Introducing Command Line Integration in Dropzone 4

We’ve added a new way to interact with Dropzone 4 — a command line tool called dz.

dz lets you run Dropzone actions and manage Drop Bar from the terminal, making it ideal for scripting and advanced workflows.

Getting Started

First you’ll want to update to the latest version of Dropzone 4. Command line integration is available in Dropzone 4.80.49 and later. It is currently only available in the non-Mac App Store and Setapp versions of Dropzone 4. For the non-Mac App Store version you can check you’re running the latest version in the Settings > Updates tab. For the Setapp version you can update via the main Setapp app.

Once Dropzone is up to date, install the command line helper tool via the Dropzone Settings > Command Line tab as shown below:

Once installed just open a Terminal and type:

dz

You’ll see a list of commands for interacting with Dropzone:

Command line interface for Dropzone

USAGE:

Actions:
  dz list                                   List your Dropzone actions
  dz run NAME EVENT [FILES...]              Run a Dropzone action with optional files
                                            EVENT must be either "dragged" or "clicked"

Drop Bar:
  dz list-items [--json]                    List all items currently in Drop Bar
  dz add [FILES...]                         Add files to Drop Bar
  dz rename INDEX [NEW_NAME | --reset]      Rename or reset name of a Drop Bar stack by index (starts at 0)
  dz remove INDEX                           Remove a Drop Bar stack by its index (starts at 0)
  dz lock INDEX                             Lock a Drop Bar stack by its index (starts at 0)
  dz unlock INDEX                           Unlock a Drop Bar stack by its index (starts at 0)
  dz clear                                  Clear all items currently in Drop Bar

UI:
  dz open                                   Open the Dropzone grid
  dz close                                  Close the Dropzone grid

  dz help                                   Show this help message

dz list: List your Dropzone grid actions

This command lists all the actions you have setup in your Dropzone grid. All actions and folders/apps can be used via the CLI.

dz list

Example Output:

Available Dropzone Actions:
---------------------------
AirDrop
ImgBB
Install App
Move to Downloads

dz run: Trigger Actions from Terminal

Example: Upload an image to ImgBB:

dz run "ImgBB" dragged ~/Desktop/test.png

Note: “dragged” simulates dropping a file on the action. You can also use “clicked” to simulate a click without files.

Another example, to install a .dmg using your “Install App” action:

dz run "Install App" dragged ~/Downloads/MyApp.dmg

dz add: Add Files to Drop Bar

You can add files to the Drop Bar from Terminal — great for placing the output from a script in a place where that you can drag into Finder or another app. You can simply provide a list of paths or files to add:

dz add image1.png image2.png

dz clear: Empty the Drop Bar

To remove all files from Drop Bar:

dz clear

Example Script: Take a screenshot and upload

Here’s a bash script to take a screenshot of a selected area of the screen and upload it to ImgBB using Dropzone. The URL of the uploaded screenshot will be automatically placed on the clipboard.

#!/bin/bash

screencapture -i ~/Desktop/snap.png
dz run "ImgBB" dragged ~/Desktop/snap.png
rm ~/Desktop/snap.png

We hope you find the new dz tool useful for your own scripts and automations.

Let us know if you have any feedback or questions by emailing us at support@aptonic.com.