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Useful Dropbox Tips for Designers and Bloggers, by S.Pradeep Kumar in Blogging, Dropbox
Dropbox is one of the most useful tools I found this year. Another one is Google Reader. Seriously I didn’t know it can do wonders. Every time I Google something I come up some Dropbox news, so here is my contribution.
For people who are not aware Dropbox, it is a Web-based file hosting service that uses cloud computing to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization.
#1 – Use As Content Delivery Network (CDN) : You can improve the loading speed of your site by using a CDN to host your website’s static content like images, CSS and JS Files.
A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a system of computers containing copies of data, placed at various points in a network so as to maximize bandwidth for access to the data from clients throughout the network. [via Wikipedia]
With the help of Dropbox CDN WordPress plugin you can use your Dropbox ‘Public’ folder as a free Content Delivery Network (CDN). This plugin allows you to upload your themes CSS, JavaScript, and Images into your Dropbox ‘Public’ folder and server these files from the Dropbox network, reducing the bandwidth of your server and allowing users to load your site faster.Tutorial : Use Dropbox as a CDN for your WordPress Files
#2 – Backup Your WordPress Blog : WordPress Backups is one of the recommended basic security tips for your blog.
wp Time Machine WordPress plugin creates an archive of all your WordPress Data & Files and then stores them on Dropbox, Amazon’s S3, or your FTP host. It can perform an automatic backup of your WordPress MySQL database, themes, plug-ins and all the other files and images that you may upload to your WordPress folder. Just enter your Dropbox credentials and hit the Generate Archive button. Bingo!Tutorial : Backup your WordPress Blog to Dropbox
#3 – Use With Your Web Domain : Every Dropbox account comes with a useful ‘Public’ folder. You can use that folder to host documents, images, and other stuffs that you want to share with everyone. By personalizing the default Dropbox URL you can indirectly promote your brand, track individual file downloads, and make it look less complex.
Default Dropbox URL :Tutorial : Use Dropbox with your own Web Domain
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/ID/folder/hbbdemo.txt
Personalized URL :
http://files.hellboundbloggers.com/folder/hbbdemo.txt
#4 – Make Your Own Website : Dropbox is an easy way to create a quick website without the need for a server. You can easily get a hosting provider for your blog/website. You are limited to client side scripts and HTML since Dropbox cannot run any server side stuff.
Tutorial : Make Your Own Website
- Create a folder in your Public folder for your website.
- Put your entire website under this folder.
- Right click on the homepage of your website (usually something like home.htm or index.html) and get the public URL for it.
#5 – Control Your Home Web Server : You can simply add a vHost to your web server and point it to a folder inside your Dropbox home and voila! You have complete control over the content you’re hosting!
The basic idea behind this is to use vHosts to have the website contents in the Dropbox folder. The post explains how to do this for Tomcat or Apache. It’s also useful with IIS and Visual Studio. Simply add a symlink of your wwwroot to “My Dropbox” and you have your website on the net to control. When making web application in Visual Studio, simple ‘Public’ the project to the folder inside the wwwroot inside “My Dropbox” and your website is update, no matter where you are working at.Tutorial : Controlling Your Home Web Server Content
#6 – Automatic & Free Web Publishing Solution : Ever wondered that you can use the very same Dropbox as an automatic Web Publishing Solution (as an alternative to SVN and other technologies). It only takes three steps in order to get your Dropbox running as a Web Publishing solution. However, you won’t be able to do so if you don’t have full access to the server.
Tutorial : Using Dropbox as an automatic and free Web Publishing solution
- Installing Dropbox on the server
- Sharing data between multiple Dropbox accounts
- Configuring the webserver
- Running Dropbox as a service
#7 – Create Your Personal Wiki : With TiddlyWiki and Dropbox you can set up your own wiki that is easy to use and available from anything with a web browser.
TiddlyWiki is extremely flexible and can accommodate many needs with some of the variations available. Before you pay for another note taking program, or if you are unhappy with the one you currently have, download TiddlyWiki for free and see how it can suit your needs.Tutorial : Build Your Own Personal Wiki Accessible from Any PC
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