Advanced Drive Service

The advanced Drive service lets you use the Google Drive API in 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.

Reference

For detailed information on this service, see the reference documentation for the Google 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.

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);
  }
}

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;
  const 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);
  }
}