Support for Dropbox

esquilax · July 2010

What if we have Dropbox for Android installed, will there be support for that at some point?

RobYoder · July 2010

[quote name='esquilax']What if we have Dropbox for Android installed, will there be support for that at some point?[/QUOTE]

Do you mean support for Dropbox syncing of your data? If so, we're looking into this and hope to add it soon.

thomaswmeyer · July 2010

Hi,

This is Tom, the lead developer for Android Dropbox. It should be easy for you to make 1Password openable from Dropbox, by registering for ACTION_VIEW on the appropriate mime-type. Once you have set this up, we can generate the same mime-type from within the Dropbox app and it will be supported in our next release. Thanks.

Tom

dteare · July 2010

Hi Tom! Welcome to the forums and thank you for taking the time to share!

[quote name='thomaswmeyer']It should be easy for you to make 1Password openable from Dropbox, by registering for ACTION_VIEW on the appropriate mime-type. Once you have set this up, we can generate the same mime-type from within the Dropbox app and it will be supported in our next release. Thanks.[/QUOTE]

I am not sure I am following you 100%. I guess this is something completely different than the DropBox API you released recently? I originally thought we'd need to use the API but since we only require read-only access to the data files perhaps we can do something much simpler?

Please elaborate on the ACTION_VIEW approach; I tried Google but didn't find much. If you prefer, please email us at [email]support@agile.ws[/email] and the team will make sure I see it.

Thanks!

esquilax · July 2010

/me rubs his hands together.

dteare · July 2010

[quote name='thomaswmeyer']It should be easy for you to make 1Password openable from Dropbox, by registering for ACTION_VIEW on the appropriate mime-type.[/QUOTE]

I see what you mean now; users will click 1Password.agilekeychain from within the Dropbox application and you will launch 1Password for us.

The .agilekeychain is a folder so I am not sure you can have a mime-type on it, but if you can, it you could set it to x-application/1password.

In this case, is there anything else you require from us to get this setup?

GeneY · July 2010

Hi Tom, this is Gene a 1Password for Android developer.

Thank you for your suggestions, I will be working on 1Password/Dropbox integration. If possible, could you provide more info on how to proceed with it ? The datafile is actually a package which is treated as a folder by Dropbox, not sure how provide a mime-type for that.

I see that Dropbox for Android lets you copy files from Dropbox to the Dropbox folder on SD card, is there any option to change a location (for ex to copy file to some other directory ?)

Also I cannot figure out how to copy the whole folder onto SD card, only a single fle, is there any way to do that ?

Thank you in advance for the information

Gene

Android Developer

thightower · July 2010

Hi Dave, and Gene

I left Tom a message on the DB forums where he was also writing to me and another user, it will most likely make it easier for him to see, Thats Incase he's not monitoring the 1P forums.

thomaswmeyer · July 2010

Thanks. I was under the impression that the 1Password.agilekeychain directory was a file. Since it's a directory, and we don't currently support keeping a directory in sync, this actually won't work for the present time. I'll communicate directly with the developers on this, since it seems to be more complicated than I had thought.

arostad · July 2010

I was just messing with this and wondering why on earth 1password would have a dat file spread out to a folder with so many files like that. I need sync! I came from being a wallet user and their .me sync is seamless between multiple macs and or iphones.

I have a android phone now so I'm really hoping something happens with this sync business soon.

Thanks and keep up the good work! (both agile and dropbox)

thightower · July 2010

Welcome to the forums arostad

That so many files is what gives 1P its beauty, each time you make a change be it adding, deleting , etc all that has to be done is for those changes to be synced is a tiny amount of data moved. Otherwise we would have to upload the entire file each and every time etc. This way it makes things go way faster. This is especially evident if you are running 1P3 Mac version, and have all the thumbnails and site previews active in your keychain, My data file is around 400 mb. Before I emptied the trash and now is still around 300 mb.

Anyway thats a brief statement on the keychain, I am out the door to the normal job (Hate this 100 degree heat). If you still have questions feel free to write back and also look at the faq's section as there is a help article in there about the design of the keychain. AFAIK. Never read it (giggle)

AltmanSoftware · July 2010

[quote name='thomaswmeyer']Thanks. I was under the impression that the 1Password.agilekeychain directory was a file. Since it's a directory, and we don't currently support keeping a directory in sync, this actually won't work for the present time. I'll communicate directly with the developers on this, since it seems to be more complicated than I had thought.[/QUOTE]

I may be missing something here, but I think the end goal is for 1Pwd to have access to the entire folder structure of the keychain, as synchronized by DropBox. Certainly, DropBox syncs folders on the Mac and PC; I can't imagine this is missing on Android. 1Pwd can also be instructed to open a keychain which happens to be stored in a DropBox folder. If we have then same option to specify where to keychain is accessed, we should have a full solution.

