Updating Web Project on Dropbox

[bradharries]

I share my Web Project with about a dozen people using Dropbox. I just attempted to update the file by saving a new Web Project with the same name. It wrote over the old file by deleting the old file first and un-inviting all my shared users. Is there a way to do an update while maintaining the folder's shared users? Leave the folder intact, delete the contents then put the new contents of a new Web Project inside the old folder?

[Mark]

It wrote over the old file by deleting the old file first and un-inviting all my shared users.

This happens because saving over the existing web project essentially deletes then recreates the folder. Dropbox thinks the shared folder was deleted, then a new folder of the same name created - thus the need to re-share.

Leave the folder intact, delete the contents then put the new contents of a new Web Project inside the old folder?

That would be one method -- another, similar, option would be to make use of the Reunion Web Tool. Save the new Web Project somewhere outside of Dropbox, then use the Reunion Web Tool to compare the new project with the old one in Dropbox. A folder will be created containing just those files that have changed/are new, and you would move just those files into the Web Project on Dropbox. The advantage being you wouldn't need to sync the entire web project each time, just the changed/new files.

HTH

[ted_au]

A guess this is little bit more advanced, but as my primary employment is in IT it makes sense for me.

I publish the Web Project in the usual place:

~/Documents/Reunion Files/Reports/familytree/

I then use Beyond Compare to do a folder sync to the Web Project folder in Dropbox, in my case:

~/Dropbox/Genealogy/Web Sites/familytree/

This way Beyond Compare mirrors the changes from the published copy to the copy in Dropbox, and the shared folder doesn't go away each time.

Additionally I actually sync this to folder to an Amazon Webservices Static site, and as such have a password protected website for family to access the Web Report. This is way more advanced than the dropbox sharing, but it works really well for a Reunion Web Report. I own my own domain, and host my own static site. Therefore no one needs dropbox just a web browser and the password I shared with them.

[Paul Reitz]

Additionally I actually sync this to folder to an Amazon Webservices Static site,

Very interesting, Ted. AWS is so relatively inexpensive, I wonder....
...can a web project in my iCloud Drive meet AWS' requirement for an "existing website" with a public IP?

[ted_au]

Very interesting, Ted. AWS is so relatively inexpensive, I wonder....

Very cheap. Static website hosted in S3 costs me < USD$1 per month

...can a web project in my iCloud Drive meet AWS' requirement for an "existing website" with a public IP?

It does. A static website is just a collection of HTML, CSS and JS files. The Web Project output by Reunion is like that. It's really easy if your project is going to be public (and not private) as it's literally just an S3 bucket, enabled as a website with your existing web project uploaded to it.

[Paul Reitz]

Ted, when you say the project has to be public. Does that mean AWS exposes it to webcrawlers?

I'd like to believe there would be security tools allowing the project files to be locked. No?

[ted_au]

Hi Paul. That is correct. By default publishing a Website with S3 on AWS means it's publicly available for the whole world, and all web crawlers to see.

You can secure it, but it's a complex topic, not really something I could walk you through on a forum, on how to secure an AWS S3 hosted website with a username/password (known as basic auth).

You'd be much better off using another web hosting company, or a dropbox shared folder like you already do - as it's a lot easier.

FYI If you really are interested in doing it yourself, you can read these two independent guides on how to do it:
- A Step-by-step Guide to Creating a Password Protected S3 bucket
- Builds a serverless infrastructure in AWS for hosting a static website protected with Basic Authentication (I've used this)

[B Jansen]

Web Project on Dropbox


Does it appear as a public website or do the people have to download the files? How do you share the link? I used to do this ages ago, but now I can't recreate how I did it.

[Mark]

Hi Bradley,

Dropbox no longer allows using your Dropbox as a website, so the people will need to download the files from Dropbox to their computer.

Step-by-step instructions, including how to share the web project through Dropbox, can be found in this FAQ.

HTH