Sitefinity Dropbox doesn't work the way you think it does

The video on the Sitefinity dropbox integration has been published, you can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiDuwARU33o&feature=g-all-u

So the key thing you need to notice is the title…the word “Synchronization”.

What you expect to happen:

• Dropbox stores the images
• Sitefinity stores the meta data
• Embed link in sitefinity is right to the image over in the dropbox cdn

What actually happens:

• Anything you put into dropbox Sitefinity “consumes” and makes a copy of
• Likewise anything you upload into Sitefinity, dropbox gets a copy of

So really you end up with duplicate content.  Stored in the DB\filesystem and your dropbox account at the same time.  Only bonus I can see is that dropbox versions media so if you roll back in theory the sitefinity file would also rollback.

So knowing that (and I’m sure they do, probably just a limitation on the current implimentation)…lets enhance the system work towards “REAL” cdn\dropbox providers…the “Sync” is “neat”, but doesn’t solve the need.