How Dropbox Smart Sync is implemented? - dropbox

Dropbox Smart Sync is a mode in which Dropbox does not copy files to local machine by default and only store a kind of placeholder with metadata instead. When user accesses the file then Dropbox downloads the file content from internet to make it available locally. This seems like a virtual file system or something similar. Does anybody know which exact technology Dropbox uses for Smart Sync on Mac and other platforms?

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Is it possible to create a shortcut to a file that is in Google Drive?

I have asked this question so that they can respond that it is possible to create a shortcut for a file that is in the cloud, this access will be created in the device memory, what is the purpose of this: My application has integrated a function to upload a file to the cloud and then run it from a system application like player, gallery, among others, but without having to download anything, but from an application that is installed Installed on the device (nothing external). Thank you very much.
You may want to check Create a shortcut to a file. As mentioned,
To create a shortcut instead of a file stored in Drive, use the files.create method of the API and make sure you set the MIME type application/vnd.google-apps.drive-sdk. Do not upload any content when creating the file.
However, for Google Drive Android API, you may want to check Creating Files for more information.

Uploading files to service account in Google Drive

We have a requirement where we should provide capability to upload files up to 100 GB size. Current flow which we have is to put the file from client location/local system to the application server. Then application server pushes the file to a service account in Google Drive server. I would like to know if there is a way to push the file from local system directly to service account in Google Drive. This would help us to not have to store such big files in application server. Please let me know. Also would like to know if we can actually have Drive installed in our local system to point to a service account. This way these big files can be put into the drive location and it will be synced to server in the background.
I would like to know if there is a way to push the file from local system directly to service account in Google Drive
The only way I know is for you to upload them. The Upload Files page in the Drive API documentation details this feature. In your case, you'll have to use uploadType=resumable due to the file size you'll upload.
Also would like to know if we can actually have Drive installed in our local system to point to a service account
Syncing ala-Dropbox might be a bit tricky, I haven't read anything in the Drive documentation that has this feature. Syncing to desktop is usually just a .glink shortcut that will open up a browser.

Can I find any free solution for storing my files online?

I am developing an application which needs to fetch some data from an XML file for the automatic update process and for some other functions. This approach requires the files to be located in a direct link, so it can be hard-programmed to use that specific URL.
I heard that you can use a lot of free-to-use file-sharing services such as Google Drive, Box and Dropbox. Can you tell me if it's true or not? And are there any other services beside those I mentioned?
I don't need a web hosting that supports PHP and other frameworks, I just want to store files and make my application access it when required.
Yes, both Dropbox and Google Drive provide web hosting of your public folders, but there is a 10GB bandwidth limit with Dropbox.
You can use any free web hosting like 110mb or 5gbfree too.
You can try github, bitbucket or mega.co.nz

Does it break "terms of use" to store my app settings in SkyDrive?

My app runs on Android, iOS, WebSite, WindowsPhone, and now Windows 8. I use SkyDrive already. It's where I store the file(s) my app creates.
It would not be technically difficult to also store my app settings in SkyDrive. This would let me have a "unified" settings experience across devices. That's nice.
Is this allowed? I can do it "technically" can I do it "legally"?
It does not. SkyDrive does not preclude you from using the SkyDrive folders for a repository of a settings file (like a XAML file or something). It is not a violation of ToS.
This used to NOT be allowed. But, I have confirmed this change with a/the SkyDrive PM.
Warning! There is no protected area of SkyDrive for apps to store this sort of information. As a result, the user could delete or tamper with settings files at any time. If you decide to use SkyDrive to store these files, also create a mitigation plan if they are missing or damaged.

Restart/shutdown mac remotely from iOS through SSH?

I set up my old laptop as a media server and created a mac application in AppleScript that would remotely restart or shutdown the mac depending on which button was pressed, using this code:
tell application "Finder" of machine "eppc://USERNAME:PASSWORD#MYSERVER"
shut down
end tell
It's super simple, and was easy to write, but now I want to create an iPad app that can accompany the mac one. Ideally, I'd like to use AppleScript as, like I said, it's very simple, but I feel like that's not an option.
What are some other ways to do this? Where I would click a button, then it would connect to my mac and either shutdown or restart.
I feel like the best way would be to use SSH, and right now I'm looking at https://github.com/x2on/libssh2-for-iOS. Any other ideas?
Okay, just to brainstorm.... Dropbox is a great way to share content among machines, but it's also a pretty darn decent communication mechanism.
I use Dropbox to fire up (legal only!) bittorrent downloads on my home machine by setting up my torrent client to watch a dropbox folder for incoming .torrent files. I can then save .torrents into that directory on any machine I have Dropbox on, or in principle from a browser on my iOS devices that could share to Dropbox, and ta-da, instant remote kickoff. I can sit on another machine, save a .torrent to that directory, watch its file extension change to .torrent.imported, and know that when I get back to my main machine, that thing will be downloaded.
You could use folder actions or a cron job to watch a certain Dropbox folder for commands, and then put files into that folder that trigger those scripts to perform certain behaviors. Dropbox has a very nice iOS client library, making it totally possible to store stuff to Dropbox from a custom app.