Dropbox connector

When to use this connector

Use this Connector to create Flows that work with files in Dropbox.

Create a Connection

Step 1. In the Connections window, click +, and type in dropbox.

Step 2. Select Dropbox.

Step 3. Enter Connection parameters.

Authentication

Select OAuth in Authentication method. Click Sign in with Dropbox. Follow on-screen instructions. 

For backward compatibility reasons we keep two other authentication methods: Access token and Refresh token but they are deprecated and will be removed in the future versions. 

Connection Parameters

• Directory: the actual directory with files. This parameter is optional.
• File: the actual file name or a wildcard file name, for example, *.csv.
• Access token: the access token generated in step 7.
• Add Suffix When Creating Files in Transformation: you can select one of the predefined suffixes for the files created using this Connection. For example, if you select uuid as a suffix and the original file name is dest.csv, Etlworks will create files with the name dest_uuid.csv, where uuid is a globally unique identifier such as 21EC2020-3AEA-4069-A2DD-08002B30309D.

This parameter works only when the file is created using source-to-destination-transformation. Read how to add a suffix to the files created when copying, moving, renaming, and zipping files.

• File Processing Order: Specifies the order in which source files are processed when using wildcard patterns in ETL and file-based flows (e.g., copy, move, delete). The default setting is Oldest, meaning files are processed starting with the oldest by creation or modification time. Choose from various criteria such as file age, size, or name to determine the processing sequence:
  • Disabled: wildcard processing is disabled,
  • Oldest/Newest: Process files based on their creation or modification time, Ascending/Descending: Process files in alphabetical order, Largest/Smallest: Process files based on their size. 

Decryption

When Dropbox Connection is used as a source (FROM) in the source-to-destination transformation, it is possible to configure the automatic decryption of the encrypted source files using the PGP algorithm and private key uploaded to the secure key storage.

If the private key is available, all source files processed by the transformation will be automatically decrypted using the PGP algorithm and given key.  Note that the private key requires a password. 

Read how to generate a pair of public/private keys.

Expected Compression

The Expected Compression setting allows you to specify the compression format expected when reading individual files from a connection. Supported options include No Compression, Zip, and GZip.

If set to Zip or GZip, Etlworks will automatically decompress each resource as it’s read. This setting assumes that each compressed file contains a single resource; it does not support archives with multiple files. Use this setting with caution, as the system will always attempt to decompress the resource based on the selected format, regardless of its file extension or actual content.