DropBox in-app login

Question

I got DropBox SDK and it linked "correctly".

When I tap my "Link to Dropbox" button, Safari opens, and then I can login and upload/download.

Then I turn off my app completely, restart it, and retry to login to Dropbox. Now, Safari doesn't appear. Of course, it's running in background mode, so I can double-tap the Home button of my iPhone and restart Safari, but I think it's inconvenient and confusing for users.

I found that some apps have in-app Dropbox login functions. I heard that this is possible in the older DropBox SDK version. Is this correct?

Can I login to Dropbox in my own app without using Safari? Is it possible to login with the current Dropbox SDK version?

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Theoretically, if Safari does it, your app can do it to. It's true that the old SDK used to allow you to do in-app linking. I think it's gone now. I'm not sure if their REST service still allows it. I suspect it does, or else legacy apps would be broken.

The linking that uses Safari simply hits their server at a given URL, so in theory, all you'd have to do is download the content of that URL, which contains a security token to POST back to them along with the user's credentials.