Dropbox opens Datastore API beta for structured app data
Dropbox has released the Datastore API as a public beta, giving developers a way to store structured, app-generated data with Dropbox's synchronization built in. Datastores are intended for content users create — settings, contacts, and similar records — and Dropbox handles keeping that data consistent across devices and platforms without requiring a custom sync layer.
The API is available now for Android, iOS, and JavaScript. Developers can test it through the Datastore Explorer, a tool that visualizes live data changes to shorten the debugging cycle. SDKs and documentation are available on the Dropbox developer site, and feedback is being collected in the Dropbox developer forums. Note that the Sync and Datastore SDK has since been deprecated.
Offline-first design with automatic merges
Because datastores operate on local data first, apps remain usable without a network connection. When a user comes back online, Dropbox reconciles the local state with the server. The API also understands the schema of the data being stored, which lets it merge concurrent edits automatically. For example, if a user changes a contact's phone number on one device while editing the same contact's email on another, Dropbox can fold both changes together without raising a sync conflict or asking the user to choose between versions.
This release marks a shift in Dropbox's model from file-level storage to a database-style approach, potentially eliminating much of the conflict-handling and change-merge code developers would otherwise write themselves.