I'm not certain what value opening the keychain itself has over running 1Pwd and letting it open the (default) keychain; in fact, we (1Pwd users) are all pretty used to just running 1Pwd and having it open the keychain for us.

1Pwd on Android should be able to select and open a keychain which happens to be in a folder synchronized via DropBox -- that would cover everything I'm looking for.

[Deleted User] · July 2010

[quote name='AltmanSoftware']

I'm not certain what value opening the keychain itself has over running 1Pwd and letting it open the (default) keychain; in fact, we (1Pwd users) are all pretty used to just running 1Pwd and having it open the keychain for us.

1Pwd on Android should be able to select and open a keychain which happens to be in a folder synchronized via DropBox -- that would cover everything I'm looking for.[/QUOTE]

What Tom from the Dropbox team is saying is that right now it's not possible to sync a directory from Dropbox to the SD card, only single files, and since the 1Password keychain is treated as a folder by Dropbox it means that we can't currently sync the whole thing to the SD card in order to let the 1Password for Android app access it. This is something we're hoping to be able to work on with the folks at Dropbox and it's great to see Tom posting here to help us out.

1Password for Android is hot off the assembly line so to speak, so there's going to be some natural delays while we get things like Dropbox syncing up and running.

Thanks for your patience,

Hilbe · July 2010

Couldn't you guys make the agilekeychain a single file container such as zip, tar, jar, etc. or provide an option in 1P to keep a copy of the keychain in this container format? That'd be easy to sync and explode.

RobYoder · July 2010

[quote name='Hilbe']Couldn't you guys make the agilekeychain a single file container such as zip, tar, jar, etc. or provide an option in 1P to keep a copy of the keychain in this container format? That'd be easy to sync and explode.[/QUOTE]

If we did something like this, then every time a change is made, the entire keychain will be copied across to other machines. This would result in longer sync times, plus the downside that two items could not be edited at the same time on opposite machines and be synced to the other ones. Right now, each 1Password item is its own file and thus works great with Dropbox's file-based syncing system. I hope that makes sense. Let me know if I'm missing something; that happens sometimes. :-)

Thanks for the feedback!

Hilbe · July 2010

[quote name='<Rob />']If we did something like this, then every time a change is made, the entire keychain will be copied across to other machines. This would result in longer sync times, plus the downside that two items could not be edited at the same time on opposite machines and be synced to the other ones. Right now, each 1Password item is its own file and thus works great with Dropbox's file-based syncing system. I hope that makes sense. Let me know if I'm missing something; that happens sometimes. :-)

Thanks for the feedback![/QUOTE]

But couldn't you make it an option to make your agilekeychain a single file container (zip or jar)? Have 1P open/close the container on the fly for reads and writes? Seems like there might be some CPU overhead doing this, but at least it is a single file that can be synced to Android.

dteare · July 2010

[quote name='Hilbe']But couldn't you make it an option to make your agilekeychain a single file container (zip or jar)? Have 1P open/close the container on the fly for reads and writes? Seems like there might be some CPU overhead doing this, but at least it is a single file that can be synced to Android.[/QUOTE]

I think the "some CPU overhead" understates the issue; it will be very hard for a mobile device to do this. It takes 5 seconds for me to backup my keychain on my 2.66 GHz MacBook Pro i7 and I'm using an SSD. Even if we say it will take just 3 times longer on a mobile device, that is a lot of wait time, and we haven't even considered how long it will take to download the entire data file.

I'm leaning towards using the Dropbox API within 1Password to download the data directly onto your Android. This requires a lot more effort on our part so it will take some time.

Another option is for the Dropbox team to enable downloading of folders in the Dropbox client. I think this would be a very useful feature in and of itself and it would help 1Password users a lot, too.

arostad · July 2010

[quote name='dteare']Another option is for the Dropbox team to enable downloading of folders in the Dropbox client. I think this would be a very useful feature in and of itself and it would help 1Password users a lot, too.[/QUOTE]

I concur!

The dropbox guy was saying something about this being disabled due to excessive data usage over the cellular network but this wouldn't be a issue if they allowed you to sync only over wifi which would probably appease everybody since all (I think) android phones support wifi.

*edit*

I guess I didn't even think of how much this could potentially tax their servers since all the data must go through them. Maybe that is what he ment.

macpug · July 2010

I thought about that too, arostad, with just allowing it to sync over wi-fi, and I've heard similar comments. But that could definitely be a little stressful for the servers.

