Dropbox Integration

DocSpring’s Dropbox integration saves every PDF it generates to a folder you choose in your Dropbox or in your team’s space. Each PDF is uploaded as soon as it’s generated, including combined PDFs, and you choose the file names.

Set up the integration

1. In DocSpring, go to Integrations → Manage Dropbox connections (US, EU).
2. Click Connect Dropbox and sign in to the Dropbox account that should receive the PDFs, then allow DocSpring’s access.
3. DocSpring opens the new integration’s settings. Click Choose Folder to browse your Dropbox. Click a folder to open it, then click Choose This Folder. On a Dropbox team account, the top level shows your team’s folders as well as your own.
4. Set the file paths and choose which PDFs to upload (see below), then click Save.
5. Generate a PDF and check that it appears in the folder.

Nothing is uploaded until a folder is chosen. You can connect more than one Dropbox account, or the same account with different folders, by connecting again.

Choose which PDFs to upload

• Submission Type: Only Live (default), Only Test, or Both Live and Test. Combined PDFs are uploaded with every setting.
• API Token IDs: a comma-separated list of API token IDs. Only PDFs generated with one of these tokens are uploaded. Submissions created without an API token (for example from the dashboard or a web form) are still uploaded.

File paths

Each kind of PDF has its own file path, relative to the folder you chose. A / in the path creates subfolders, which DocSpring creates the first time they’re needed. The defaults are:

{{ template_name }}/{{ submission_id }}.pdf
Test PDFs/{{ template_name }}/{{ submission_id }}.pdf
Combined PDFs/{{ combined_submission_id }}.pdf

The paths are Liquid templates and take the same variables as the S3 integration, such as template_id, submission_id, date, year and metadata.<key>.

Available variables The full list of variables you can use in file paths

Caution

In template_name and metadata values, / and the characters \ : * ? " < > | are replaced with underscores, so a value can’t create a subfolder.

If a file path is used again (for example {{ template_name }}.pdf, which every PDF from a template shares), DocSpring replaces the file. Dropbox keeps the earlier version in the file’s version history for as long as your Dropbox plan keeps versions. Use at least one unique variable, such as submission_id, in each path so different PDFs never share a file name. Reprocessing a submission creates a new submission with its own ID, so it gets its own file.

Check an upload

The submission’s actions array in the API response has an entry for each upload. Its state is pending until the PDF is in your Dropbox, then processed:

{
  "action_type": "dropbox_upload",
  "state": "processed",
  "error_message": null,
  "result_data": {
    "path": "Lease Agreement/sub_Gbxesk7Xf52Pq3KgT9.pdf",
    "folder_id": "id:a4ayc_80_OEAAAAAAAAAXw",
    "file_id": "id:a4ayc_80_OEAAAAAAAAAYa",
    "file_path": "/Signed Leases/Lease Agreement/sub_Gbxesk7Xf52Pq3KgT9.pdf"
  }
}

If the upload fails, state is failed and error_message says why. Problems that can go away by themselves (timeouts, rate limits, errors at Dropbox) are retried automatically.

When an integration fails Failure emails, automatic disabling, and turning an integration back on

Reconnect or disconnect

If DocSpring’s access stops working (for example after you remove DocSpring from your Dropbox account), uploads fail with a message asking you to reconnect. Open the integration’s settings and click Reconnect Dropbox. Reconnecting with a different Dropbox account clears the folder, so choose it again.

Deleting the integration revokes its access to your Dropbox account, but Dropbox keeps listing DocSpring under Connected apps in your Dropbox security settings until you remove it there. You can also remove DocSpring’s access there at any time.

FAQ

Does renaming or moving the folder break uploads?

No. DocSpring remembers the folder by its Dropbox ID and looks up its current location before each upload. If the folder is deleted, uploads fail until you choose another one.

Is there a size limit?

Dropbox uploads are limited to 150 MB per PDF.

Does DocSpring still keep a copy of the PDF?

Yes. The integration uploads a copy. DocSpring keeps its own copy to serve download URLs and combine PDFs, and deletes only its own copy when a submission expires. It never deletes files in your Dropbox.