DropBox Odoo Integration v.12

• Prepare and keep updated folders' structure in DropBox
• Upload new attachments to a correct folder

Odoo creates a convenient directory structure in DropBox: Odoo / Document type name / Document name / Files, where:

• Odoo is a central directory for Odoo Sync in your cloud storage.
• Document type is a synced Odoo model, for example, 'Sale orders', 'Opportunities', 'Customers'
  • You select document types by yourself. It might be any document type
  • Moreover, you might have a few folders for a single document type. Use Odoo domains to have not global 'Partners, but 'Customers' and 'Suppliers', not just 'Sale orders' but 'Commercial offers', 'To deliver', and 'Done orders'
  • With each sync Odoo would try to update document types' folders. Add a new document type at any moment. It will appear in DropBox with a next sync
  • You are welcome to introduce or change document types folder names at any moment in Odoo. Take into account: renaming in DropBox will be recovered to Odoo names
  • If you remove a model from integration, it will not be deleted from DropBox to keep already synced files safe. However, new documents of this type would not be synced
  • In case you removed a directory in DropBox, but it is still configured in Odoo, with a next sync a folder structure is going to be recovered (not files, surely).
• Document is an exact object to sync. For instance, 'Agrolait' or 'SO019'
  • Documents are synced in case they relate to a synced document type and satisfy its filters. For example, you are not obliged to sync all partners, you may integrate only 'Customers' and 'Vendors' or only 'Companies', not 'Contacts'
  • Odoo would generate a folder in DropBox for each suitable document even for documents without attachments. It is needed for a backward sync to easily add new files
  • DropBox folder name equals a real document name. It relies upon Odoo name_get method. Thus, Odoo 'Michael Fletcher' (a contact of 'Agrolait') would be DropBox 'Agrolait, Michael Fletcher'
  • If an exact document changes its document type (e.g. a quotation is now confirmed), Odoo will automatically relocate its related folder to a proper parent directory (in the example: from 'Commercial offers' to 'To deliver')
  • In case a document relates to a few types (for instance, you have 'Vendors' and 'Customers', while Agrolait is both), this document folder would be put into the most prioritized document type. A document type priority is higher as closer to the top in Odoo interfaces it is
  • If an Odoo document is removed, the next sync will remove a corresponding DropBox directory
  • In case you remove a directory in DropBox, but it still exists in Odoo, DropBox folder structure would be recovered (while files would be unlinked in both Odoo and DropBox)
  • Folders renaming in DropBox will be replaced with Odoo names, Odoo document names are more important
• Files are real files taken from Odoo attachments

The resulted path would be, for example, 'Odoo / Quotations / SO019 / commercial offer.png'.

The only exclusion of the rule are stand alone attachments which do not relate to any Odoo documents (their document type is 'ir.attachment'). Such attachments' path is 'Odoo / Stand Alone Attachments / image.png'.

The direct sync might take quite a long, since a lot of folders should be created. It is not recommended to make sync too frequent: once an hour or two hours is fine.

With each direct sync, Odoo tries to find not yet synced attachments. If such attachments suit any document type to sync, a file will be uploaded to DropBox to a proper folder. In Odoo such attachments will become of 'url' type (look also at the section DropBox URLs). It means that a file is not any more kept in Odoo server space, but now it is in DropBox. Until sync is done, Odoo attachment remains binary and stores an actual file. Such approach helps Odoo to work faster.

If you unlinked an attachment from Odoo, it would be deleted in DropBox as well.

Take into account that file names should be managed in DropBox: each backward sync would recover DropBox names, Odoo is here less important.

• If a new file is added to a proper document folder (e.g. to 'Odoo / Customers / Agrolait'), the same attachment will be added to Odoo document (in the example - to 'Agrolait')
• In document folders you can put not only files but also child folders. In that case a link for this folder (not its content) is kept in attachments
• In case you rename a file in DropBox, it will be renamed in Odoo as well
• Files' removal from DropBox leads to related Odoo attachments' removal
• If you move a file to another document folder, in Odoo a related attachment would be re-attached to this new document. Take into account: if you move a file for a not document folder, this Odoo attachment will be deleted as it has been removed from DropBox
• If you deleted a document type or document folder, their child files are deleted as well. Thus, Odoo would remove related attachments. The folders, however, will be recovered with a next direct sync. Folders' move to another directory is also considered as a removal. Avoid such situations by following the simple rule: folders are managed mostly by Odoo, files - mostly by DropBox.

Backward DropBox might take quite much time, since each folder should be checked (the more folders, the more time the backward sync requires). It is recommended to make frequency oftener than once an hour or two hours.

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'.

• 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.

This tool is not in conflict with the 'documents' module provided by the Enterprise license. Attachments related to Enterprise folders would be synced as any other files: according to a document they relate to. In the most cases it means they would be linked to stand-alone attachments.

It is not always comfortable, and you might be interested in reflecting directories' structure introduced by the module 'Documents'. To this end the extension Cloud Sync for Enterprise Documents (its standard price is 44 Euros) is developed. This tool has 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