3 ms·

Show HN: Email files to Google Drive, Skydrive, or Dropbox

46 points by baudehlo 13y ago

baudehlo 13y ago
This is my side project I've been working on for the past month or so. I especially wrote it for Google Drive, since they provide ways to email files already in your Drive, but they don't provide a way for you to send files in.
aroman 13y ago
Isn't a major point of these websites that you can exceed the low filesize cap of email?
- baudehlo 13y ago
  That's the point of Google allowing you to email links to your Drive files, not the point of this project. This is to let you get files into your Drive/Dropbox/Skydrive via email. That will still have the limit of whatever email service you're sending from. My servers have no size limit, though the "free" limit is just 5MB per email.
  - anxx 13y ago
    I like this, even though I'm not in the user demographic, I hope you get lots of users!
- pbreit 13y ago
  No. I'm a heavy DropBox user and have never used it to avoid email filesize limits. And I am pretty sure I am far from alone.
portmanteaufu 13y ago
It strikes me as even more work to send an email than to move/copy a file into the synced folder on my desktop. I'd also have to remember to check my file's size before attempting to email it since emailitin caps files at 5MB. Is there a confirmation or error email followup?
- baudehlo 13y ago
  If you're at your desktop, absolutely it's easier to use your synced folder. But what if you're on someone else's computer? Or on mobile? Or just have an email someone sent you. If you go over the size limit you will get a bounce message. I'm not absolutely set on 5MB being the free limit - I'm interested in seeing how well that works, and how many people it converts to paid customers (if any) - I still have to pay for hosting, so it would be nice to get some level of conversion, and $3 a month is cheap enough that it's not a big barrier for most people.
  - portmanteaufu 13y ago
    I use Google Drive, so I can only speak to that. If I'm logged into my email on another person's computer then I'm already logged into drive. Similarly, for me having a file in my inbox is effectively the same as having it in Google Drive. I can access it from any device. I guess I'm outside your target audience. I wish you the best of luck.
- greyman 13y ago
  I sometimes use it when I've got that file as an attachment from someone..I just forward it and it lands there...or, more precisely I used that before on Dropbox. Now I use skydrive so I might as well try this service.
- pbreit 13y ago
  I suspect it's mainly used when you are reading your email and want to save a file attachment to your DropBox.
wookiefeet 13y ago
Pretty awesome. I use Box, and it has similar functionality built in. https://box.zendesk.com/entries/23597556-How-can-I-upload-files-by-email-to-a-specific-Box-folder- https://box.zendesk.com/entries/23597556-How-can-I-upload-fi... You could add that support by Box by getting the email address for the folder people want to send an email to - and the file size limit is higher. http://developers.box.com/docs/#folders-folder-object http://developers.box.com/docs/#folders-folder-object
huhtenberg 13y ago
Minor nitpick - stick <footer> element to the bottom. I have a 40px light gray gap beneath it. Re: the actual idea - it's nice in theory, but this should really be a native Dropbox/GDrive feature. Passing my files through a 3rd party just so that they could be archived is a bit too high price to pay in terms of privacy cost.
denzil_correa 13y ago
I was reading the privacy policy and this caught my eye [0]. We never store the contents of your emails. Those simply pass through our servers directly to your storage provider without ever touching our own hard drives. The one exception to this currently is Skydrive. Their upload API does not provide the options to allow us to stream directly to their servers. We will change this when they fix their API. To support Skydrive we need to write a temporary file to disk which is deleted immediately. Is it unusual for Skydrive API not to support something like this. [0] https://www.emailitin.com/privacy https://www.emailitin.com/privacy
- baudehlo 13y ago
  The problem is they don't accept PUT or POST without a content-length and email attachments don't give you a length up front.
  - bluehex 13y ago
    It seems if you can write to a file, you could write to an in memory buffer instead, right? edit: As a user I wouldn't really have a problem with the temporary file. But it would allow you to remove the exceptional clause in your terms.

46 points by baudehlo 13y ago

This is my side project I've been working on for the past month or so. I especially wrote it for Google Drive, since they provide ways to email files already in your Drive, but they don't provide a way for you to send files in.

aroman 13y ago

Isn't a major point of these websites that you can exceed the low filesize cap of email?

baudehlo 13y ago
That's the point of Google allowing you to email links to your Drive files, not the point of this project. This is to let you get files into your Drive/Dropbox/Skydrive via email. That will still have the limit of whatever email service you're sending from. My servers have no size limit, though the "free" limit is just 5MB per email.
- anxx 13y ago
  I like this, even though I'm not in the user demographic, I hope you get lots of users!
pbreit 13y ago
No. I'm a heavy DropBox user and have never used it to avoid email filesize limits. And I am pretty sure I am far from alone.

portmanteaufu 13y ago

It strikes me as even more work to send an email than to move/copy a file into the synced folder on my desktop. I'd also have to remember to check my file's size before attempting to email it since emailitin caps files at 5MB. Is there a confirmation or error email followup?

baudehlo 13y ago
If you're at your desktop, absolutely it's easier to use your synced folder. But what if you're on someone else's computer? Or on mobile? Or just have an email someone sent you. If you go over the size limit you will get a bounce message. I'm not absolutely set on 5MB being the free limit - I'm interested in seeing how well that works, and how many people it converts to paid customers (if any) - I still have to pay for hosting, so it would be nice to get some level of conversion, and $3 a month is cheap enough that it's not a big barrier for most people.
- portmanteaufu 13y ago
  I use Google Drive, so I can only speak to that. If I'm logged into my email on another person's computer then I'm already logged into drive. Similarly, for me having a file in my inbox is effectively the same as having it in Google Drive. I can access it from any device. I guess I'm outside your target audience. I wish you the best of luck.
greyman 13y ago
I sometimes use it when I've got that file as an attachment from someone..I just forward it and it lands there...or, more precisely I used that before on Dropbox. Now I use skydrive so I might as well try this service.
pbreit 13y ago
I suspect it's mainly used when you are reading your email and want to save a file attachment to your DropBox.

wookiefeet 13y ago

Pretty awesome. I use Box, and it has similar functionality built in. https://box.zendesk.com/entries/23597556-How-can-I-upload-files-by-email-to-a-specific-Box-folder- https://box.zendesk.com/entries/23597556-How-can-I-upload-fi... You could add that support by Box by getting the email address for the folder people want to send an email to - and the file size limit is higher. http://developers.box.com/docs/#folders-folder-object http://developers.box.com/docs/#folders-folder-object

huhtenberg 13y ago

Minor nitpick - stick <footer> element to the bottom. I have a 40px light gray gap beneath it. Re: the actual idea - it's nice in theory, but this should really be a native Dropbox/GDrive feature. Passing my files through a 3rd party just so that they could be archived is a bit too high price to pay in terms of privacy cost.

denzil_correa 13y ago

I was reading the privacy policy and this caught my eye [0]. We never store the contents of your emails. Those simply pass through our servers directly to your storage provider without ever touching our own hard drives. The one exception to this currently is Skydrive. Their upload API does not provide the options to allow us to stream directly to their servers. We will change this when they fix their API. To support Skydrive we need to write a temporary file to disk which is deleted immediately. Is it unusual for Skydrive API not to support something like this. [0] https://www.emailitin.com/privacy https://www.emailitin.com/privacy

baudehlo 13y ago
The problem is they don't accept PUT or POST without a content-length and email attachments don't give you a length up front.
- bluehex 13y ago
  It seems if you can write to a file, you could write to an in memory buffer instead, right? edit: As a user I wouldn't really have a problem with the temporary file. But it would allow you to remove the exceptional clause in your terms.