I have an application which manages file metadata on Google Drive, and naturally stores it as properties on the files. Since this application needs the metadata for all files when loading, I end up making hundreds of requests of Properties: list
https://developers.google.com/drive/v2/reference/properties/list
- one of these for each file my app manages.
Is there a way to get the properties in bulk for all files in a folder?
Files: list supports adding the field items/properties to its fields parameter, so clearly the thought occured to someone that this should be possible, but that field is never populated. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not an option?
Related
I have created a google form where I collect info about workers (name famil photo etc...).
I want to download all photos uploaded through the form to my PC but I want each photo downloaded to have a name suitable to the name and family answers that the worker submitted , i.e. _.
This will be used to produce magnetic cards automatically without the need to go over each one and choose his image manually.
For uploading file, you can use the method specified in the documentation.
The Drive API allows you to upload file data when creating or
updating a File resource.
You can send upload requests in any of the following ways:
Simple upload: uploadType=media. For quick transfer of a small file (5 MB or less). To perform a simple upload, refer to
Performing a Simple Upload.
Multipart upload: uploadType=multipart. For quick transfer of a small file (5 MB or less) and metadata describing the file, all in
a single request. To perform a multipart upload, refer to
Performing a Multipart Upload.
Resumable upload: uploadType=resumable. For more reliable transfer, especially important with large files. Resumable uploads are a good
choice for most applications, since they also work for small files at
the cost of one additional HTTP request per upload. To perform a
resumable upload, refer to Performing a Resumable Upload.
Most Google API client libraries implement at least one of the
methods. Refer to the client library documentation for additional
details on how to use each of the methods.
Then you can manipulate your metadata,
Much of the information you'll need to get started inserting and
retrieving files is detailed in the Files reference. Here are a
few more important considerations for naming files and working with
metadata like thumbnails and indexable text.
Next, here is how to Specify file names and extensions
Apps should specify a file extension in the title property when
inserting files with the API. For example, an operation to insert a
JPEG file should specify something like "name": "cat.jpg" in the
metadata.
Subsequent GET requests include the read-only fileExtension
property populated with the extension originally specified in the name
property. When a Google Drive user requests to download a file, or
when the file is downloaded through the sync client, Drive builds a
full filename (with extension) based on the title. In cases where the
extension is missing, Google Drive attempts to determine the extension
based on the file's MIME type.
My expectation is that if I query the Changes Feed with a scope of drive.file, I will only receive changes to files owned by my application.
However, in testing that I have done, I am seeing files in the feed that have nothing to do with my app. At least some of them are files that have been shared with me.
Anybody know exactly how this is supposed to work?
Edit 0
Similar or duplicate StackOverflow questions
Listing files with search query returns out-of-scope results (drive.files.list call, using drive.files scope)
List ignores drive.file scope and shows shared files not created by the calling app
The files returned will not be specific to your app. Files that are "public on the web" are also reported back, regardless of whether or not your app created them or they were ever opened by the user in your app.
There is a parameter (includeSubscribed) that will filter out shared docs but this is also a bit limited (see below).
From Detect Changes:
For Google Drive apps that need to keep track of changes to files,
polling repeatedly can be both inefficient and resource-intensive. The
Changes feed provides a more efficient way to detect changes to all
files, including those that have been shared with a user. The feed
works by providing the current state of each file, if and only if the
file has changed since the given changestamp.
Here is a relevant parameter from Changes:list.
includeSubscribed boolean
Whether to include shared files and public
files the user has opened. When set to false, the list will include
owned files plus any shared or public files the user has explictly
added to a folder in Drive. (Default: true)
Scope(https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file)
Meaning(Per-file access to files created or opened by the app)
The scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file strikes this balance in a practical way. Presumably, users only open or create a file with an app that they trust, for reasons they understand.
But though, to your point, please refer to this q&a.
Our application needs a full list of the user's files and folders. We use files.list() via the Javascript library (essentially the same code as shown in the official API reference as an example).
We use the "drive.files" scope.
Examining the response to the list, we find that some files are always missing. I did various tests to understand the problem:
The files clearly exist. They show up in the Google Drive Webapp and, if I explicitly request them via ID, I can get them via the API without problems.
It's reproducible, always the same files are missing.
It is not transient. I tried a day after and still the same files are missing. I know of a few strange effects in the API that go away after some time but not this one.
