Move all files from one folder - google-apps-script

Question

I'm super bad in apps script in Google drive ... I'm upset.
I need your help.
I have folders like this in my root drive :
students
__kev
___math
___english
__donald
___math
___english
__tony
___math
___english
transfer
__math
I want to automate an operation: copy or move all the contents of the "transfer" folder to each student folder.
I can do this task easily on PowerShell or bash with a sync client but I need it directly on drive now.
Any idea ? I want to add a menu on a file with the tool script.

Answer 1

The algorithm is quite simply, but there is one trick. You need to decide what should the script do in case a destination folder already has a file with the same name. By default Google Drive allows to have many files with the same name within a folder, which can be confusing.
My script checks a target folder and removes a file with the same name (it's supposed that there is one file) before copying.
function main() {
const root_folder_ID = "###"; // here is ID of your folder
const root_folder = DriveApp.getFolderById(root_folder_ID);
const transfer_folder = root_folder.getFoldersByName("transfer").next(); // transfer folder
// get array of subjects from transfer folder
const subjects_generator = transfer_folder.getFolders();
var subjects = [];
while (subjects_generator.hasNext()) {
var subj = subjects_generator.next();
subjects.push(subj);
}
// get students folders (a generator)
const students_folder = root_folder.getFoldersByName("students").next();
const students = students_folder.getFolders();
// copy all subject folders (with content) into students folders
while(students.hasNext()) {
var student = students.next();
for (var s in subjects) {
Logger.log("folder '" + subjects[s] + "' started to copy to '" + student + "'");
copy_folder(subjects[s], student);
Logger.log("---");
}
}
}
function copy_folder(source_folder, target_folder) {
// pick or create subject subfolder within target folder
try {
var subfolder = target_folder.getFoldersByName(source_folder.getName()).next();
} catch(e) {
var subfolder = target_folder.createFolder(source_folder.getName());
}
// get all files from source folder
var files = source_folder.getFiles();
// copy the files into the subfolder
while(files.hasNext()) {
var file = files.next();
var file_name = file.getName();
// try to remove old file with the same name in the target folder
try {
var old_file = subfolder.getFilesByName(file_name).next();
old_file.setTrashed(true);
Logger.log("old file '" + old_file + "' was removed")
} catch(e) {}
file.makeCopy(file.getName(), subfolder);
Logger.log("file '" + file + "' is copied")
}
}
To run this script you have to create a new document somewhere on Google Drive, go the menu 'Tools' and click on 'Script Editor'.
Then you need to paste the text of the script into the editor and click the 'Run' icon:
But first you need to paste your folder ID into the second line of the script of course.
Alternatively you can make a custom menu in your document and run the script from there, without Script editor.
To make a custom menu just add this function at the end (or start) of the script in Script editor:
// custom menu
function onOpen() {
DocumentApp.getUi().createMenu('Scripts')
.addItem('📁 Copy files', 'main')
.addToUi();
}
And you'll get the custom menu 'Script' after reload your document:

Answer 2

This should fit your needs. Adapted from: this site. Change the id's of the two folders.
function start() {
var transfertFolder = DriveApp.getFolderById("xxxxxxx-YhSCZXh1PDeqpE8mXjHHJJF");
var studentFolder = DriveApp.getFolderById("xxxxxxx_cQgd3DZV9Ukt4yI_-jTS_86Z").getFolders();
while (studentFolder.hasNext()){
const student = studentFolder.next()
copyFolder(transfertFolder,student)
}
}
function copyFolder(source, target) {
var folders = source.getFolders();
var files = source.getFiles();
while (files.hasNext()) {
var file = files.next();
file.makeCopy(file.getName(), target);
}
while (folders.hasNext()) {
var subFolder = folders.next();
var folderName = subFolder.getName();
var targetFolder = target.createFolder(folderName);
copyFolder(subFolder, targetFolder);
}
}