dropbox-autoupload

This script provides a simple, barebones way of automatically uploading files to Dropbox on modification. It watches the specified list of files for changes and initiates an upload when any occur.

I use it to periodically back up the world file for the Terraria server I run on a Raspberry Pi, which does not have a native Dropbox client.

Getting Started

First, install the package with npm i -g dropbox-autoupload. Then you will need to obtain an access token to authenticate to Dropbox and create a configuration file to specify the access token and a list of files to watch.

Access Token

You can get an access token for your Dropbox account by visiting https://www.dropbox.com/developers/apps, clicking "Create App," and selecting "Dropbox API" and the access level you want. I recommend only allowing access to an app folder rather than full Dropbox access, but that decision is personal preference. I promise my code won't steal your files. ;-)

Finally, once your app is created in Dropbox, click on it. In the "OAuth 2" section, under "Generated access token," click the "Generate" button and copy the token it generates.

Configuration File

Once you have your access token, you can create your configuration file. This file is JSON format with only a few fields. Here is an example configuration file:

{
	"accessToken": "Your_access_token_here",
	"minUpdateInterval": 120,
	"files":
	[
		{"localPath": "index.js", "remotePath": "/index.js"}
	]
}

This file can be called whatever you want. dropbox-autoupload can take a configuration filename as a command-line argument, but if no file is specified that way, it will look for a file called autoupload.json in the current working directory.

• accessToken is a string containing the Dropbox access token from the above step.
• minUpdateInterval is an optional number which, if specified, is the smallest amount of time between uploads of any file. If a file is updated more frequently, it will not be re-uploaded until at least this much time has passed. This interval is specified in seconds.
• files is an array of objects specifying the locations of the files to watch and upload.
  • localPath specifies where each file is located on the local device.
  • remotePath specifies where to upload each file to in Dropbox. This is relative to the folder your app has access to.

Running

Just execute dropbox-autoupload from a terminal, specifying the name of your configuration file if it isn't autoupload.json. It will begin watching the files specified for any changes and uploading them to your Dropbox account as needed. You should be able to safely end the process at any time, although the behavior is dependent on the Dropbox SDK if an upload is in progress.

Known Issues

This will not handle files greater than 150 MB in size. I may add support for large files in the future.

The authentication mechanism is a little clunky right now and could definitely use streamlining. Generating an access token and manually putting it in a configuration file works if you're comfortable with that, but it isn't very user-friendly.

I have noticed an error that can occur when using an older version of Node.js. This may be due to partial support for promises. If you run into an error with a 'catch' or 'finally' and you can't update to the most recent version, let me know and I can look into a fix.