Dropbox/OneDrive & Google Assistant
**[Use the _"Applet Creation Helper"_ builder](https://assistantcomputercontrol.com/applet_helper.php) on the ACC website, which will guide you how to make an applet for every available action!**
In this guide, you'll learn how to create your own actions using Dropbox or OneDrive and IFTTT, just like the default IFTTT applets available on the ACC website.
The screenshots shown in the guide shows Dropbox being chosen, but the procedure is exactly the same for OneDrive.
For this example we will be creating a custom applet for the lock
applet. You can pick any action from the Actions ] docs.
1. First step: Go to IFTTT and make a new applet
- If you don't have an IFTTT account yet, create one. If you do have one, log in.
- Go to the "My Applets" tab on the IFTTT website and click on "New Applet".
2. Second step: Create the "this" trigger
About IFTTT: (optional read) IFTTT is short for "If this then that". IFTTT consists of applets, which all have a this
and a that
action. So if this
happens, do that
.
1. Click on the + this
button
2. Search for your assistant; in this guide we'll be using Google Assistant
3. As the action we're making this applet for is a simple one, we'll just go with the **"Say a simple phrase" trigger
4. You will be presented with 5 fields. They are quite self-explanatory, and you can enter anything you'd like. For this example we'll simply make our Google Assistant react to "Lock my computer" When you're done filling the required fields, press "Create trigger"
3. Third step: Create the "that" trigger
1. Press the + that
button
2. Search for "Dropbox" or "OneDrive" and press the square
3. Pick the "Create a text file" block
4. The "File name" can be anything, and is not important. We'll just call it "computerAction".
5. The "Content" field is what's important; this is where we tell ACC what action we want to execute. For this example, we'll enter the value lock
6. (important) The "Dropbox/OneDrive folder path" should be AssistantComputerControl/
unless you have defined another folder in the ACC settings.
When all the fields are filled out, press "Create action"
4. Applet done!
Congratulations! You have now created an ACC applet. If you want to name your applet something specific, replace the default text in the big textbox, otherwise, just press the "Finish" button!
If the "Receive notifications when this Applet runs" is on and you have the IFTTT app on your phone, you will get a push-notification every time this applet runs. You will probably want to turn this off.
5. Testing our applet
Now all there's left to do is to try and execute our newly created applet. Simply say whatever you chose as a trigger while configuring the Google Assistant to your assistant, and it should execute.
In this tutorial we can either say "Lock my computer", "Lock my PC" or "PC lock". Whenever one of these phrases is said, a file called computerAction.txt
which contains the text "lock". When ACC is open, this will lock your computer!
Troubleshooting
Does your applet not work? Here's a list of things you can go through to fix it;
1. Make sure Dropbox/OneDrive is installed and running on your computer: Dropbox/OneDrive should be running at all times along with the AssistantComputerControl software.
2. Check your IFTTT activity log and see if your applet even runs - if not, try going through the steps in this guide again.
3. Make sure Dropbox/OneDrive is not syncing a lot of files. If your Dropbox/OneDrive is downloading either some big files or a lot of files, it could take long enough that ACC will "give up" on the command when it finally arrives; an action can only be <30 seconds old (meaning created less than 30 seconds ago) for ACC to execute it (fail-safe to prevent old actions from appearing randomly and e.g. shut down your computer).
If your applet still doesn't work, come join our Discord server and ask for help there.
Updated over 4 years ago