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Setting up external storage in Dropbox

You can enable and disable the ability to store uploaded files in Dropbox through the Jive Add-Ons interface. To manage your uploaded files via Dropbox instead of Jive, you can set up a place-level connection to synchronize files from both sides.

Fastpath

User interface: Avatar > Add-ons > Storage Providers

Prerequisites​

  • Ensure that the StreamOnce add-on is installed. For more information about the add-on, see the Jive StreamOnce documentation.
  • Create a Dropbox Integration User on the Dropbox side. This account will be used to connect your Jive community to Dropbox.

Connecting Jive to a Dropbox account:​

  1. Click your avatar in the top right and select Add-ons.
  2. Make sure the StreamOnce add-on is installed.
  3. On the Storage Management tab, click Add Integration.
  4. Select Dropbox as the Provider Type.
  5. In Display Name, type the name you want community users to see displayed when selecting a storage provider for a group.
  6. Click Add.
  7. Authenticate with the Dropbox Integration User account.
  8. If you want all your community users to be able to create groups that use this Dropbox connection for storage, select the Enabled check box.
  9. If you want only some users to create places using this storage instance, clear the Enabled check box and start typing the name of a Jive permission group in Permissions Override. These groups will be granted permission to create groups linked to this storage instance.
  10. Use Mapping Options to determine how Dropbox users connect with Jive users. We recommend using the default setting, which is email address.
  11. Click Edit Settings to connect to a Dropbox account.
    1. Click Save to save your instance settings.
    2. Click Save to continue.
  12. Click Save to save the integration.

You now see it listed on the Storage Management tab.

Synchronization of Files​

When community users and administrators create places, a folder within the Dropbox account is created and identified with the name of the place. Files added to or modified in that folder from either the Dropbox or Jive side are then synchronized. When a Jive user uploads a file to the group, the file is posted to the Dropbox group using the Dropbox Integration User, meaning Jive users don't need Dropbox accounts to access the information in places.

However, they won’t have access to the contents of the folder from the Dropbox side unless they also have a Dropbox account. Conversely, Dropbox users who have access to the folder need a Jive account if they want to add or modify documents in the Jive-linked Dropbox folder.

Default Storage Provider​

If you want to make Dropbox the default storage provider for new places created in the community, select it in the Storage Management tab, and then clear the Allow users to choose Jive as internal storage check box. This removes the option to store uploaded documents in Jive for all newly created places.

Tips, Tricks, and Limitations​

  • You can't change the name of any Jive group connected to Dropbox.
  • You can't change the filename of a binary file inside a Dropbox-connected Jive group.
  • If you need to delete a binary file in the Jive group and replace it with a file with the same name, you need to delete it permanently from Dropbox first. Trying to re-add a file with the same name before deleting it from Dropbox will result in errors.
  • Moving a file from one Dropbox-connected Jive group to another and then back fails, as does any action that creates files with duplicate names in Dropbox.

Using More than One External Storage Provider​

You can use more than one type of external storage. For example, you can have some of your groups store files in Jive for SharePoint and some in Box.com. After you've set up the initial community connections to your storage accounts, connections are set up group by group. When you create a group, you decide whether the group will use native Jive storage or another storage. However, you can't connect the same group to more than one storage provider.

Related

Dropbox