Advanced Drive Service

  • The advanced Drive service in Apps Script allows interaction with the Google Drive API for file and folder manipulation.

  • This service offers extra features compared to the built-in Drive service, such as access to custom file properties and revisions.

  • The advanced Drive service must be enabled before use and uses the same objects, methods, and parameters as the public Drive API.

  • Sample code is provided for common tasks like uploading files, listing folders, listing revisions, and adding file properties using API version 3.

to manage files and folders, including custom properties and revisions.

The advanced Drive service lets you use the Google Drive API in Google Apps Script. Much like Apps Script's built-in Drive service, this API allows scripts to create, find, and modify files and folders in Google Drive. In most cases, the built-in service is easier to use, but this advanced service provides a few extra features, including access to custom file properties as well as revisions for files and folders.

This is an advanced service that must be enabled before use.

Reference

For detailed information on this service, see the reference documentation for the Drive API. Like all advanced services in Apps Script, the advanced Drive service uses the same objects, methods, and parameters as the public API. For more information, see How method signatures are determined. Also, methods named delete in the Drive API are named remove in the advanced service (such as Drive.Permissions.remove()), since delete is a reserved word in JavaScript.

To report issues and find other support, see the Drive API support guide.

Sample code

The code samples in this section use version 3 of the API.

Upload files

The following code sample shows how to save a file to a user's Drive.

advanced/drive.gs
/**
 * Uploads a new file to the user's Drive.
 */
function uploadFile() {
  try {
    // Makes a request to fetch a URL.
    const image = UrlFetchApp.fetch("http://goo.gl/nd7zjB").getBlob();
    let file = {
      name: "google_logo.png",
      mimeType: "image/png",
    };
    // Create a file in the user's Drive.
    file = Drive.Files.create(file, image, { fields: "id,size" });
    console.log("ID: %s, File size (bytes): %s", file.id, file.size);
  } catch (err) {
    // TODO (developer) - Handle exception
    console.log("Failed to upload file with error %s", err.message);
  }
}

Create a folder

The following code sample shows how to create a folder in Drive.

/**
 * Creates a new folder.
 */
function createFolder() {
  var folderMetadata = {
    'name': 'New Folder',
    'mimeType': 'application/vnd.google-apps.folder'
  };
  var folder = Drive.Files.create(folderMetadata);
  Logger.log('Folder ID: ' + folder.id);
}

Search for files

The following code sample shows how to search for files using a query string.

/**
 * Searches for files with a specific name.
 */
function searchFiles() {
  var query = 'name contains "Project Plan" and trashed = false';
  var files = Drive.Files.list({
    'q': query,
    'fields': 'files(id, name, mimeType)'
  });
  if (files.files && files.files.length > 0) {
    for (var i = 0; i < files.files.length; i++) {
      var file = files.files[i];
      Logger.log('%s (ID: %s)', file.name, file.id);
    }
  } else {
    Logger.log('No files found.');
  }
}

List folders

The following code sample shows how to list the top-level folders in the user's Drive. Note the use of page tokens to access the full list of results.

advanced/drive.gs
/**
 * Lists the top-level folders in the user's Drive.
 */
function listRootFolders() {
  const query =
    '"root" in parents and trashed = false and ' +
    'mimeType = "application/vnd.google-apps.folder"';
  let folders;
  let pageToken = null;
  do {
    try {
      folders = Drive.Files.list({
        q: query,
        pageSize: 100,
        pageToken: pageToken,
      });
      if (!folders.files || folders.files.length === 0) {
        console.log("All folders found.");
        return;
      }
      for (let i = 0; i < folders.files.length; i++) {
        const folder = folders.files[i];
        console.log("%s (ID: %s)", folder.name, folder.id);
      }
      pageToken = folders.nextPageToken;
    } catch (err) {
      // TODO (developer) - Handle exception
      console.log("Failed with error %s", err.message);
    }
  } while (pageToken);
}

List revisions

The following code sample shows how to list the revisions for a given file. Note that some files can have several revisions and you should use page tokens to access the full list of results.

advanced/drive.gs
/**
 * Lists the revisions of a given file.
 * @param {string} fileId The ID of the file to list revisions for.
 */
function listRevisions(fileId) {
  let revisions;
  let pageToken = null;
  do {
    try {
      revisions = Drive.Revisions.list(fileId, {
        fields: "revisions(modifiedTime,size),nextPageToken",
      });
      if (!revisions.revisions || revisions.revisions.length === 0) {
        console.log("All revisions found.");
        return;
      }
      for (let i = 0; i < revisions.revisions.length; i++) {
        const revision = revisions.revisions[i];
        const date = new Date(revision.modifiedTime);
        console.log(
          "Date: %s, File size (bytes): %s",
          date.toLocaleString(),
          revision.size,
        );
      }
      pageToken = revisions.nextPageToken;
    } catch (err) {
      // TODO (developer) - Handle exception
      console.log("Failed with error %s", err.message);
    }
  } while (pageToken);
}

Add file properties

The following code sample uses the appProperties field to add a custom property to a file. The custom property is only visible to the script. To add a custom property to the file that's also visible to other apps, use the properties field, instead. For more information, see Add custom file properties.

advanced/drive.gs
/**
 * Adds a custom app property to a file. Unlike Apps Script's DocumentProperties,
 * Drive's custom file properties can be accessed outside of Apps Script and
 * by other applications; however, appProperties are only visible to the script.
 * @param {string} fileId The ID of the file to add the app property to.
 */
function addAppProperty(fileId) {
  try {
    let file = {
      appProperties: {
        department: "Sales",
      },
    };
    // Updates a file to add an app property.
    file = Drive.Files.update(file, fileId, null, {
      fields: "id,appProperties",
    });
    console.log(
      "ID: %s, appProperties: %s",
      file.id,
      JSON.stringify(file.appProperties, null, 2),
    );
  } catch (err) {
    // TODO (developer) - Handle exception
    console.log("Failed with error %s", err.message);
  }
}

Add a user to a file

The following code sample shows how to add a user as an editor to a file and suppress the email notification.

/**
 * Adds a user to a file as an editor without sending an email notification.
 */
function addEditor() {
  var fileId = '1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';
  var userEmail = 'bob@example.com';
  var request = {
    'role': 'writer',
    'type': 'user',
    'emailAddress': userEmail
  };
  Drive.Permissions.create(request, fileId, {
    'sendNotificationEmail': false
  });
}