Threading and DropBox
 

I'm developing an application that might use DropBox as it's storage.

My question is, you can link folders between accounts, so that more than 1 person could upload/download to the same folder.

Do I have to worry about threading? If two people were to copy a file to the desktop from Dropbox at the same time, does Dropbox handle it, or does my application have to handle it?

Example:

Bob and Sarah share a folder using Dropbox. He uploads his Photoshop creations so Sarah can download them and use them in her presentation. If Bob started copying a file from the shared folder, which Sarah is also copying, will I run into a problem? What happens if Bob updates a file that Sarah is in the middle of copying? Do I have to worry about this? Does Dropbox handle it?

I refuse to use remote storage except for a few POP emails but I am inclined to the view that several people copying a file at the same time will virtually never be an issue with any software.

It will be more risky if a file is being modified at the same time it is being downloaded but most mature software will cope with this.

Send an email to DropBox support and post their reply here.

You'd have to ask the folks at DropBox how they handle file-locking on their end: do they allow Bob to update a file, if Sarah is also copying it? Or, do they (say...) implement a "versioning" system, in which case the new file that Bob is uploading is "version n+1 of this file," distinct from the "version n" that Sarah is copying (and may continue to copy, without interference).

I am not sufficiently familiar with the DropBox service (in this edge-case ...) to provide an answer, but I am sure that DropBox can, if it is not already a FAQ.