Web-based Dropbox and Google Docs integration

Question

At my workplace people heavily use web apps for productivity, Dropbox is used as a backup solution, and Google Docs (custom Google Apps domain) is used for ocassional documents that need to be edited by many at once.

Most of the files consist of MS Office and OpenOffice files, so I was wondering if Dropbox and GDocs could be sync'ed so every *office file could be edited with any suite.

There are some desktop-based solutions for Windows (syncplicity.com) and OSX (insynchq.com), but I was wondering if there was a web-based solution that automatically handle this. I am considering developing it by myself, but it's rather complicated. Any ideas?

Answer 1

You can try cloudHQ for Dropbox: http://cloudHQ.net/dropbox This service synchronizes Dropbox with Google Docs. Also there is a Google Chrome extension which enables you to manage (copy, move, etc.) and even edit Dropbox files directly from a Google Docs interface: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/iobcbdgacfkninlcbphihhdlkobkehia

Answer 2

If the files are MS Office, then the new docs.com site should work - it's like Google Docs, but using MS applications online. If you're using Office Live then you can also save / open direct from the 'cloud'.

Answer 3

I think you would have to setup a custom solution for this, involving a script that periodically pulls the latest version from gdocs and puts it in your dropbox folder and vice versa. I think, however, that you would have a problem going both direction due to perpetually differences in code formatting. You would really want to set this up one way or the other, probably so that dropbox is strictly a backup/archive solution and the documents are edited in google docs.

Answer 4

Apparently, Google is releasing a similar service as a desktop app: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/11/bridge-to-cloud-google-cloud-connect.html

Answer 5

A service called Cloudseed has emerged to solve this issue, currently in closed beta: http://cloudseed.me/

Answer 6

Are you using a Mac?

By far the simplest way is to install both Dropbox and Google Drive clients on your laptop and create a symlink from Dropbox to your Google Drive folder. Essentially, your GDrive becomes just another "folder" inside Dropbox, which stays in sync whenever you create/edit/delete any Google Drive doc.