Dropbox web hook on file added?

Question

My application currently utilises an integration with the Dropbox API. The purpose of which is to allow clients to put certain documents into a dedicated folder in the Apps/My_App_Name/ directory, my application then periodically polls the folder to see if anything has been added and if a document is found it will automatically move it into the client's document management area within my application.

At the moment there are approx 300 users (and counting) who have their Dropbox accounts synced with me in this way. I believe I am doing something very inefficient here, but essentially my application polls all 300 accounts to see if a file has been added. This happens every 10 minutes but I'm having to widen this interval as more accounts are added to prevent an overlap. Each time I poll all accounts, usually I'd find only 1 or 2 out of those 300 who have new documents.

My question therefore is.. Is there a method within the Dropbox API to post a Web Hook or notification of some sort only when a client adds a file to that Dropbox folder? This could then trigger my application to poll only that account and save a whole load of resources on my side.

Additional Information:

• Platform: ASP.NET C#
• Wrapper: SharpBox

Answer 1

I contacted Dropbox and they have confirm that currently (15th March 2013) they do not have a web-hook or notification system for when users upload files. They did however indicate that this is something they are looking to add in the future.

UPDATE 19th February 2014

Great News! Dropbox recently announced WebHooks:

If you're interested in helping us out, just click through to fill out your information, and we'll be in touch:

https://dropboxapi.wufoo.com/forms/dropbox-webhooks-api-beta-feedback-contact-info

Happy Dropboxing!