Updating Spreadsheets with the Google Drive API - json

Question

I want to update an existing spreadsheet in a drive folder but have trouble implementing the http request. I followed the documentation and was able to update a spreadsheet but the request body, which I tried to send in JSON, is always converted to CSV. This results in the distribution of the JSON parts into individual cells depending on present commas.
For instance, cell1= "{key1" and cell2= "value1" and so on. However, this prevents me from specifying the style of the sheet and values within the cells.
I found the possibility to send multipart request which, however, results in the same result. Now the first boundary string and the initial information until the first comma are included in the first cell and the rest ist divided according to existing commas.
What I want to do ist send an HTTP request with the body consisting of a JSON-File of specified information for the spreadsheet as described in the Sheets API of Google, but cannot find my current mistake. Even with mimetype set to "application/vnd.google-apps.spreadsheet" the json is always converted to csv.

Answer 1

mimetype "application/vnd.google-apps.spreadsheet"
If the file in question is an actuall google sheets file type. For example the mime type is "application/vnd.google-apps.spreadsheet". Then you should go though the google sheets api to update it. Other wise updating it though google drive you will need to load the file itself into a file stream and then upload it that way. You cant pick and choose what parts are uploaded with drive its all or nothing. Drive doesn't have the power to format things like cells and stuch it just uploads the raw file data.
Mimetype "text/plain"
If the file is in fact a csv file so the mime type is "text/plain" then you can update the text directly. by turning the text into a stream.
You have not said what language you are using so here is my sample for C#. The code is ripped from How to upload to Google Drive API from memory with C#
var uploadString = "Test";
var fileName = "ploadFileString.txt";
// Upload file Metadata
var fileMetadata = new Google.Apis.Drive.v3.Data.File()
{
Name = fileName,
Parents = new List<string>() { "1R_QjyKyvET838G6loFSRu27C-3ASMJJa" } // folder to upload the file to
};
var fsSource = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(uploadString ?? ""));
string uploadedFileId;
// Create a new file, with metadata and stream.
var request = service.Files.Create(fileMetadata, fsSource, "text/plain");
request.Fields = "*";
var results = await request.UploadAsync(CancellationToken.None);
if (results.Status == UploadStatus.Failed)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Error uploading file: {results.Exception.Message}");
}
// the file id of the new file we created
uploadedFileId = request.ResponseBody?.Id;