A Single-Click Save Button for Web Apps
With media consumption spread across phones, tablets, and computers, keeping downloaded files in one place has become a genuine hassle. Dropbox's answer is the Saver, a new Drop-in that lets users push files from your application straight into their Dropbox with one click. The Saver is available now for web apps, with native iOS and Android versions slated to follow.
Why Developers Should Care
Three practical benefits make the Saver worth considering for any app that deals in user-facing file downloads:
- Straightforward integration. Like the Chooser before it, the Saver drops into an existing codebase with only a few lines of code.
- Immediate multi-device availability. Once a user saves a photo, video, e-book, or other file, it syncs instantly to every device where that user's Dropbox is installed.
- Resilient downloads. Dropbox fetches the file directly from your servers, which sidesteps the slow or dropped transfers that plague mobile connections. If the user loses connectivity mid-save, the operation picks back up automatically. Dropbox can also cache content, so repeated saves of the same file don't hammer your infrastructure with redundant requests.
One early adopter is Shutterstock, the stock media marketplace. Its new "Save to Dropbox" option routes purchased images and videos straight into a user's account.
"Integrating with Dropbox provides an easy, frictionless way for Shutterstock users to save large images and videos at a moment's notice." — Wyatt Jenkins, VP of Product, Shutterstock
Additional integrations in the works include PicMonkey, WooThemes, Outbox, Readlists, FetchApp, Loudr, and Chec.
Integration details live in the developer documentation, and feedback is welcome on the Dropbox forums.
