Child Item

Sync application-defined alternate data stream

Hi, I'm developing a Windows application that uses an alternate data stream to store file metadata. Is there a reliable, supported method for having this alternate data stream sync over Dropbox? According to this page, Dropbox has some designated alternate data streams that it syncs. I was wondering if we're allowed to use one of those. Alternatively, would it be possible for Dropbox to add a designated alternate data stream that applications are free to use? Thank you for any information.

Find more posts tagged with

API

Abuse

Comments

Greg-DB

The Dropbox desktop client does sync those particular extended attributes/Alternate Data Streams as listed in the help center article you linked to, but I can't recommend relying on those for syncing your own application's metadata with Dropbox. That's not meant as an official programmatic interface (like the Dropbox API itself is, though that doesn't offer access to extended attributes/Alternate Data Streams). Likewise, there isn't a way ask the Dropbox desktop client to additionally sync a different one, but I'll pass this along as a feature request for a good solution here, such as for Dropbox to offer syncing one for this purpose. I can't promise if or when something like that would be implemented and officially supported though. Apologies I don't have better news for you!

amt528

Thank you very much for response, and I appreciate you passing along the suggestion. Perhaps Dropbox could allow alternate data streams named something like :com.dropbox.third-party.<app name>.

In the meantime, do you have any suggestion on how to sync metadata on Dropbox, perhaps using a SQLite database? (I understand that the Datastore API has been deprecated.) In other words, let's say instead of storing metadata in an alternate data stream, you store the data in a SQLite file. Would that work? Or are there any better alternatives?

Thank you again for your help.

Greg-DB

Yes, you can certainly use the Dropbox API to upload and download files. That's our officially recommended and supported interface, and there are also some SDKs you can use to make that easier.

As for the data format, that's up to you, but you could use a SQLite file, or a file containing JSON, or separate individual files; whatever makes sense for your app.