Google Drive API Essential Guide

What type of API does Google Drive provide?

Google Drive uses a REST API. The Google Drive API allows developers to create applications that integrate with Google Drive cloud storage and leverage its functionality.

The Google Drive API is a RESTful API. It allows developers to perform operations like downloading files from Drive, uploading files to Drive, searching for files and folders, sharing files and folders, and more. The API uses standard HTTP methods and returns data in JSON format, which are typical characteristics of REST APIs.

REST (Representational State Transfer) APIs have the following general characteristics:

• They use standard HTTP methods like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE.
• They typically return data in JSON or XML format.
• They are based on the concept of resources, which are accessed via URLs.
• They are stateless, meaning each request contains all the information needed to complete it.
• They are widely supported and relatively easy to implement and use.

Does the Google Drive API have webhooks?

Yes, the Google Drive API has webhooks, also known as push notifications. Here are the key points:

Webhook Support

The Google Drive API provides push notifications that allow you to monitor changes in resources. This feature helps improve application performance by eliminating the need for polling resources to check for changes.

Event Types

You can subscribe to the following types of events through Google Drive API webhooks:

• sync: When a channel is successfully created
• add: When a resource is created or shared
• remove: When an existing resource is deleted or unshared
• update: When one or more properties (metadata) of a resource are updated
• trash: When a resource is moved to the trash
• untrash: When a resource is removed from the trash
• change: When one or more changelog items are added

Watchable Resources

Currently, the Google Drive API supports notifications for changes to the files and changes methods.

Setting Up Webhooks

To set up webhooks (push notifications) for the Google Drive API:

1. Set up a receiving URL or "webhook" callback receiver (an HTTPS server that handles API notification messages).
2. Set up a notification channel for each resource endpoint you want to watch.
3. Make watch requests to the API for the resources you want to monitor.

Notification Details

When a watched resource changes, your application receives a notification message as an HTTPS POST request to the specified URL. The notification includes headers with details about the change, such as:

• X-Goog-Resource-State: Indicates the new resource state (e.g., add, remove, update)
• X-Goog-Changed: Provides additional details about the changes (e.g., content, parents, children, permissions)

Best Practices

• Use webhooks to improve application performance by avoiding unnecessary polling.
• Ensure your receiving URL (webhook callback receiver) is secure and can handle HTTPS POST requests.
• Set up separate notification channels for different resources you want to monitor.
• Handle different types of events appropriately based on the X-Goog-Resource-State header.

By using webhooks with the Google Drive API, you can create more efficient and responsive applications that react to changes in Google Drive resources in real-time.

Rate Limits and other limitations

Here are the key points about the API rate limits for the Google Drive API:

Query Limits

• The default quota is 1,000,000,000 queries per day per app.
• There is a default per-user limit of 10 requests per second, which can be increased.
• The overall limit is 12,000 queries per 60 seconds per user.

Write Limits

• Google advises avoiding exceeding 3 write or insert requests per second per account.
• This write rate limit cannot be increased.

Other Limits

• There is a 750 GB per day upload limit between My Drive and shared drives for Google Workspace users.
• The maximum file size that can be uploaded is 5 TB.
• The maximum file size that can be copied is 750 GB.

Key Points to Consider

• Exceeding quotas results in a 403 or 429 HTTP error code.
• Developers should use exponential backoff when hitting rate limits.
• There are no additional charges for exceeding quota limits.
• Quota increases can be requested through the Google APIs Console.

Best Practices

• Monitor your quota usage in the Google APIs Console.
• Optimize your code to minimize unnecessary API requests.
• Implement proper error handling for rate limit errors.
• Use efficient caching to reduce the number of API calls.

It's important to note that while these are the documented limits, Google may apply additional undocumented limits or change limits without notice. Always refer to the official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

Latest API Version

The most recent version of the Google Drive API is v3.

Key points to consider:

1. Google Drive API v3 is the latest version and offers better performance compared to v2.

2. V3 introduces several improvements over v2, including:

   • Searches only return a subset of commonly used fields by default for better performance
   • Almost all methods that return a response now require the 'fields' parameter
   • Some duplicate capabilities and resources were removed
   • Changes to how App Data is handled
   • Different behavior for the changes.list method

3. Google recommends migrating from v2 to v3 if you're still using the older version.

4. There is a migration guide available to help developers transition from v2 to v3.

Best practices:

1. Use the latest v3 version of the API for new projects.
2. Consider migrating existing projects from v2 to v3 to take advantage of performance improvements and new features.
3. Review the full list of changes and improvements in v3 to understand how it may affect your implementation.
4. Use the migration guide provided by Google when transitioning from v2 to v3.

How to get a Google Drive developer account and API Keys?

Create a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Account

1. Create a Google account if you don't have one.

2. Go to the Google Cloud Console (console.cloud.google.com) and sign in with your Google account.

3. If this is your first time using Google Cloud, create a new project. Click on the project dropdown at the top of the page and select "New Project".

Enable the Google Drive API

1. In the Google Cloud Console, go to the APIs & Services dashboard.

2. Click on "Enable APIs and Services" at the top of the page.

3. Search for "Google Drive API" and select it from the results.

4. Click "Enable" to enable the Google Drive API for your project.

Create Credentials

1. After enabling the API, click "Create Credentials".

2. Choose the type of credentials you need (usually OAuth client ID for Drive API).

3. Configure the OAuth consent screen if prompted.

4. Fill in the required information for your credentials.

Set Up Drive UI Integration (Optional)

If you want your app to integrate with the Drive UI:

1. Go to the Google Drive API configuration page in the API Console.

2. Enter an application name and description.

3. Upload application icons.

4. Configure URLs for "Open with" and "New" button integrations if needed.

What can you do with the Google Drive API?

Based on the provided search results, here's a list of data models you can interact with using the Google Drive API, along with what is possible for each data model:

Files

• Create and manage files
• Upload file data
• Download and export files
• Download and publish file revisions
• Trash or delete files
• Search for files
• Return specific fields for a file
• Share files
• Store application-specific data
• Manage file metadata
• Add custom file properties
• Create shortcuts to Drive files
• Protect file content from modification
• Access link-shared files using resource keys

Folders

• Create and populate folders
• Trash or delete folders
• Search for folders
• Share folders

Comments

• Manage comments and replies

Revisions

• Download and publish file revisions
• Update a revision with patch semantics

Permissions

• Share files, folders, and drives
• Manage access permissions

Changes

• Track changes for users and shared drives
• Retrieve changes
• Receive notifications for resource changes

Drives (Shared Drives)

• Implement shared drive support
• Manage shared drives
• Search for shared drives

Labels

• Set label fields
• Unset label fields
• Remove labels
• List labels from files
• Return specific labels from files
• Search by label or field

User Information

• Return user info

Apps

• Integrate with the Drive UI
• Configure Drive UI integrations
• Integrate with Drive UI's "New" button
• Integrate with Drive UI's "Open with" context menu

Channels

• Receive notifications for resource changes

About

• Retrieve information about the user, the user's Drive, and system capabilities

Activities (via Drive Activity API)

• Retrieve information about actions performed on files
• Access details about actors, targets, and actions
• Get timestamps or time ranges for activities

This list covers the main data models and interactions possible with the Google Drive API. Each model allows for various operations such as creating, reading, updating, deleting, and searching, depending on the specific resource type.