Feedback: The Embedder Launched in Preview

[TaylorKrusen]

New feature alert! Dropbox is previewing a new pre-built component called the File and Folder Embedder. Simply paste a JavaScript snippet into your code and you’ve added the ability to turn Dropbox shared links into interactive, embedded previews. It’s never been easier to provide your users with the ability to view and interact directly with their Dropbox files and folders. You can read more about the Embedder on our developer blog or the Embedder documentation. 

We want your feedback! While in the Preview phase, we’re actively adding enhancements, new controls, and new supported filetypes to the Embedder.

What features would you like to see? How do your users interact with their Dropbox files from your app? Please post your thoughts or ideas about the Embedder below. Willing to give us more direct feedback? This April, we’re offering a chance to win a $200 Amazon gift card for folks that fill out this survey. Completing the survey counts as your entry into the sweepstakes*.

Legal disclaimer:

Navigating to the survey in this forum post will direct you to our Qualtrics survey website. All information you enter will be treated in accordance with the Dropbox Privacy Policy. Dropbox will never ask you for your password or billing information via invitations to surveys or in surveys themselves.

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Ends April 30, 2020 at 9:00pm Pacific Time. Must be 18+, have reached the age of majority in state of residence, and be a legal resident of the U.S. Sponsor: Dropbox, Inc. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.  Click here for complete rules.

[Adam Terpening]

Hey @TaylorKrusen ,

I'm a designer working for a branding studio. We create custom WP websites along with brand systems such as logos & identities, packaging, photography & marketing materials, both print and digital.  We feel that our current final delivery of all creative goods is feeling fragmented/dated. For example, we send them a Dropbox link with all their logos, photography and other brand assets. And then send them a website. As important as that Dropbox link is, it gets lost in emails and bookmarks and doesn't feel like one cohesive package. 

Here's the scenario where we'd love to utilize a Dropbox Embedder.

1. We create a page on their website, brand.companyname.com for example.
2. They login and are presented with a visual of the Dropbox Embedder. This is folder view of all their brand assets.
3. This would allow them to easily access all their brand assets, share them, and make it very easy for us to update something for them.
4. Ideally, our developer could stylize the Dropbox Embedder with brand colors and fonts so it feels like part of the website. 

This is something we would love to offer and would be a great asset for our clients. Would love to collaborate more on this. 

Hope to see some examples of the Embedder soon.

Best Regards,

Adam

[TobiasR]

This looks interesting!

We're having a case were this would fit really well.

Do you know if it's possible to control the "zoom" of the embedded content?

It would be awesome to have a property of the embed that makes content "fit" the embed, so that a PDF page is (most of the time) fully visible and then the user can zoom if it wants. Right now the content starts at 100% it seems, which makes it a little bit less instantly useful, especially on mobile.

[Greg-DB]

@TobiasR Thanks for the feedback! The user can interactively zoom in/out, but there currently isn't a way for the app to specify a particular default zoom level. I'll pass this along as a feature request, but I can't promise if or when that might be implemented. 

[clarel]

This embedder has come out at the perfect time! 

Some points of feedback and questions: 

• When embedding a folder, why are there always 2 vertical scollbars? The outer one isn't required at all
• Can we disable the download button? Is this down via the shared link settings?
• Can we set the default to show the grid view rather than list?
• The header block is pretty large - it would be nice if it could be condensed a bit by putting the Dropbox icon inline with the title and buttons.

Thanks, great work!

[Greg-DB]

@clarel Thanks for the feedback!

• It looks like this is due to one scrollbar appearing for the frame itself, and then one for the folder listing. I'll ask the team to see if we can eliminate that.
• Yes, Dropbox Professional and Business customers can disable downloads via the Dropbox shared link feature.
• There isn't a way to set the default view like that, but I'll pass this along as a feature request. I can't promise if or when that might be implemented though. 
• I'll pass this along as well.

[TobiasR]

The latest update to the embedder, that removed the previous "sidebar" and added a top-bar instead, pushes the zoom buttons outside of the visible iframe, making it impossible for users to zoom. Probably a bug! (Is there a better place to send this feedback?)

[Greg-DB]

@TobiasR Thanks! This thread is a good place for feedback like this. It looks like we already have this issue fixed internally, so that fix should be rolling out soon, likely within a day or two.

[samoaste]

Hi, it would be amazing if we could remove the Dropbox public links. Even as a premium feature.

We have an app with a "Downloads" section that is protected for logged users only, and if we use the embedder right now, everybody would have access to the files through the Dropbox public links.

Kinda like Vimeo does it, where you restrict access of videos to a domain only and can hide the videos from Vimeo public listing. It saves the trouble of an implementation with the API to retrieve files and folders, since it's really easier to just embed the content.

[Greg-DB]

@samoaste Thanks for the feedback! I'll send this along.