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If anyone has questions, feedback or comments about webhooks or the Dropbox API more broadly, feel free to post here You can also ping me at levine at dropbox

vladgur 12y ago
Whats the best/recommended way to test webhooks with a server running locally? Do you require webhook urls to be SSLd? P.S. Also eagerly waiting for your Shared Folder API [1] :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484409
- smarx 12y ago
  Webhooks don't require SSL. We're going to publish a little Python script soon that can generate fake webhook notifications for local testing, but in the meantime, I'd suggest just using curl. Something like this: curl http://127.0.0.1/whatever http://127.0.0.1/whatever -d '{"deltas": {"users:" [12345]}}' Another possibility is to use a tool like ngrok or localtunnel, which is what some of our beta testers did.
  - smarx 12y ago
    I went ahead and published Python code to generate fake webhook requests. See https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox_hook https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox_hook.
- johns 12y ago
  http://john-sheehan.com/blog/a-survey-of-the-localhost-proxying-landscape http://john-sheehan.com/blog/a-survey-of-the-localhost-proxy...
jpallen 12y ago
This is great, thanks! Quick question: Is there a best practice for handling rate limiting? I.e. if you send us X number of web hook updates in quick succession for a user, are we ok just sending X delta requests back at you in quick succession? Or do we need to worry about rate limiting? What's the maximum rate we can expect to be sent web hook requests for one user?
- smarx 12y ago
  Take a look at https://www.dropbox.com/developers/webhooks/tutorial#best-practices https://www.dropbox.com/developers/webhooks/tutorial#best-pr..., specifically the part about managing concurrency. There are rate limits (per user) on the Dropbox side, but they're pretty high. I think the bigger concurrency issue is going to be on your end (making sure you don't process the same changes multiple times). Taking a lease per-user is a good start, and we're going to publish a more advanced sample in the coming weeks that uses a queue to really eliminate duplicate calls.
exarch 12y ago
I have a question: How do you feel about working for a company that employs a war criminal on their board of directors, and that lied to the public about its collusion with the NSA over PRISM and other warrantless surveillance programs?
davedx 12y ago
Feedback: I moved my file syncing from Dropbox to Spideroak after you announced Rice was coming on board, and recommend all my friends, family and coworkers do the same. It's a shame because I love the product.
- badsock 12y ago
  Same here, except I went with BTSync. Really glad I did - it's a nice little product.
taejo 12y ago
I have a question: why does Dropbox hire board members better known for their support for torture than their business acumen?
eric_cc 12y ago
After reading the comments here and learning that you have hired Condoleezza Rice you have lost yourself another paying customer.
deciplex 12y ago
What features have you added to your API to allow various intelligence agencies to more easily snoop on your customer data?

vladgur 12y ago

Whats the best/recommended way to test webhooks with a server running locally? Do you require webhook urls to be SSLd? P.S. Also eagerly waiting for your Shared Folder API [1] :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484409

smarx 12y ago
Webhooks don't require SSL. We're going to publish a little Python script soon that can generate fake webhook notifications for local testing, but in the meantime, I'd suggest just using curl. Something like this: curl http://127.0.0.1/whatever http://127.0.0.1/whatever -d '{"deltas": {"users:" [12345]}}' Another possibility is to use a tool like ngrok or localtunnel, which is what some of our beta testers did.
- smarx 12y ago
  I went ahead and published Python code to generate fake webhook requests. See https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox_hook https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox_hook.
johns 12y ago
http://john-sheehan.com/blog/a-survey-of-the-localhost-proxying-landscape http://john-sheehan.com/blog/a-survey-of-the-localhost-proxy...

jpallen 12y ago

This is great, thanks! Quick question: Is there a best practice for handling rate limiting? I.e. if you send us X number of web hook updates in quick succession for a user, are we ok just sending X delta requests back at you in quick succession? Or do we need to worry about rate limiting? What's the maximum rate we can expect to be sent web hook requests for one user?

smarx 12y ago
Take a look at https://www.dropbox.com/developers/webhooks/tutorial#best-practices https://www.dropbox.com/developers/webhooks/tutorial#best-pr..., specifically the part about managing concurrency. There are rate limits (per user) on the Dropbox side, but they're pretty high. I think the bigger concurrency issue is going to be on your end (making sure you don't process the same changes multiple times). Taking a lease per-user is a good start, and we're going to publish a more advanced sample in the coming weeks that uses a queue to really eliminate duplicate calls.

exarch 12y ago

I have a question: How do you feel about working for a company that employs a war criminal on their board of directors, and that lied to the public about its collusion with the NSA over PRISM and other warrantless surveillance programs?

davedx 12y ago

Feedback: I moved my file syncing from Dropbox to Spideroak after you announced Rice was coming on board, and recommend all my friends, family and coworkers do the same. It's a shame because I love the product.

badsock 12y ago
Same here, except I went with BTSync. Really glad I did - it's a nice little product.

taejo 12y ago

I have a question: why does Dropbox hire board members better known for their support for torture than their business acumen?

eric_cc 12y ago

After reading the comments here and learning that you have hired Condoleezza Rice you have lost yourself another paying customer.

deciplex 12y ago

What features have you added to your API to allow various intelligence agencies to more easily snoop on your customer data?