There are some folks who don't have or don't use wi-fi (believe it or not). For example, I have a couple of elderly family members who have a Wi-Fi + 3G iPad. They don't have a computer, so no Wi-Fi to sync (I handle their initial setup and have their iTunes account on my computer). Everything they do is over the cellular network. This was done partly to keep things easy for them, as they didn't want/need internet access "just" to use their iPad. They "share" by email for now, but they would like to use Dropbox because the rest of the family uses it to share photos and files. That might or might not be an edge case. They have other friends with that setup as well, though, so I think it's probably fairly popular.

BenMargolin · July 2010

Let me just say as a longtime 1password user, and enthusiastic Android user, and new Dropbox user :), that I'm really happy this thread shows so much potential!

It definitely seems like [B]the best answer[/B] though, is that Dropbox implement at least selective folder syncing. Sure, I'd love to see Agile implement the DropBox APIs if that's the only option, or even in the interim, but it seems a little onerous for Agile.

Anyhow, ever since I switched to Android 18 months ago, I've been sad to give up the 1password iPhone app. This is a fantastic, much appreciated start. And the Chrome extension is coming along as well, which is also great, as I have to say Chrome has become my browser of choice (on Mac and Windows).

Thanks for working on this effort!

thightower · July 2010

Hi Ben

Welcome to the forums and thank you for taking the time to post.

Selective sync is in the true dropbox app for mac and win etc, maybe it want be long before they can have that cross over to the mobile apps. I am keeping my fingers crossed, but thats me and sounds like a few of you. :)

GeneY · July 2010

Hi BenMargolin,

Integration with Dropbox is our main priority, we are in contact with Dropbox for Android development team, they are adding new features to their application which we are going to use

( for ex the whole folder sync). Please stay tuned for the updates and monitor the forum, all new information will be placed there.

Best Regards,

Gene

Android Developer

Hilbe · August 2010

I can't seem to get the Dropbox Sync to work on the new beta. Is there something special I need to do outside of login?

adamrogers · August 2010

[quote name='Hilbe' timestamp='1281114698' post='7852']

I can't seem to get the Dropbox Sync to work on the new beta. Is there something special I need to do outside of login?

[/quote]

Me neither.. downloaded it on Droid X today. Selected DropBox sync. Typed in my username/password on dropbox and then it looks like it's going to sync and just closes (back to home screen).

MikeT · August 2010

[quote name='Hilbe' timestamp='1281114698' post='7852']

I can't seem to get the Dropbox Sync to work on the new beta. Is there something special I need to do outside of login?

[/quote]

[quote name='adamrogers' timestamp='1281118377' post='7857']

Me neither.. downloaded it on Droid X today. Selected DropBox sync. Typed in my username/password on dropbox and then it looks like it's going to sync and just closes (back to home screen).

[/quote]

Hi guys,

The beta was released much earlier than we expected, we are working right now with Dropbox to resolve an issue with the licensing. Once that has been resolved, the Dropbox sync will start to work.

GeneY · August 2010

Hi Ben,

The 1Password for Android integration with Dropbox is coming really soon,

We still need to sort out some Licensing issues with Dropbox Inc.

Please stay tuned for the latest updates.

In the meantime, you can use 1Password for Android with the data file stored on your SD card

Best Regards,

Gene

Android Developer

LeighK · August 2010

[quote name='adamrogers' timestamp='1281118377' post='7857']

Me neither.. downloaded it on Droid X today. Selected DropBox sync. Typed in my username/password on dropbox and then it looks like it's going to sync and just closes (back to home screen).

[/quote]

Just another "me too" reply. I'm also on a Droid X, and same result. Still, I was enthused to see the update when I checked this morning, so keep up the great work guys!

luckie_reubs · August 2010

So glad to know this is so close to completion. I really appreciate all the work the Agile team has put into 1Password and making it integrate with so many platforms.

[Deleted User] · August 2010

[quote name='luckie_reubs' timestamp='1281191273' post='7886']

So glad to know this is so close to completion. I really appreciate all the work the Agile team has put into 1Password and making it integrate with so many platforms.

[/quote]

Thanks for the kind words, luckie_reubs.

We're all really excited to see 1Password for Android coming along so well, it gave me the great excuse to go out and get a HTC Wildfire to test with, great device and I can see why so many people love Android.

mikero · August 2010

When i try to connect to dropbox i get

"Sorry!

The application 1password

(Process com.onepassword.

passwordmanager) has

stopped unexpectedly. Please

try again.

[force close]"

in a dialog in the 'background' I can see "Authenticating by user credentials..." sometimes

If I put in incorrect authentication details I seem to get the same errors

I'm on an htc desire on standard 2.1, I have not configured the app for SD card use

GeneY · August 2010

Hi Mikero,

Several customer reported the problem with dropbox integration, I am currently working on the solution which will be available on the Market in the

next several days.

Please stay tuned for the updates, in the meantime, please refrain from using Dropbox feature.

Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Best Regards,

Gene

Android Developer

Support for Dropbox

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