When it comes to sharing files with Dropbox, you have two options out of the box, either sharing a folder with someone who also uses Dropbox, or sharing through a url link with someone who don’t use Dropbox. But what if someone who don’t use Dropbox want to share files with you? Here comes a pretty cool web application that just lets you do that.
dbinbox is a web application that links your Dropbox account with a unique url to let any non-Dropbox user to upload the files directly into your Dropbox folder. It uses Oath Authentication to gain access to your account so you don’t have to give up your credential to the web service in order to use the app.
To start using the app, you need to generate your own dbinbox url first. Go to the website, type in your desired url name and click “link with your dropbox” button to start, which takes you to Dropbox sign-in page. Sign in with your own crendential, and click Allow to authorize the access to dbinbox.
And now you can share the unique dbinbox link to someone who want to send some files to you. The upload is very easy and simple. You can either drag the files and drop into the web page or pick them through Choose Files button.
You can drop multiple files at once, or upload files as many times as you want. You can even send messages if you want.
Since the API only allows the authorized app to get access to the Apps folder in your Dropbox, all uploaded files will be saved in Apps\dbinbox folder in your Dropbox account.
Theoretically, you can upload each file up to 300MB which is the limitation set on API. But considering the bandwidth cost, the author of dbinbox set the limit at 100MB for each file going through the web service. For those who are looking for larger file upload, since dbinbox is an open source project, you can actually download the source code and have this pretty cool web app hosted on your own server. The app is written in Ruby.