Link breaks on file update. How to avoid?

[Christian D.]

Sharing links to files that may be updated is an important functionality. There are several discussions on the subject (at least this one and this one). Unfortunately, the problem persists (and these discussions appear closed). 

Simple example. I create file a file public/report.pdf and share a dropbox link to it. In another folder, I continue working the "report" (e.g. private/report.pdf). When my private version reaches a new stable point when I am ready to update my readers, I go to the terminal and

% cp  private/report.pdf public/report.pdf

Unfortunately, this breaks the link although any normal user would expect it not to. Of course, I could go online and upload private/report.pdf in the public/ folder and the link would be preserved, but that's just painful.

My www.dropbox.com/events page shows that the file was deleted and added. Now you may blame the OS, but the truth is, dropbox should strive to work with the quirks of a not-so marginal OS like, say, macOS. It seems like an easy fix would be to preserve a cache of (path-to-file, link) mappings and, if a new file with the exact same path and name is created before a given mapping is cleared from the cache, assign it the existing link from the cache. 

That would solve it for at least me and the people in the discussions above. And frankly, I don't think you could find a user that'd be negatively surprised that deleting a file and recreating one with the exact same path and name did not break a shared link.

[Megan]

Hi @Christian D., how are you today?

Your comments on shared links have been quite helpful, and I will do everything I can to ensure that your voice is heard.

Before I do, allow me to ask: you mentioned that you keep working on the private report, after sharing the file. From the example you mentioned, it sounds like you have two files: one in a folder public/report.pdf and one private/report.pdf. Is that the case or you're talking about the same file?

It's also interesting, that you use the terminal app, can you let me know more about that?

If not, feel free to help me understand a bit more here. 

Let me know more!

[Christian D.]

Hi Megan, 

I am a tad puzzled by your reply. My post is clear. Yes there are two files, and any computer scientists knows what a terminal is. 

Dropbox uses versioning I imagine? svn? git? Well, think of my example as a low-tech version of this. I have two copies of the same file, one that is in a state acceptable for public reading (in the "public" folder), one with internal comments (in the "private" folder), evolving towards the next public-ready and copied to the "public" folder when it is.

I use the terminal because I am an old school computer scientist who thinks it's quite long to click all over the place to copy-paste files. Unix and Windows have similar applications, if I can even call them that.

[Jay]

Hi @Christian D., in general, it depends on how the OS performs the copy/paste function. If a file is dragged into the location in Explorer/Finder, it should technically overwrite the file and retain the shared link. However, this might not be case, as you've discovered when using the command line.

The best way to ensure that the shared link isn't deleted would be to upload the file to the site in the same location, which would update the file online.

[Christian D.]

Hi Jay,

Thanks for your input. It's consistent with what I read on the other threads. I still believe it's unduly more complicated than if dropbox did work around these quirks. Of course, existing users might have adapted, and maybe dropbox developers perceive the fix to cost more than the potential benefits.

But the use case I was considering here would have allowed convincing some departments to use dropbox links rather than the cumbersome platform we have now. But if we have to go online and double check the links all the time, then dropbox links are not useful in that specific instance.

[Christian D.]

Any update on this? When, on a website, I create a link <a href="./some_file.pdf">The PDF</a>, the link points to "some_file.pdf", regardless how I update it on the server. Now, I'd like href to point to "some_file.pdf" somewhere on my dropbox, regardless of how I update the said file. Seems reasonable, no?

[Rich]

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@Christian D. wrote:

Now, I'd like href to point to "some_file.pdf" somewhere on my dropbox, regardless of how I update the said file. Seems reasonable, no?

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No, it depends on how the file is updated. If, during the update, the file is first deleted and then replaced with a new file, the link will be deleted along with the original file. In order to retain the link, the file needs to be replaced without first being deleted.

[Jay]

As of yet, there are no updates on the changes to the shared links. Updating files directly on the site results in no loss of shared link. 

Opening a file on the machine, which has a shared link already, then editing and saving should retain the link. However, certain apps might save files a different way, again, deleting the original file and recreate it, thus deleting the shared link.