Ready to visualize and track your Dropbox data? Get started by setting up a connection between PowerMetrics and your Dropbox account and adding one (or more) data feeds.

When you're finished adding Dropbox data feeds, you'll use them to power your custom metrics.

This article includes:

• Creating a Dropbox data feed.
• Next steps - Creating Dropbox custom metrics.

Creating a Dropbox data feed

When you create a Dropbox data feed, you:

• Connect PowerMetrics to your Dropbox account.
• Choose data for the data feed.

Connecting PowerMetrics to your Dropbox account

The first step in creating a Dropbox data feed is to connect PowerMetrics to your account.

Here are a couple things to note:

Your data is safe with us. The first time you connect your Dropbox account to PowerMetrics, you'll be prompted to enter your Dropbox login credentials and give permission to allow access to the data within your Box account. We are serious about protecting your data privacy.

Managing your connections. By default, your connection name looks like this: yourname@Dropbox<date and time created>. You can modify the default connection name when you create a new connection or from your list of connections, accessed by clicking the button in the left navigation sidebar and selecting Connections. Each time you connect to Dropbox, you can use the same account (or switch to a different account if needed). If you have trouble accessing an existing connection, your OAuth token may have expired. If that happens to you, go here for help.

To connect PowerMetrics to your Dropbox account:

1. In the left navigation sidebar, click the + button beside Data Feeds.
   
2. Click Select data.
3. On the Where is your data? page, select Dropbox. (See below.)
   
4. If this is your first time connecting to Dropbox:
   • Click Connect an account. Enter your Dropbox login credentials and click Sign in. Optionally, modify the default connection name and click Apply. Click Continue.
5. If you've connected to Dropbox before:
   • Select an existing connection from the drop-down list and click Continue.

Next step - Choosing data for the data feed.

Choosing data for the data feed

To choose data for the data feed:

1. On the Configure data service page, select the desired file.
2. Click Submit.
   
3. Ensure this is the data you're looking for and, then, click Continue.
   Note: If you're uploading a multi-sheet file, use the Sheet selector to choose the sheet to show by default when you enter the data feed editor. (See below.) You can also switch between sheets in the editor by double-clicking a column header in the data feed table. This opens the raw data, where, under Sheet, you can choose the sheet you want to work with from the drop-down list.
   
4. You're taken to the data feed editor, where you can either save the data as-is or modify it.
   If you want to modify the data feed, go to this article for detailed editing information.
5. Click Save data feed.

The data feed is added to your account and is ready to use for custom metrics. To see a list of all your data feeds, click Data Feeds in the left navigation sidebar.

Next steps - Creating Dropbox custom metrics

Now that you've created one or more Dropbox data feeds, you can return to them and use them to make custom metrics. A single data feed can be used to create a single or multiple custom metrics.

To create custom metrics using a data feed:

1. In the left navigation sidebar, click Data Feeds to open your list of data feeds.
2. Select the data feed you want to use for your custom metric.
3. Click either the +Add metric button in the top right corner of the window or open the Metrics tab and click +Add metric. (See below.)
   
4. Choose settings for your custom metric and click Save metric. If you need help, go here to learn more.

The metric opens in its homepage and is added to your list of metrics (accessed by clicking Metrics in the left navigation sidebar).

Now you're ready to start interacting with and learning from your metric data!

Learn more

• Introduction to data feeds
• Editing data feeds
• Creating custom metrics (with data feeds)
• PowerMetrics: Preparing spreadsheets for data feeds