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altofocus's avatar
altofocus
New member | Level 2
6 years ago

Remote upload from camera controllers via FTP.

Hi all

I run a company that has multiple cameras on different locations for the construction industry. I need the cameras to be able to upload the images, as they are taken, onto a server, like Dropbox. Then our clients go through our portal and get access to their folder with the images for their projects. 

So in short I need multiple units to upload via FTP to Dropbox. Let’s say 30 cameras that over the day need to upload a maximum of 500mb each. 

What is the best way to do this?

thanks for all help

Setting up the apps
sync
Third Party Integrations

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  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 years ago
    Hey altofocus, if it’s not too much trouble for you, can you elaborate a bit on your current configuration? Have you now set up the transfer via an FTP by any chance & you may also want to sync this content to Dropbox (or use Dropbox, in order to mirror the footage across devices)? To my mind, the best course of action would be setting up the Dropbox desktop application on all devices & save your content there directly. 
     
    Just so as to focus a bit closer on your inquiry, what would be the ideal end-result if you don’t mind me asking? Please let me know & I’ll do my best to further advise. Thanks in advance for taking the time to drop us a line on the Community; I look forward to hearing back from you here! 
    • altofocus's avatar
      altofocus
      New member | Level 2
      6 years ago

      Hi Jane. 

      There is no configuration set up yet as no one seems to be able to help us. Basically I have an autonomous camera that can take an image every 5 or 10 minutes and upload to an FTP server. 

      I then want, say FileZilla, to retrieve these images from their individual folder on Dropbox and place them on our customers portal page. 

      Do you need any more detail?

      • Jane's avatar
        Jane
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        6 years ago
        I appreciate your speedy reply altofocus! So, from what I gather from your description, you’re already using FileZilla (or a similar service), which automatically updates the photos it captures to your folder structure locally & you’d like to reflect this content within Dropbox. Now, if you haven’t done so already, it looks like you’d be interested in setting this up, am I on the right track? 
         
        Kindly note that you may be be able to achieve what you have in mind, however the configuration should be arranged within the third-party app, rather than Dropbox & a quick search I ran online brought up some relevant resources that could help you get going with the task at hand. Would you mind having a look whenever you have some spare time?
         
        From there, if I could advise on my end with available features within Dropbox that could be useful in the scenario you’re describing, I’d suggest having a look at our Camera Uploads feature that automatically uploads photos from your mobile device or Camera to Dropbox.
         
        I hope that this is helpful to some extent & I’m always here in case you have any follow-up questions. I’m wishing you a lovely rest of your day until we talk again! 
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    6 years ago
    altofocus wrote:

    So in short I need multiple units to upload via FTP to Dropbox. ... What is the best way to do this?

    In short, you can't with Dropbox. There is no way to directly connect to Dropbox using FTP. It's simply not a support protocol.

    You can do it if you have a computer that you can leave on all the time. Just Google for "FTP to Dropbox" and you'll find guides. The short version is you'll have a computer with both Dropbox and an FTP server installed, With the FTP server configured to use a folder in the local Dropbox, anything uploaded to the FTP server would be synced by Dropbox. The computer would need to be on and logged in at all times.

    Note, however, that this is not a supported use of Dropbox and you may run into issues if both the FTP server and Dropbox try accessing the same files at the same time.

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