I am trying to build a Google Chrome Extension which does the following -
1) Gets activated when someone visits my site say http://example.com
2) When someone downloads a file from my site , http://example.com, it starts monitoring that file for changes.
3) If the user edits and saves that file, it uploads the modified file back to the system.
My site is a niche document management system for a particular industry. Users dont want to downloads files, edit and then re-upload again. They want the files to be uploaded as soon as they save on their side. Its mostly for .docx, .xlsx files.
I tried to look at the Google chrome apis, but couldnt locate the appropriate ones. Any help would be useful.
Thanks!
As per your description, I believe chrome.downloads is what you want.
Use the chrome.downloads API to programmatically initiate, monitor, manipulate, and search for downloads.
To monitor, you could listen to chrome.downloads.onCreated and chrome.downloads.onChanged
Related
I would like to add URL links into a web-based Google Drive folder. Searching online, it appears that this was once possible with files that ended in a .glink extension. I'm looking for documentation on the file format so that I can create them programmatically.
[EDIT] Why do I want to create .glink files? Because I want links (bookmarks, URLs) to be able to appear in my Google Drive web page and to be able to click on them an go to the page. Microsoft OneDrive supports this functionality.
GLINKS Files
The URL link file feature was available due to a workaround with Back Up and Sync before being deprecated with Drive for Desktop. The .glink seems to be patched and no longer available as it was also part of a third party tool no longer available. It seems it now only saves them as .URL and automatically gives it the icon for Google Docs, as it would take it as a simple file with text.
Checking the .url type file of Windows, when uploading to Drive it does not update as it should, even utilizing Drive for Desktop (as an alternative to sync data like back up and sync) the outcome is the one suggested above.
This is the main reason why there is no longer any documentation about the matter, due to this one not being an official feature and being also fully deleted, it can be confirm by the file type available when creating files with the Drive API:
https://developers.google.com/drive/api/guides/ref-export-formats
I would suggest to request a feature to allow this or to provide a new way to store URL links as before or report it to review if possible any references on how it used to work by submitting a feature request or checking the issue tracker about the matter:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/new?component=191650&template=824106
You can also add the details of the previous threads or discussions about the GLINKS.
I am working on a Chrome App where I need the users to open files in a directory. For his own files, I can offer them a dialog through
chrome.fileSystem.chooseEntry
which works well. However that seems to limit me to the "Downloads" directory and Google Drive on my Chromebook. I would also like to ship some files with the application itself, so the files/folders would be located inside the app package. Is it possible to access these files through the fileSystem API?
I would not need the user to choose the files from a dialogue, it would be enough if I could get a handle to these files and offer to display them on the click of a button through my app.
Thanks in advance
You can read included files using chrome.runtime.getPackageDirectoryEntry(function(directoryEntry) {})
Lets say I have a web URL to a file on a cloud storage (like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc). How do I convert that to the corresponding file path on my pc? On Android? On iOS?
Assuming of course I have the utilities/apps installed locally.
EDIT: I interested in file name the reverse direction too. (I.e. when I have the local file path, what is the web path?)
EDIT 2: #Greg just made me realize that the problem with file name is much worse on Google Drive than on Dropbox.
And that is very bad. :-(
The reason? Google has good search capabilities on Drive and therefor I and many, many others have put their documents on Drive. However, once I found it I must locate it on my on computer/device. (If I want to edit a pdf for example.)
EDIT 3: #Dan McGrath kindly asked what parts remain unsolved.
Short answer: All. ;-)
Long answer: My actual use case, see below.
My actual use case is a Zotero web app. Zotero is a reference database where you store references to scientific articles, web pages, etc. The items stored in Zotero may include PDF files or - which I prefer - links to PDF files.
I just want to be able to easy access (read) this PDF files from any computer through the web app. And on my own computer I want to be able to edit the files with my local PDF editor. (Be it Android, Windows or whatever.)
By using a cloud storage I do not have to download/upload the files myself. The cloud storage takes care of that part.
For the "reverse" scenario, that is, you have a file and you want the Dropbox shared link, you can use this API endpoint, assuming you're connected to the account via the API:
https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core/docs#shares
My chrome app needs to save a file with human-readable or standard format such as SQLite (It should be readable outside Chrome).
Is there any API suitable for this purpose?
Some files with .localstorage extension (SQLite format) are in Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Storage folder. Is it possible to create such files by the app?
Edited: The app should not ask user for extra permission.
Thanks for your consideration.
chrome.fileSystem API is what you need.
You will need to ask the user at least once where to save the file, but then you can retain the entry to write again to the same file/folder.
There is no way around asking the user to "escape the sandbox".
You'll want to use the Quota Management API. This is per-origin storage, and you request specific amounts of quota.
It sounds like you also want your users to open the files directly? There's an HTML5 filesystem explorer Chrome app that you can use. It'll show you the files, and you can figure things out from their URLs (e.g. I'm currently using filesystem:http://localhost:8000/temporary/bar for a local experiment).
Or are you looking for something more user friendly? I think you have to use file save in that case, the same way Google Drive does.
I have hosted a HTML file created on my PC (along with a stylesheet) on Google Drive using the script described here.
I have given out the link and it seems to be working fine (no reported issues from those I've sent it to).
I have just discovered a minor omission from the file, I need to add another sentence. This should be ridiculously easy on a PC, I could just open it on notepad!
I can't find a way to edit it on Google Drive, the only connected apps are the viewer and Docs.
The viewer, as the name suggests, will only let me view the HTML, and the docs app won't let me save it back to the original file.
Obviously I could download it then upload again, but from experience it will probably give me a different URL.
Is there any way for me to do this while keeping the link the same, as I have already given the address out?
Currently you can't. You can only preview html files, that is preview the code or preview the rendered content, but you cannot natively edit the code. You have two options:
use a third party extension, such as Neutron Drive or Drive Notepad.
install the Google Drive Desktop App, edit your files locally and save. Changes will be uploaded automatically.
I have just used HTML Editey chrome app
You can do this through file revisions. Hopefully, Google adds another way, but using the revision feature works for me. To revise your file, click the check mark in the Google Drive file list, click more, and then click "Manage revisions...". In the box that pops up, click upload new revision and then you're set.
You may also be able to edit html files stored in google drive through other plugins, but I do not use any at this time to know of them.
Update!
go to drive right click your html file
choose "open with" then "connect more apps"
when app library pop up search for "notepad" then choose "drivenotepad"
after it connect to drive, select it, you will get code editor.