Uploading Image To Dropbox Using Paperclip-dropbox

In this tip I am going to explain how to upload image to a dropbox account. For uploading image to dropbox we have a Ruby gem “paperclip-dropbox”.

But before uploading image we have to create a dropbox application at https://www.dropbox.com/developers/apps

You have to fill up a form to create an application , below is a sample data for the form

App Type : Core API
App Name: ImageUploader Description:  
Sample  application for image uploading
Access:  Full Dropbox

After submitting the form you will get  App Key and App secret.

Now add the  paperclip-dropbox gem to gemfile and bundle it.

After bundling  authorize your app with any dropbox account to get  user_id , access_token , and access_token_secret.

Now run the command

rake dropbox:authorize APP_KEY=your_app_key APP_SECRET=your_app_secret ACCESS_TYPE=your_access_type

It will  generate  an  URL for authorization  that you must visit to grant the app access.
After granting the access press enter in console and it will display the your account details(user_id, access_token and access_token_secret) .  Then create a dropbox_config.yml file inside config folder of the rails app and  add the  following details.

app_key:  YOUR_APP_KEY
app_secret: YOUR_APP_SECRET
access_token: YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN
access_token_secret:  YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET
user_id:  YOUR_USER_ID

Now add the code to your image uploader model , in my case my model  name is Image.

Code

class Image < ActiveRecord::Base
  attr_accessible :picture, :verified, :category, :tags, :user_id  
#added for paperclip-drop gem   
has_attached_file :picture,
 :storage => :dropbox,
:dropbox_credentials => "#{Rails.root}/config/dropbox_c
onfig.yml",
 :styles => { :medium => "300x300" , :thumb => "100x100>"},    
:dropbox_options => {       
:path => proc { |style| "#{style}/#{id}_#{picture.original_filename}"},       :unique_filename => true   
  }
 

validates :picture, :attachment_presence => true
validates :tags, :presence =>true     v
validates :category, :presence => true    
belongs_to :user
end

 Create a form for image uploading.

 {
:class => 'form-horizontal' } do |f| %>
  
     
   'control-label' %>   
       
  
    
        
             
      
            Select image     
        Change        
                   'file_field' %>         
  Remove
    
      
    
    
    
 'control-label' %>     
    
    'check_box' %>     

    
     
 'control-label' %>   
  
 'select_field' %>     

  
       
 'control-label' %>     
       
 'text_field' %>    
      
     'btn btn-primary' %>
     t("helpers.links.cancel")),                 images_path, :class => 'btn' %>   

Now save the image in controller and code for it is below

    @image = Image.new(params[:image])
    respond_to do |format|      
if @image.save         
format.html { redirect_to @image, notice: 'Image was successfully created.' }
       else      
   format.html { render action: "new" }  
     end    
end