Save document to Dropbox cloud file storage

8 Jan 202412 minutes to read

To save a document to Dropbox cloud file storage, you can follow the steps below

Step 1: Create a Dropbox API

To create a Dropbox API App, you should follow the official documentation provided by Dropbox link. The process involves visiting the Dropbox Developer website and using their App Console to set up your API app. This app will allow you to interact with Dropbox programmatically, enabling secure access to files and data.

Step 2: Create a Simple Document Editor sample in JavaScript

Follow the instructions provided in this link to create a simple Document Editor sample in Javascript. This will give you a basic setup of the Document Editor component.

Step 3: Modify the DocumentEditorController.cs File in the Web Service Project

Create a web service project in .NET Core 3.0 or above. You can refer to this link for instructions on how to create a web service project.
Open the DocumentEditorController.cs file in your web service project.
Import the required namespaces at the top of the file:

using System.IO;
using Dropbox.Api;
using Dropbox.Api.Files;

Add the following private fields and constructor parameters to the DocumentEditorController class, In the constructor, assign the values from the configuration to the corresponding fields

private IConfiguration _configuration;
public readonly string _accessToken;
public readonly string _folderName;

public DocumentEditorController(IWebHostEnvironment hostingEnvironment, IMemoryCache cache, IConfiguration configuration)
{
  _hostingEnvironment = hostingEnvironment;
  _cache = cache;
   _configuration = configuration;
  _accessToken = _configuration.GetValue<string>("AccessToken");
  _folderName = _configuration.GetValue<string>("FolderName");
}

Create the SaveToDropBox() method to save the downloaded document to Dropbox cloud file storage bucket

[AcceptVerbs("Post")]
[HttpPost]
[EnableCors("AllowAllOrigins")]
[Route("SaveToDropBox")]
//Post action for downloading the document

public void SaveToDropBox(IFormCollection data)
{
  if (data.Files.Count == 0)
    return;

  IFormFile file = data.Files[0];
  string documentName = this.GetValue(data, "documentName");
  string result = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(documentName);
  string fileName = result + "_downloaded.docx";

  using (var dropBox = new DropboxClient(_accessToken))
  {
      Stream stream = new MemoryStream();
      file.CopyTo(stream);

      // Upload the document to Dropbox
      var uploadedFile = await dropBox.Files.UploadAsync(
        _folderName + "/" + fileName,
        WriteMode.Overwrite.Instance,
        body: stream
      );
  }
}

private string GetValue(IFormCollection data, string key)
{
    if (data.ContainsKey(key))
    {
        string[] values = data[key];
        if (values.Length > 0)
        {
            return values[0];
        }
    }
    return "";
}

Open the appsettings.json file in your web service project, Add the following lines below the existing "AllowedHosts" configuration

{
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Microsoft.AspNetCore": "Warning"
    }
  },
  "AllowedHosts": "*",
  "AccessToken": "Your_Dropbox_Access_Token",
  "FolderName": "Your_Folder_Name"
}

NOTE

Replace Your_Dropbox_Access_Token with your actual Dropbox access token and Your_Folder_Name with your folder name.

Step 4: Modify the index File in the Document Editor sample

In the client-side, to export the document into blob the document using saveAsBlob and sent to server-side for saving in Dropbox cloud file storage.

index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 DocumentEditor</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls">
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion">
    <!-- EJ2 Document Editor dependent theme -->
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
        rel='nofollow' />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-buttons/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
        rel='nofollow' />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
        rel='nofollow' />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-popups/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
        rel='nofollow' />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-lists/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
        rel='nofollow' />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-navigations/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet"
        type="text/css" rel='nofollow' />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-splitbuttons/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet"
        type="text/css" rel='nofollow' />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-dropdowns/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet"
        type="text/css" rel='nofollow' />

    <!-- EJ2 Document Editor theme -->
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-documenteditor/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet"
        type="text/css" rel='nofollow' />

    <!-- EJ2 Document Editor dependent scripts -->
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-base/dist/global/ej2-base.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-data/dist/global/ej2-data.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-svg-base/dist/global/ej2-svg-base.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-file-utils/dist/global/ej2-file-utils.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-compression/dist/global/ej2-compression.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-pdf-export/dist/global/ej2-pdf-export.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-buttons/dist/global/ej2-buttons.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-popups/dist/global/ej2-popups.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-splitbuttons/dist/global/ej2-splitbuttons.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-inputs/dist/global/ej2-inputs.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-lists/dist/global/ej2-lists.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-navigations/dist/global/ej2-navigations.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-dropdowns/dist/global/ej2-dropdowns.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-calendars/dist/global/ej2-calendars.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-charts/dist/global/ej2-charts.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-office-chart/dist/global/ej2-office-chart.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
    <!-- EJ2 Document Editor script -->
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.2.4/ej2-documenteditor/dist/global/ej2-documenteditor.min.js"
        type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div>
        <button id="export">Save to DropBox Cloud</button>
    </div>
    <div id='DocumentEditor' style='height:620px'></div>
    <script>
        // Initialize DocumentEditorContainer component.
        var documenteditorContainer = new ej.documenteditor.DocumentEditorContainer({ enableToolbar: true, height: '590px' });
        ej.documenteditor.DocumentEditorContainer.Inject(ej.documenteditor.Toolbar);
        documenteditorContainer.serviceUrl = 'http://localhost:62870/api/documenteditor/';
        //DocumentEditorContainer control rendering starts
        documenteditorContainer.appendTo('#DocumentEditor');
        document.getElementById('export').addEventListener('click', function () {
            save();
        });

        async function save() {
            container.documentEditor.saveAsBlob('Docx').then((blob) => {
                var exportedDocument = blob;
                //Now, save the document where ever you want.
                var formData = new FormData();
                formData.append('documentName', container.documentEditor.documentName);
                formData.append('data', exportedDocument);
                /* tslint:disable */
                var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
                // Replace your running Url here
                req.open(
                    'POST',
                    'http://localhost:62870/api/documenteditor/SaveToDropBox',
                    true
                );
                req.onreadystatechange = () => {
                    if (req.readyState === 4) {
                        if (req.status === 200 || req.status === 304) {
                            console.log('Saved sucessfully');
                        }
                    }
                };
                req.send(formData);
            });
        }
    </script>
</body>

</html>

NOTE

The Dropbox.Api NuGet package must be installed in your application to use the previous code example.