Why a presentation app went straight to Dropbox

FlowVella, an interactive presentation platform for iPad, iPhone, Mac, and the web, wanted to let users pull media straight from their Dropbox folders. The company’s CEO, Brent Brookler, explains that user demand made Dropbox the obvious first external data source to support: “our customers are Dropbox customers and building the integration was relatively painless.”

FlowVella presentations depart from the traditional linear slide deck: users can embed text, images, PDFs, video, and gallery objects into linkable screens, letting an audience choose their own path through the material. Customers range from small businesses to enterprises in manufacturing, home services, and real estate. Its companion kiosk app, Flow Kiosk, launched in August 2018 for trade shows, retail, and museum exhibits; presentations run offline on iOS and desktop, which suits in-person sales pitches and interactive displays.

Browsing and importing with the Objective-C SDK

The team evaluated Dropbox’s Chooser interface but ultimately passed on it. “We have our own UI for choosing content and wanted to keep users in the same experience when adding content from any external cloud source,” Brookler says. Instead, FlowVella, a native iOS app written in Objective-C, uses the Dropbox Objective-C SDK to build its own content picker.

The implementation relies on four SDK routes:

  • listFolder and listFolderContinue to browse top-level folders and files
  • getThumbnailData to show visual previews in the picker (most media users select is visual)
  • DBFILESMetadata to identify file types (e.g., .jpeg, .mov) and validate compatibility with the target container in FlowVella (image vs. video)
  • downloadData to fetch the selected file, which is then dropped onto the FlowVella canvas
Choosing the source of the content
Thumbnails populated with content from Dropbox

Rapid integration, frequent feature requests

Building the integration took roughly one week, with testing across devices and content types. The experience was smooth enough that adding the same capability to Flow Kiosk in the fall was straightforward. Since the initial launch, Dropbox support has become one of FlowVella’s most popular integrations and remains a core part of user workflows.

Brookler also notes that Dropbox’s documentation and the community of developers around the platform made it easy to find help and examples. FlowVella sees Dropbox as a long-term partnership, and he says the company is “excited to see where we can expand support for our users next.”