Dropbox feature request

We have a lot of customers using Dropbox with Curio. Why? It's a great way to keep Curio project files in sync between home and work. Just store the project files in your Dropbox folder and all your machines have instant access to the latest version.

(Big requirement: make sure you close the project before opening it on another machine so all changes are flushed to disk.)

Dropbox also supports public folders for their registered users which is getting a lot of recent attention, particularly in the Zengobi forums. With a public folder in your Dropbox you can easily share a Curio project with lots of people. This is a great way to distribute information to your team, family, or colleagues.

One idea which is percolating is a method for marking a Dropbox file as "checked out". In other words, mark the project file as locked so you can make changes to it. Then check it in, or unlock it, so other users with access to that file can check it out and make changes, too.

This isn't simultaneous access -- since Curio doesn't support smart merging (yet) -- but it would be a great way for multiple users to share a Curio project as long as they abide by this one-at-a-time access control.

Turns out, this is not a unique request. Dropbox has a wonderful Votebox section on their website for registered users of Dropbox. You can vote for your favorite feature requests and their development team has a better idea of what they should work on next.

They have several very related feature requests currently in the Votebox queue:

• Stating if a file is open and locked in another computer
• Add the ability to lock a shared file so that others cannot edit it at the same time I edit it
• Check-in Check-out

Turns out lots of Dropbox customers would love this kind of functionality for all sorts of files.

If any Curio customers out there would like to vote on these issues we would certainly encourage you to make your voice heard by voting on their website. The Curio army can make their voices heard! :-)

I'm not trying to shirk Zengobi's responsibility here. Of course, long term Curio needs to support a smart merging capability. That way it can notice that an already opened Curio project file has been changed by someone else and can dynamically sync in the changes. We definitely want to implement this kind of functionality in a future release of Curio.

Personally I'd love a Dropbox API so we can integrate with Dropbox the same way we're integrating with Evernote. I've already cast my vote for that! :-)