DropBox Odoo Integration v.13

• Projects: have an own DropBox folder for each customer project.
• Customers: add all partner files in a single directory available both from Odoo and from DropBox. Modify those using default cloud editors and access them when working in Odoo.
• Employees: gather all files by this employee in a single cloud folder: photos, document scans, contracts. Access and upload those from Odoo and DropBox alternatively.
• Opportunities: carefully store all specifications, requirements, any files which would let you make a good offer.
• Orders: keep all printings and contracts in DropBox with simple availability from Odoo.

Based on the scheduled job 'Synchronize attachments with cloud' Odoo regularly checks whether:

• Any new attachment should be forwarded to DropBox;
• Any new document type (e.g. Sale orders) is added / replaced / renamed as a sync model and, hence, whether a directory should be created / removed / renamed in DropBox;
• Any new document (e.g. Sale Order SO019) is generated / updated / unlinked and, hence, whether a DropBox folder should be created / moved or renamed / deleted.
• Any new attachment should be removed from DropBox if it has been deleted from Odoo.

Based on results of that checks, Odoo starts processing queue of changes, and makes sure that all items are located correctly. The final goal is to have the structure 'Odoo / Document Types / Documents / Files. For example, 'Odoo / Quotations / SO019 / commercial offer.pdf'.

During the synchronization all synced Odoo attachments change their type to a link (URL), while binary content is removed with a next Odoo cleaner. So, no actual files would be stored on your Odoo server.

Please take into account:

• Each sync (especially the very first one) might take quite a long. It is not recommended to make sync too frequent: once an hour seems reasonable frequency.
• File names should be managed in DropBox: each backward sync would recover DropBox names, Odoo is here less important.

Based on the scheduled job 'Synchronize attachments from cloud' Odoo regularly checks whether:

• Any file is added / moved / removed in a DropBox document folder. If yes, Odoo would create a link to this file in a target object (e.g. a new attachment to SO019) or would move / delete such an attachment.
• Any file of a DropBox document folder is renamed. If yes, an attachment would be renamed in Odoo as well.

• In document folders you can put not only files but also child folders. In that case a link for this folder (not its content) would be kept in Odoo attachments.
• If you deleted a folder related to this document type or this document, their child files would be deleted as well. Thus, Odoo would remove related attachments. The folders, however, will be recovered with a next direct sync.
• Each backward sync might take quite a long. It is not recommended to make sync too frequent: once an hour seems safe enough.

DropBox has a specific way to generate links for existing files and folders. In particular, there are no concepts of internal or private URLs. Instead, each DropBox item might get so-called shared URLs. Such shared links are either public or team-only. Moreover, the latter feature is available only for DropBox business account.

This tool relies upon share links' mechanics. It means, that each attachment link is either public (all personal DropBox accounts) or team-only (all business DropBox accounts).

Sometimes it is considered to be not fully safe. Although website URLs will be hardly known by external users, there is a slight chance that they become available as a result of some user actions. Besides, sharing links generation is not super fast and might make a sync process slower. That is why the feature to switch off sharing urls is introduced.

If checked, all DropBox urls in Odoo will be of type https://www.dropbox.com/home/Odoo/[PATH]. Such links will not work in quite a many cases. Thus, if you need to open DropBox files / folders from Odoo, do not switch off the feature 'No links to DropBox from Odoo'.

This tool is not in conflict with the 'documents' module provided under the Enterprise license. Attachments related to Enterprise folders would be synced as any other files: according to a document they relate to.

It is not always comfortable, and you might be interested in reflecting directories' structure introduced by the module 'Documents'. To this end the special extension is developed. This extension introduces the following features:

• The documents hierarchy is reflected within the folder 'Odoo / Odoo Docs'
• Each Odoo folder has a linked cloud folder. Take into account that folders created in the cloud storage will be synced as Odoo attachments. The key principle is: folders are managed by Odoo, files are managed by the cloud client
• All files are synced with the same logic as usual attachments. Files created in Odoo will be added to the cloud storage and will be replaced with links in Odoo. Files created in cloud storage will generate attachments within a paired directory
• Please do not name synced models as 'Odoo Docs'. This is the reserved name for Odoo Enterprise Documents

• Try to avoid the following symbols in folders' and files' names: *, ?, ", ', :, <, >, |, +, %, !, @, \, /,. Direct sync will replace such symbols with '-'. It is done to avoid conflicts with file systems.