It is not a one time thing (e.g. some weird things went wrong during upload). If I repeat with a completely different Google Account again files are missing. Of a small set of 147 uploaded files in one test 4 are missed by the files.list call, in another test with the same 147 files on another account 23 files are missing.
It only occurs when I use the drive.files scope. If I relax the scope to drive all files are returned. If look at "Details" in the Google Drive Webapp also the missing files are shown as created by our Application. So it does not seem that they lost their origin somehow.
It also occurs when I specify a search query. If I call files.list with a search term "q: modifiedDate > '2012-06-04T12:00:00'" which also should return all files, the same files are missing.
I re-implemented the same thing as pure REST call to the API to rule out that it is an issue with the Javascript library. The error remains.
Update: I could track it down to an issue with the paging and the maxResults parameter. If I use different values the API returns different number of items:
With maxResults=100 I get 100+100+7=207.
With maxResults=99 I get 99+99+28=226.
With maxResults=101 I get 101+101+0=202.
The last result is interesting which gave me a nextLink indicating there are more results but the items array in the last response was actually empty. This alone might indicate a bug.
Still, this only occurs in drive.file scope, the counts are consistent in the full drive scope.
I'd be glad to hear ideas for a workaround. I'm aware of other ways to keep track of the users files, e.g. using the changes feed. I'm using that already but for a specific part in our application I simply need a reliable and complete list of all our application's items in a user's account.
One more note: We had other issues with the "drive.files" scope before (see Listing files with search query returns out-of-scope results (drive.files.list call, using drive.files scope)). This turned out to be an easy fix. Perhaps this issue is related.
Are there any difference in the files belonging to "shared to me" and own files/folders, was the issue for me ?
The way it is presented in Google Drive was not the same result I got when searching without the correct flags.
I found out when I did this file list with all the folders, that I did have to include from where the search scope of files should be.
- Include deleted files
- Include shared to me files
I'm aware of shortcut links. Looking for behavior similar to that of a native Google doc. File exists, possibly takes up storage, can be renamed/moved/deleted, but the data inside shouldn't be modified except by the app. Possibly, defining export formats/links.
I believe the answer is a simple "no" - Google Drive is for storing user files, not protected application data or configuration data. So you could put a file to a users drive, but only the owner of the drive can control whether the file is shared or changed. So they can edit it, you can't stop them, and there's no reason to think that'll ever be a feature in the future.
To have such control you will need to store such data on your own server, or some other such storage medium.
The only other thing that you would do with only Google Drive is encrypt the configuration file you store, for instance, so it couldn't be easily edited - but that's probably just a bad idea. If you must save a configuration file to a persons drive, bury it inside an application folder and sanity check it to ensure it isn't corrupt - but don't count on a person or application never opening and editing it. If it's something a person shouldn't be able to read or change, don't save it to their drive.
As of April 2012, application data is supported: What is the Application Data folder?.
"Export format links" could be done with Custom file properties, though, I'm unsure of what kind datatypes are supported for the value beyond the example string.
I would like to know how i could to obtain multiple files from google drive. I searched this in the reference but i not found this information. I'm building a web application that will talk to drive and retreive a link of a zip file to download. Zip of the files.
I'm using php with api v2.
That is currently not possible with the Drive API, you have to send multiple requests to retrieve multiple files.
I've been faced with a similar problem and while there's currently no way of doing this through Drive (to my knowledge), this is the solution I came up with.
I'm serving up hundreds of thousands of files to clients using a Drive folder as the storage with a custom built front-end built with the Drive API. With that many files, it's ridiculously tedious for users to download files one at a time. So the idea was to let the users select which files they'd like to download and then present them with a zip file containing the files.
To do that, first you'll need to get an array of the Drive files that you want to download whether that's some you generate programmatically or through check-boxes on the front-end. Then you'll loop through that array and grab the 'downloadURL' value for each file and perform a cURL to the url provided. Depending on how many files you're planning on handling per request you can either keep them all in memory or temporarily store them on the disk or in a database. Regardless, once you have all of the files, you can then zip them up using any number of zip libs that are out there. Then just send the resulting zip file to the user.
In our case we ended up sticking with individual file downloads because of the potentially massive amount of resources and bandwidth this can eat but it's a potential solution if you're not serving large numbers of files.
Assuming I am answering the correct query, if you place the files in a folder on google drive, then as far as I know it is possible to download as a complete group of files.