, set up your DropBox account and create your DropBox client directory. Let’s say c:\dropbox\client1. Give your client the appropriate rights to modify (or not) files in that directory on the web.

Secondly, create a “SendTo” entry in Worldox to let you send files to that location. Right-click on any Worldox list, select “SendTo” and then “Add/Edit” at the bottom. Add an entry.  The name of the entry will be something like “Send to Client1 DropBox.” In the Program field enter “%WDCODEPATH%/wdcopy.exe” (without the quotes). In the location field enter “%@% c:\dropbox\client1\*.* /lfn.”  The /lfn switch tells Worldox to put the long file names and not just the Worldox document number.

Alternatively, you could check out a file to c:\dropbox\client1, but then you would not be able to work on the file within Worldox while it was copied to your DropBox account on the internet.

So now your file is synchronizing between the dropbox\client1 folder on the local hard drive and the internet. Your collaborator makes some changes (of which DropBox and similar programs can notify you). You now need to get the new version back into Worldox.

Using Windows explorer, drag the changed file to the Worldox WorkZone cube at the top of your screen (or right-click on it and select copy). A Worldox profile screen will pop up. Click on the “Menu” button at the top right of the profile screen. Select “Same Profile As...” Then select the original document, and “save as new version.”  Note that you could also do this using the Worldox Folder Tree display and “Copy” the document back to Worldox. In that case, the button at the top right of the profile screen reads “Quick Profile” instead of “Menu.” Other steps are the same.

For ease of consulting the files being synchronized with your DropBox account, you might want to create a bookmark for that directory.

There may be slight differences between the various on-line storage/synchronization programs, but this approach should work. Not the most automated in the world, but it does provide practical integration on a small scale.