Dropbox Direct Link Generator__Workable For Non-Public Folder

As "Google Drive deprecating web hosting support" in Aug 2016, now it's really hard to find free and reliable (as Google) hosting space. This is also a bad news for Blog owners, because blog needs space to host various JS/CSS files.

To help blog owners find a solution for free hosting space, I made this Dropbox direct link generator.

If you registered in Dropbox before Oct 2012, then you can keep the Dropbox "Public" folder, which can host files and generate direct link. If not, then you need this generator to convert Dropbox "share link" into "direct link".

I. Direct Link Generator

The format of Dropbox share link like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqpa8wxve756hta/test.js?dl=0

Just paste your share link then the other two input boxes will generate direct link and download link automatically.

II. How To Get Dropbox Share Link

If you have no idea on where to find the share link, please follow the steps below:

1. Visit Dropbox official website:

• https://www.dropbox.com/home

2. Choose folder → choose file



Click the "Share" button in red rectangle frame




Press the "Copy link" button in red rectangle frame, you'll copy the share link automatically.

Then paste the share link into "direct link generator" in this post.

III. Reminders

1. JS/CSS Links

The main purpose of this generator is to host my JS/CSS files. As the sizes of JS/CSS files are not large, under fair usage policy, it will not exceed Dropbox bandwidth limit.


2. Image Links

Maybe some blog owners would consider to use this generator to make image link, which means to host images in Dropbox. I don't suggest to do so due to some below reasons:

• If you need to deal with many images, this tool can't make batch processing.
• Dropbox url string contains random characters, so it's not suitable for management purpose.
• As sizes of image files are large, if the traffic of your website is heavy, it might exceed Dropbox bandwidth limit.

3. Warning From Dropbox

As you can see, Google Drive disable direct link due to abuse usage. It's recommended to use Dropbox in a proper way, in case Dropbox will follow Google Drive's step. This is the official announcement "Banned links or file requests" from Dropbox:

If we find a violation, all links and sharing will be banned for that account.

Dropbox might shut down our account for improper usage, so be cautious of the way we use for free services.