ios app to access dropbox folders

[Matt S.43]

Hi,
My IOS developer who is relatively new to programming, is adding the feature to download CSV files from user's dropbox shared folders into our IOS mobile APP. Previously we were using the "cloudrail" APIs to accomplish this and it worked. But now the "cloudrail" is no more being developed and hence we are trying to directly use the dropbox-APIs in our app. But we are facing difficulties and need some help.

The programmer is now trying a simple IOS mobile app using the dropbox Swift API, but facing errors. Our questions are the following.

1. Does the end user's mobile device need to have the dropbox's app already installed for our app to access the dropbox?

2. We don't want to force our end-user to install the dropbox's own app to be installed on their mobile device. Still, they should be able to use our app to download a CSV file from the dropbox folder and process the data in the CSV file in our mobile. That is, we just want the file download feature and nothing else. Which dropbox APIs are useful for our purpose? We are using the Swift latest version.

Any pointers in the right direction is appreciated.

Regards,
Matt

[Greg-DB · Accepted solution]

1. No, the user does not need to have the official Dropbox app installed on their device in order for your app to connect to Dropbox. The Dropbox API operates by having the third party app communicate directly with the Dropbox API servers.

2. For integrating with the Dropbox API in Swift, we recommend using the SwiftyDropbox SDK. With that, you can use the download methods to download files from Dropbox, as shown in the examples here.

[akshaythakker]

Hi Matt:

Did you end up developing the app, and is it available on the app store? would love to have access to an app that can import csv files on dropbox, and then place it back into the dropbox folder.

Thanks

Akshay

[Matt S.43]

Hi Akshay,
We developed the app. But it is for importing a list of house or building addresses from a CSV file that is placed in the drop box. Then we calculate the most optimum route to go to all these addresses and then display the map using Google-maps. It is an implementation of the classic "Traveling Salesman problem".

The app is available in the app store as well in the Google play store. But it won't serve the purpose which you are looking to solve.

Regards, Matt

[akshaythakker]

Gotcha. Thanks for responding.