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.

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.

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.

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.

So, I've encountered what could be a weird edge-case:1. Open Safari on IOS or OSX and clear all history2. Open a page that uses embedder on it's own domain3. You will get a warning "Cookies are required to view this Dropbox content." and a button "Allow cookies"4. Pressing "Allow cookies" doesn't work.5. Going to dropbox.com and then repeating step 4 works. Is this a known bug or is it a behaviour in Safari that is impossible to work around?Update:Also, on OSX Safari it seems that I even after being able to allow cookies and signing in have to allow cookies everytime a new embedder is shown. Is this also known?

clarel We've added a "view" parameter so you can choose between "list" and "grid". You can find more information in the documentation: https://www.dropbox.com/developers/embedder Hope this helps!

Feedback: The Embedder Launched in Preview

TobiasR
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago
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
  Dropbox Staff
  5 years ago
  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.
- Greg-DB
  Dropbox Staff
  5 years ago
  TobiasR We've added a "zoom" parameter so you can choose between "best" and "fit". You can find more information in the documentation: https://www.dropbox.com/developers/embedder Hope this helps!
TobiasR
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago
So, I've encountered what could be a weird edge-case:
1. Open Safari on IOS or OSX and clear all history
2. Open a page that uses embedder on it's own domain
3. You will get a warning "Cookies are required to view this Dropbox content." and a button "Allow cookies"
4. Pressing "Allow cookies" doesn't work.
5. Going to dropbox.com and then repeating step 4 works.

Is this a known bug or is it a behaviour in Safari that is impossible to work around?

Update:
Also, on OSX Safari it seems that I even after being able to allow cookies and signing in have to allow cookies everytime a new embedder is shown. Is this also known?
- Greg-DB
  Dropbox Staff
  5 years ago
  TobiasR Thanks for the report! We'll look into it.
- pcuadros
  Explorer | Level 4
  4 years ago
  Same problem with Chrome browser in iOS. The embedded "Allow Cookies" button didn't work. I had to open DropBox.com in same browser first for the embedded "Allow Cookies" to ask me to Allow. Please, let me know when this bug is solved. Thank you.
- Greg-DB
  Dropbox Staff
  4 years ago
  TobiasR pcuadros thefreshlab We've updated the Embedder implementation to better handle these cases and improve the error reporting when needed. Unfortunately, due to some of the new cross-site behaviors in some modern browsers we can't always display the content directly (depending on the user's browsers settings and behaviors), but the Embedder should now work more reliably when dealing with these restrictions, including showing some error messaging and a link to the content when it can't be displayed directly. Please give it a try and let us know if you're still seeing anything not working as expected. Thanks!
  - James_T
    Helpful | Level 6
    4 years ago
    The embedder is a great idea, but I wish it was much more flexible...
    
    1. Make it possible to adjust it's colors etc. to make it integrate better into an existing design.
    2. Make it possible to specify folders/files that should be excluded
    3. The header is wasting too much space. Even in the "small" header, it's a big waste of real estate.
    4. Show how many files are in each folder, or at least show if it's empty.
    5. Be able to specify the text in the header, instead of showing the name of the root folder. E.g the shared folder may be named "Files shared to web". But that makes no sense when shown as the title in the header on a web page. It would make more sense to be able to set the title to be "Browse the files in Project xxx"
    6. An upload feature would be amazing.
kevin g.1
Helpful | Level 6
4 years ago
Hi,
It would be great to be able to start in grid view when embedding with a tags. Calling the embedder directly isn't playing nicely with hidden tabs.
- Greg-DB
  Dropbox Staff
  4 years ago
  kevin g.1 Thanks for the note! I'll pass this along as a feature request but I can't promise if or when that might be implemented.
Adam Terpening
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago
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.
We create a page on their website, brand.companyname.com for example.
They login and are presented with a visual of the Dropbox Embedder. This is folder view of all their brand assets.
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.
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
clarel
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago
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
  Dropbox Staff
  5 years ago
  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.
- Greg-DB
  Dropbox Staff
  5 years ago
  clarel We've added a "view" parameter so you can choose between "list" and "grid". You can find more information in the documentation: https://www.dropbox.com/developers/embedder Hope this helps!
- Greg-DB
  Dropbox Staff
  5 years ago
  clarel We've added a 'headerSize' folder option that you can use to reduce the size of the header (though it doesn't move everything inline like you suggested). You can find more information in the documentation. Hope this helps!
  - racheldory
    New member | Level 2
    5 years ago
    Just curious if there is a way to change the sort order of the folder option contents? It looks currently everything is showing up alphabetical in ascending order.
TobiasR
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago
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
  Dropbox Staff
  5 years ago
  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
New member | Level 2
5 years ago
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
  Dropbox Staff
  5 years ago
  samoaste Thanks for the feedback! I'll send this along.
jw01
New member | Level 2
5 years ago
Hi Taylor,

Is it possible to hide certain elements in the Embedder such as "Edited X Months Ago"? Is styling of the Embedder through custom CSS a possibility?

Cheers,
Jeremy
- Greg-DB
  Dropbox Staff
  5 years ago
  jw01 No, Dropbox doesn't offer a way to do customization/styling in the Embedder like that, but I'll pass this along as a feature request. Thanks!
Simon O.8
New member | Level 2
5 years ago
Hi guys,

New embedder looks great, but I can't see any way of uploading new documents into the folder I'm viewing. Is there anything on the roadmap to support this?

Simon
- Greg-DB
  Dropbox Staff
  5 years ago
  Simon O.8 Thanks for the feedback! That's correct, the Dropbox Embedder doesn't offer the ability to also upload to the embedded folder, but I'll pass this along as a feature request. I can't promise if or when that might be implemented though.
  
  You may be interested in using it in conjunction with file requests though. You could set the file request to upload to the same path that the embedded shared link points to.
pcuadros
Explorer | Level 4
4 years ago
When using Chrome browser in iOS, the embedded "Allow Cookies" button didn't work.
First, I had to open DropBox.com in same browser for the embedded "Allow Cookie" button to ask me to Allow.
Another issue is that this embedder is not mobile responsive.
Please, let me know if these bugs will be solved. Thank you.
- Greg-DB
  Dropbox Staff
  4 years ago
  pcuadros Thanks for the notes! I'm sending this along to the team, and I'll follow up here with any updates.
  - thefreshlab
    New member | Level 2
    4 years ago
    Same issue encountered after using the embedder - "Cookies are required to view this Dropbox content." with the allow button not working.