After spending most of a year working in Node.js on Heroku, I decided to try with a standalone Linux server on Linode. The next server-snack needs the ability to map a root domain to the server, something like noderunner.org. CNAMEs aren't enough for this application. So I couldn't do the work on Heroku.

This is the first time I've worked in Node.js where the filesystem API worked. Heroku servers don't have a filesystem. You have to do your storage somewhere else, like Amazon S3. Which works great, but isn't quite as convenient or well-supported by software as the filesystem.

Then it dawned on me that Heroku and Dropbox would make an excellent combination. Not in the usual way, through the Dropbox API. Why not hook Dropbox up to the fs.* verbs? After all, Dropbox is a filesystem. Why shouldn't it be the filesystem that Heroku never had?

Of course the usual caveats apply. It may already exist. Or it might not be possible for some reason I don't understand. Just thought I should share the idea. It would be a really interesting way to work with server apps.

PS: By Dropbox, I mean any service that shares files, like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Box, etc. And by Heroku, I mean any service that runs Node.js apps in the cloud.

PPS: There are so many pairs of cloud services that would be so much better if they were integrated. Another example: storage (like S3) plus content management, would allow you to store the source for a page in the same structure as the rendered version of the page.