Technology in Education

I was looking for an easy way to have students and teachers put files in my dropbox account. Of course, there's http://DropItTo.me which allows senders to upload files through a web interface but on an iPad, that's limited to images and videos in your camera roll.

If only there was a way to email files to my dropbox directly. Well, there's https://sendtodropbox.com and that's exactly what it's for. The problem... the less than desirable email address you're given, like felix_9048rq@sendtodropbox.com. So I got to thinking.

Did you know that if you have a google mail address (gmail or your own domain), there's a neat trick that allows you to have more email address aliases without setting anything up? All you need to do is add a + and anything after it. For example: anything sent to felix+hello@jacomino.com will arrive at felix@jacomino.com. 

What I did next is, in my gmail settings, I added a forwarding email address and used the sendtodropbox address felix_9048rq@sendtodropbox.com. But wait, I need to verify that I own that account! Will that be a problem? Not without one little setting change. In SendToDropbox.com options, be sure to check BOTH "Include HTML email body (if available)" AND "Include plain text email body (if available)."

After doing so, send the verification email from your gmail > settings > forwarding and check your dropbox for the email body which will contain the verification code. 

Once verified, create a gmail filter. Mine was simple. Any email sent to felix+db@jacomino.com, forward to felix_9048rq@sendtodropbox.com. I also selected to skip the inbox and add a label, but that was my personal preference. Feel free to customize as you see fit.

I tested by sending a small file from another email address to felix+db@jacomino.com and voilà, it worked! The file is uploaded to Dropbox > Apps >Attachments folder.

I hope this helps and happy dropping!