The Embedder is officially released
A few months ago we released the File and Folder Embedder in preview. The Embedder is a pre-built component that allows you to embed content from Dropbox on another surface.
We’re excited to announce that the Embedder is officially launched and no longer in preview. That means it’s here to stay! The Embedder joins Chooser and Saver as a pre-built component, a set of developer tools which offer developers rich Dropbox API functionality with small snippets of code.
Updates and enhancements
A very sincere thank you everybody that left us feedback about the Embedder. Using that feedback from the developer community, we prioritized the engineering work that we thought would have the most impact.
We shipped a variety of bug fixes and added better error states overall that communicate more information to the developer. We also included a cleaner way to remove the Embedder from a page by adding the Dropbox.unmount() method.
Many developers asked for settings to control the Embedder, so we added the ability to configure it by using the options object that is passed into the Dropbox.embed() function. Using options, you can make the following changes:
- Set the zoom mode for embedded files
- Set the default view for embedded folders or change the size of the header
Finally, we cleaned up the overall aesthetics...
Old look:
New look:
Embedder showcase
Since launching the Embedder a few months ago, we’ve seen developers all over the world leverage it to bring incredible value to their customers. We’d like to showcase three of our favorite uses of the Embedder.
1. Atlassian Smart Links
Atlassian recently used the Embedder to create a Dropbox Smart Link (/dropbox), which allows you to easily access Dropbox content from a Jira or Confluence editor. Rich file previews include helpful metadata and actions so you don’t need to jump between apps. Read more about it here!
According to a Full-Stack Engineer at Jira, their experience using the Embedder was positive: “Since we return the metadata representing a link from the server-side, we did introduce a small amount of HTML around the component, but it worked great! We're confident it will help our users interact with their content more meaningfully!”
2. Sheetgo’s File Previewer
Sheetgo is a no-code automation tool that allows users to create custom workflows that automate the collection, management, and sharing of data from spreadsheets. By using the Embedder, Sheetgo allows their users to view spreadsheets that are stored in Dropbox and use them to build custom workflows.
According to a product manager at Sheetgo, "This is a simple and powerful feature that is imperative for smooth user experience in our product."
3. University of Milan’s COVID Document Center
In Italy, a University of Milan research center and online journal called CERIDAP recently created a section of their website devoted to helping the general public find information about the pandemic. They’ve been able to use the Embedder to display and distribute all the official acts adopted in Italy by state and local authorities on the COVID-19 emergency.
The solo developer of the website told us they were extremely satisfied with the Dropbox Embedder: “It was a matter of minutes, literally, to get everything up and running. Our website is based on WordPress, and the system works so well that I simply dropped the HTML snipped provided by the app page on Dropbox.com in a HTML block in the WordPress Gutenberg editor. Then everything worked perfectly.”
Build with the Embedder
Now that the Embedder is officially released, you can enhance your applications by embedding Dropbox content. At the time of writing, the Embedder works with a variety of multi-page documents and images, but we may add support for additional file types in the future. Please refer to the Embedder documentation for up-to-date information on supported files.
Have ideas on how to improve the Embedder? We're always listening. Please share your feedback on this post in our developer forum.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need help building with the Embedder or the Dropbox API! You can use the support request form, post on our developer forum, or @ us on Twitter.
Build with Dropbox today at www.dropbox.com/developers
