Note: The Datastore API has been retired. Learn more.

Lists

This app demonstrates the Dropbox Datastore API, in particular the use of datastore sharing to support collaboration. You can try the app at dslists.site44.com.

Read more about Lists on the Dropbox Developers Blog.

Understanding the data model

The Lists app lets you create multiple lists, add items to those lists, and share those lists with other users.

• Each list is a datastore.
• Each datastore contains an "items" table.
• Each record in the "items" table has the following fields:
  • "text": The text of the item.
  • "date": When the item was created (used for sorting).

URLs in this app

This app uses the URL fragment (the part of the URL after the # symbol) to track which list (datastore) is being viewed. Specifically, the URL fragment is always the ID of the selected datastore. Clicking on a list changes the URL, which in turns triggers a URL change, which the app reacts to by displaying the specified list.

Sharing a datastore

When sharing a datastore, the user needs to set the role for one or more principal. For example, the user might set the "public" role to "viewer" to allow viewing but not editing of the list. To learn more about the datastore sharing model, see the Datastore API HTTP documentation.

Once a role has been set to allow other users to view or edit a datastore, the datastore may be shared via the URL displayed in the sharing dialog (dslists.site44.com#<datastore ID>). When another user opens that URL, the appropriate list will be displayed.

If the URL is opened on an iOS device, the user will be prompted to open the datastore in the iOS app. The iOS app uses a custom URL scheme (Lists://<datastore ID>) to open the app to the correct list.

All versions

• JavaScript
• iOS
• [Android] (https://github.com/dropbox/lists-android)