Use dropbox to sync to OSX apache sites folder

I’ve been using dropbox allot recently and love it. Just a quick tip on how to sync a folder to your sites directory in OSX (this is tested in snow Leopard).

Create a symbolic link from dropbox to your Sites folder

Open terminal and type:

ln -s /Users/youruser/Dropbox/nameoffolder /User/youruser/Sites
(did you know you can drag a folder from the finder to terminal to save typing the path)

Edit your username.config file with

<Directory "/Users/youruser/Sites/">
Options Indexes MultiViews +FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

For instuctions on how to do this please see my earlier post

Lastly you will need to change the permission of the main dropbox folder

terminal:

chmod 755 /User/youruser/Dropbox

You should now be good to go. If you either dont see the linked folder in your sites index or keep getting 403 errors check the permissions on the linked folder and if needed change the permissions as above.

I got some of my info from apache-isnt-chmod-755-enough-to-set-up-symlink-or-alias-on-apache-httpd-on-mac it might help if you need a bit more info on permissions