I'm integrating Dropbox with RStudio on an Azure Virtual Machine and need help to set it up

[tanthiamhuat]

With the library from https://github.com/karthik/rdrop2

I can easily integrate Dropbox with my local PC installation using RStudio.

However, I have my RStudio which is on Azure Virtual Machine, and when I issue the same commands, it has error.

Azure Support engineer asked to me find out what is the Public IP address for Dropbox, and ask me to ping that IP address

Can anyone quickly tell me that?

[Greg-DB]

Dropbox does not have just a single IP address, and unfortunately because the Dropbox IPs are subject to change as servers are added and removed, or as maintenance occurs, we are unable to provide you with a list of our IPs. We recommend you rely on the host names *.dropbox.com and *.dropboxapi.com if possible. 

[tanthiamhuat]

I have opened the ports 17600, 17603 and 17500, as instructed by dropbox suggestion at https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/configuring-firewall

But still from Azure, we are not able to connect to it.

Please see attached photos, 

Port 80, 443 are OK, but not 17600, 17603, 17500

[Greg-DB]

I see your tests for pinging www.dropbox.com on ports 80 and 443 were successful. 

Note that the ports 17600 and 17603 mentioned in that help article are only for specific Dropbox desktop client functionality. That's not relevant to using the Dropbox API. All Dropbox API calls require TLS, so they should all only be sent to port 443 on the Dropbox API servers. 

[RUser]

When creating a project inside RStudio, your project files are actively monitored for changes. This allows RStudio to index functions and files to enable code completion and navigation. If you are simultaneously using the Dropbox application to remotely sync your work, Dropbox will also actively monitor your files.

To prevent conflicts, you should tell Dropbox to ignore the .Rproj.user directory inside your RStudio Project. For example:

.../Dropbox/RStudioProject/.Rproj.user

Note this is a hidden directory

To ignore a file in Dropbox, you will need to use Dropbox's Selective Sync feature. First, make sure to quit RStudio. Then go to Dropbox Preferences | Advanced and select Selective Sync This will open a file browser in which you can navigate to your RStudio Project, and unselect the .Rproj.user directory.