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XP's avatar
XP
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago
Solved

Can I use Dropbox as a CDN?


  • XP wrote:
    Serve website images from Dropbox by retrieving its image URL with API

    You don't need the API to do this. Just get a share link to the image like you would for any other file type, and then change the end of the URL as explained in this help article (change ?dl=0 to ?raw=1).

     

    Again, as Jay explained, share links have a limited amount of bandwidth per day, and if you're linking to large files it could be very easy to exceed that limit and have ALL of your links banned temporarily. Simply put, while you can serve files out of Dropbox, it is not a CDN and you probably shouldn't use it as one. A CDN is usually a network of servers in different geographical locations so that content is served to the user using the closest source. With Dropbox, the data will all come from the same source (i.e., NOT a true CDN).

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  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    8 years ago

    XP wrote:
    Serve website images from Dropbox by retrieving its image URL with API

    You don't need the API to do this. Just get a share link to the image like you would for any other file type, and then change the end of the URL as explained in this help article (change ?dl=0 to ?raw=1).

     

    Again, as Jay explained, share links have a limited amount of bandwidth per day, and if you're linking to large files it could be very easy to exceed that limit and have ALL of your links banned temporarily. Simply put, while you can serve files out of Dropbox, it is not a CDN and you probably shouldn't use it as one. A CDN is usually a network of servers in different geographical locations so that content is served to the user using the closest source. With Dropbox, the data will all come from the same source (i.e., NOT a true CDN).

  • Mark's avatar
    Mark
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    8 years ago
    To also add in to this that there is no way of monitoring the number of downloads etc. on a file, so, you'll have no idea if the files been download or how many times if you are wanting to limit or restrict it etc.
  • RFTaurus's avatar
    RFTaurus
    New member | Level 2
    6 years ago

    I'm new when using dropbox, so I read a lot of topic about using dropbox as a CDN, and I find that public folder already remove aroun 2016. so I just wondering, can we still using Dropbox as a CDN in 2020? If I can Use It, can someone give me the tutoria step by step, as I'm quite confused while we can still do it or not.

    just for reference, I'm trying to use it like this:

        <!-- bootsnav -->
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.dl.dropbox.com/s/q02iyrm4zmhce3y/bootsnav.css">
    
        <!-- style -->
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.dl.dropbox.com/s/357a8q7wo78hdba/style.css" />

    and I find some topic that tell me to use it like this:

        <!-- bootsnav -->
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/q02iyrm4zmhce3y/bootsnav.css?raw=1">
    
        <!-- style -->
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/357a8q7wo78hdba/style.css?raw=1" />

    While the first example give me: ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID

    the last one give me: MIME Error

  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 years ago

    Hey RFTaurus, thanks for nudging us on this. 

     

    Out of curiosity, are the shared links working for you? 

     

    Could you also send us a screenshot of the error message?

     

    Keep us posted!

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