New Dropbox for Business Features and APIs Announced

Dropbox on Wednesday announced some new features it would be bringing soon for its Dropbox for Business users, as well as introduced new APIs for developers.

Thefirm announced users part of its early access programme will already be able to access the newly announced features, which should roll-out to all Dropbox for Business users over the next few months.

Dropbox announced new security and control settings, specifically, new view-only permission for shared folders, as well as both password protection and expirations for shared links.

The new view-only permission for shared folders allows uploaders to choose which users can edit and which view the files. Dropbox also introduced password-protection to shared links for extra security. Users can also set a time limit to shared links after which links will expire and become inaccessible.

Dropbox also says it has improved collaboration features in its new Drobox for Business offering. One of them is full-text search, which according to the Dropbox at Work blog post, lets users search for a word within a file in the Dropbox search box and directly access it, without remembering the file name. The firm also details Project Harmony, which enables users to view who else is working on the shared Microsoft Office file.

Notably, the full-text search and Project Harmony features are not currently available via the early access programme.

The company also announced it would be bringing its document previews feature to the Android platform, allowing users to view high-quality versions of an Microsoft Office file while waiting for it to download.

The firm also announced two new APIs for developers. "Finally, today we're making available two new ways for developers to build great apps that extend the functionality of Dropbox, making the customer experience even better," states the blog post.

The Shared Folder API is noted to give developers an access to core functionalities of shared folders, allowing users to get the same sharing experience whether they're in Dropbox or a third-party app.

The Document Preview API enables developers to embed Dropbox's Document Preview feature into their own apps. This would let users view their documents easily without switching between windows.