Flytext -- an online Dropbox text editor

[Steve Seear]

I while back I built flytext.in, a very simple online text editor for Dropbox. It lets you edit any plaintext file in your Dropbox account using a web browser. For example, It is useful for making quick edits to notes from devices not connected to your Dropbox account.

[Dave Winer]

Interesting product. I like its simplicity, and it's smart to let the user edit some text before having to authorize the app for Dropbox.

I'm wondering why you ask for access to the whole Dropbox, instead of just a subfolder of the Apps folder?

Also, to be clear, I make a somewhat competitive product, http://fargo.io/. We ask for authorization first, but only ask for access to a new subfolder of Apps.

Dave

[Steve Seear]

Yes, good question on the folder access. Simple answer -- I built it originally for myself, and my existing notes in Dropbox were scattered all around, so of course the app needed to have access to the whole Dropbox. I barely gave it any thought.

Later on, however, I did think, "Oh, maybe that was a mistake, who is going to trust this little app to access their whole Dropbox?" A couple of points on this: One, it is a question of trust. For instance, I wouldn't hesitate to give Fargo access to everything, because of the years and years of reputation that precedes it. And two, whenever I try a new Dropbox app and it creates its own folder to store stuff in, I'm always a little disappointed, because it means these apps really can't communicate with each other using Dropbox itself. 

Steve

[James Burgos]

What exactly does it mean to have access to my entire dropbox?

[Steve Seear]

Apps using the Dropbox Core API have a choice of running with one of two permission levels. "App Folder" permission gives the application read and write access only to a dedicated folder in the user's Dropbox with the same name as the app. "Full Dropbox" permission gives the application read and write access to files anywhere in the user's Dropbox.

The permission level is chosen during development of the application and cannot be changed once the app has been approved by the Dropbox team.

[James Burgos]

That's kind of scary. why would anyone want to grant a third party app access to all their files. Trust or no trust, it just seems like a bad idea. please correct me if i'm wrong.

[Rob Fahrni]

James, I could be mistaken, but I believe it started out as full access and they've only recently added support for the Apps folder.

There is a good reason to allow it. Say I'd like access to Fargo's app data. If my app has access to the entire Dropbox tree I can get access, make modifications, and update the outline. Otherwise I'm locked out as a developer.

As the user you have the choice to keep me out. :-)

[Dave Winer]

Good points, all.

And if you want an editor that can be used to edit any text file in your dropbox then it must get access to everything in order to work.

It's a preference, and a design choice. A valid one.

Dave

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