Here's the corrected English text:
Dropbox Folder Monitoring Workflow
As we don't have (yet?) a Dropbox node "Watching new files" or "Watching folder", I created this central workflow to do it.
How it works
- Triggered by Dropbox webhook
- I respond immediately to Dropbox to avoid webhook disabling
- Then I add/duplicate one branch per monitored folder, according to my needs
In my case, I need to monitor several folders, like "vocal notes to process", "transcriptions to LinkedIn posts" or "quotes to add".
This workflow shows 2 types of folder monitoring:
- Way #1: Each file in the monitored folder calls a sub-workflow
- Way #2: We get all files from the monitored folder and compare them to a database. If the file is not listed in DB, i supposed it's new one.
Way #1 - We get all files from the monitored folder
- I set a variable
folder_to_watch
to indicate which folder to monitor. This step is here just to be homogeneous and allow setting the folder path only once in this branch.
- I list the folder files
- We keep only files (exclude folders)
- Then I call the specialized sub-workflow
Way #2 - We want only new files from the monitored folder
- I set a variable
folder_to_watch
to indicate which folder to monitor
- I list the folder files and keep only files
- Meanwhile, I query my DB to get known files about this folder (I send the query to NocoDB
(folder_to_watch,eq,{{ $json.folder_to_watch }})
)
- Now I can exclude old files and keep only new ones by merging (I compare from Dropbox file
id
- as the file could be renamed by the user)
- I add the new file in DB to be sure to recognize it next time - I save the JSON Dropbox data:
{
"id":"{{ $json.id }}",
"name":"{{ $json.name }}",
"lastModifiedClient": "{{ $json.lastModifiedClient }}",
"lastModifiedServer": "{{ $json.lastModifiedServer }}",
"rev": "{{ $json.rev }}",
"contentSize": {{ $json.contentSize }},
"type": "{{ $json.type }}",
"contentHash": "{{ $json.contentHash }}",
"pathLower": "{{ $json.pathLower }}",
"pathDisplay": "{{ $json.pathDisplay }}",
"isDownloadable": {{ $json.isDownloadable }}
}
- And now I can call my sub-workflow :)
My DB
Columns details:
folder_to_watch
data
(json/text)
timestamp
file_id
(Dropbox file ID, to ease future searches)
My vision:
- I have only one workflow in my n8n that monitors Dropbox folders/files
- This workflow calls the required sub-workflow specialized for the tasks required
- I will have as many branches as I have folders to monitor (if I have 5 different folders to watch, I will get 5 branches and 5 sub-workflows)