Daily

Save a converted data feed to Dropbox nightly

A file from a URL is downloaded, converted or zipped, saved to Dropbox and sent to you as a share link.

Runs: Daily
Apps: Dropbox
AI: Not needed
Access: files.content.write, sharing.write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every night at 2am, download the XML product feed from https://example.com/feed.xml, convert it to JSON, upload it to /Feeds in Dropbox with today's date in the name, and email me the share link.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Some data lives behind a URL and has to be collected regularly: a daily export from a reporting tool, a supplier's price list, an open-data file that updates overnight, a set of images from a public endpoint. Someone downloads it, converts it to the format the team uses, zips a few files together, uploads it to Dropbox and sends a link to whoever needs it. Each step is trivial, but together they take twenty minutes and are forgotten the day the owner is on holiday.

Each day the automation fetches the source, converts or zips it as needed, uploads the result to Dropbox, creates a shared link and emails that link to you or your recipients. The latest version of the file is always where people expect to find it.

Analysts, operations teams and agencies that deliver recurring files to clients will see the most value.

What you get out of it

Fresh data in the same place every day
Colleagues know where the newest file lives and do not have to ask whether it has been refreshed. A stale price list or a missing export is a common source of wrong decisions, and a predictable location removes that doubt.
The conversion step is never skipped
If the source arrives as JSON but your team works in CSV, the conversion happens every time, in the same way. People are not tempted to work from the unconverted file or to convert it differently, which keeps reports consistent.
Recipients get a link, not a heavy attachment
A shared link in the email avoids mail size limits and keeps everyone pointed at one copy. If the file is replaced the next day, the link still leads to the current version instead of an outdated attachment.
Hands-off delivery to clients
An agency that promises a daily file can deliver it without anyone remembering to do so. Reliability like that is what clients notice, and it is a small differentiator that costs nothing in staff time.
A clean archive of past versions
Dropbox keeps its own version history, so a file that was overwritten can be recovered. That makes it easy to compare today's data with last week's when a number looks wrong.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every night (or when you send a request to the automation's private link), ClickRuntime downloads your data feed.
It converts the data into the format you need, or zips it.
The file is saved to your Dropbox folder with the date in its name.
You get an email with the file's location, the number of items and a shareable link.

Before it runs live

Connect Dropbox

What you get

RunsDaily

Save a converted data feed to Dropbox nightlytoday, 9:00Succeeded

Email · Product feed: 1,284 items/Feeds/products-2026-10-19.json https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/abc123/products-2026-10-19.json

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Dropbox steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

fetch_convert_and_upload_files_to_dropbox.pyexample

import json
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
from datetime import date
from clickruntime import on_trigger, notify, http, credentials

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    root = ET.fromstring(http.get("https://example.com/feed.xml").content)
    products = [{child.tag: child.text for child in item} for item in root]
    token = credentials.connection("dropbox", "main")
    path = f"/Feeds/products-{date.today().isoformat()}.json"
    http.post("https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/upload", headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {token}", "Content-Type": "application/octet-stream",
        "Dropbox-API-Arg": json.dumps({"path": path, "mode": "overwrite"}),
    }, data=json.dumps(products, indent=2).encode()).raise_for_status()
    link = http.post("https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/sharing/create_shared_link_with_settings",
                     headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"}, json={"path": path}).json()["url"]
    notify.email_me(f"Product feed: {len(products)} items", f"{path}\n{link}")
    return {"products": len(products)}

FAQ

Common questions

What kinds of conversion are possible?

Common conversions include JSON to CSV, merging several files into a zip archive, or reshaping columns before saving. Describe the input and the format you need, and your AI assistant sets it up for approval before it runs.

Can the link expire or be password protected?

Dropbox shared links can be given an expiry date and a password on plans that support those settings. If your plan allows it, say so when you set it up, so the link sent by email is not open forever.

What if the source is down on a given day?

If the fetch fails, nothing new is uploaded and the previous file stays in place. The run log in the ClickRuntime dashboard records the failure, so you can see that the day's file was not refreshed and follow up.

What permissions does it need?

files.content.write, sharing.write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it runs (daily). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

On a schedule