Create a shortcut file to content stored by your app

Third-party shortcuts in Google Drive are metadata-only files that link to other files on external, third-party owned, storage systems. These shortcuts act as reference links to the "content" files stored by an application outside of Drive, usually in a different datastore or cloud storage system.

To create a third-party shortcut, use the files.create method of the Google Drive API and set the MIME type to application/vnd.google-apps.drive-sdk. Don't upload any content when creating the file. For more information, see Google Workspace and Google Drive supported MIME types.

You cannot upload or download third-party shortcuts.

The following code samples show how to create a third-party shortcut using a client library:

Java

drive/snippets/drive_v3/src/main/java/CreateShortcut.java
import com.google.api.client.googleapis.json.GoogleJsonResponseException;
import com.google.api.client.http.HttpRequestInitializer;
import com.google.api.client.http.javanet.NetHttpTransport;
import com.google.api.client.json.gson.GsonFactory;
import com.google.api.services.drive.Drive;
import com.google.api.services.drive.DriveScopes;
import com.google.api.services.drive.model.File;
import com.google.auth.http.HttpCredentialsAdapter;
import com.google.auth.oauth2.GoogleCredentials;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Arrays;

/* Class to demonstrate Drive's create shortcut use-case */
public class CreateShortcut {

  /**
   * Creates shortcut for file.
   *
   * @throws IOException if service account credentials file not found.
   */
  public static String createShortcut() throws IOException {
        /* Load pre-authorized user credentials from the environment.
        TODO(developer) - See https://developers.google.com/identity for
        guides on implementing OAuth2 for your application.*/
    GoogleCredentials credentials = GoogleCredentials.getApplicationDefault()
        .createScoped(Arrays.asList(DriveScopes.DRIVE_FILE));
    HttpRequestInitializer requestInitializer = new HttpCredentialsAdapter(
        credentials);
    // Build a new authorized API client service.
    Drive service = new Drive.Builder(new NetHttpTransport(),
        GsonFactory.getDefaultInstance(),
        requestInitializer)
        .setApplicationName("Drive samples")
        .build();
    try {
      // Create Shortcut for file.
      File fileMetadata = new File();
      fileMetadata.setName("Project plan");
      fileMetadata.setMimeType("application/vnd.google-apps.drive-sdk");

      File file = service.files().create(fileMetadata)
          .setFields("id")
          .execute();
      System.out.println("File ID: " + file.getId());
      return file.getId();
    } catch (GoogleJsonResponseException e) {
      // TODO(developer) - handle error appropriately
      System.err.println("Unable to create shortcut: " + e.getDetails());
      throw e;
    }
  }
}

Python

drive/snippets/drive-v3/file_snippet/create_shortcut.py
import google.auth
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from googleapiclient.errors import HttpError


def create_shortcut():
  """Create a third party shortcut

  Load pre-authorized user credentials from the environment.
  TODO(developer) - See https://developers.google.com/identity
  for guides on implementing OAuth2 for the application.
  """
  creds, _ = google.auth.default()

  try:
    # create drive api client
    service = build("drive", "v3", credentials=creds)
    file_metadata = {
        "name": "Project plan",
        "mimeType": "application/vnd.google-apps.drive-sdk",
    }

    # pylint: disable=maybe-no-member
    file = service.files().create(body=file_metadata, fields="id").execute()
    print(f'File ID: {file.get("id")}')

  except HttpError as error:
    print(f"An error occurred: {error}")
  return file.get("id")


if __name__ == "__main__":
  create_shortcut()

PHP

drive/snippets/drive_v3/src/DriveCreateShortcut.php
use Google\Client;
use Google\Service\Drive;
use Google\Service\Drive\DriveFile;
function createShortcut()
{
    try {

        $client = new Client();
        $client->useApplicationDefaultCredentials();
        $client->addScope(Drive::DRIVE);
        $driveService = new Drive($client);
        $fileMetadata = new DriveFile(array(
            'name' => 'Project plan',
            'mimeType' => 'application/vnd.google-apps.drive-sdk'));
        $file = $driveService->files->create($fileMetadata, array(
            'fields' => 'id'));
        printf("File ID: %s\n", $file->id);
        return $file->id;

    } catch(Exception $e) {
        echo "Error Message: ".$e;
    }

}

.NET

drive/snippets/drive_v3/DriveV3Snippets/CreateShortcut.cs
using Google.Apis.Auth.OAuth2;
using Google.Apis.Drive.v3;
using Google.Apis.Services;

namespace DriveV3Snippets
{
    // Class to demonstrate Drive's create shortcut use-case
    public class CreateShortcut
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Create a third party shortcut.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>newly created shortcut file id, null otherwise.</returns>
        public static string DriveCreateShortcut()
        {
            try
            {
                /* Load pre-authorized user credentials from the environment.
                 TODO(developer) - See https://developers.google.com/identity for 
                 guides on implementing OAuth2 for your application. */
                GoogleCredential credential = GoogleCredential
                    .GetApplicationDefault()
                    .CreateScoped(DriveService.Scope.Drive);

                // Create Drive API service.
                var service = new DriveService(new BaseClientService.Initializer
                {
                    HttpClientInitializer = credential,
                    ApplicationName = "Drive API Snippets"
                });

                // Create Shortcut for file.
                var fileMetadata = new Google.Apis.Drive.v3.Data.File()
                {
                    Name = "Project plan",
                    MimeType = "application/vnd.google-apps.drive-sdk"
                };
                var request = service.Files.Create(fileMetadata);
                request.Fields = "id";
                var file = request.Execute();
                // Prints the shortcut file id.
                Console.WriteLine("File ID: " + file.Id);
                return file.Id;
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                // TODO(developer) - handle error appropriately
                if (e is AggregateException)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Credential Not found");
                }
                else
                {
                    throw;
                }
            }
            return null;
        }
    }
}

Node.js

drive/snippets/drive_v3/file_snippets/create_shortcut.js
/**
 * Create a third party shortcut
 * @return{obj} shortcut Id
 * */
async function createShortcut() {
  // Get credentials and build service
  // TODO (developer) - Use appropriate auth mechanism for your app

  const {GoogleAuth} = require('google-auth-library');
  const {google} = require('googleapis');

  const auth = new GoogleAuth({
    scopes: 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive',
  });
  const service = google.drive({version: 'v3', auth});
  const fileMetadata = {
    name: 'Project plan',
    mimeType: 'application/vnd.google-apps.drive-sdk',
  };

  try {
    const file = await service.files.create({
      requestBody: fileMetadata,
      fields: 'id',
    });
    console.log('File Id:', file.data.id);
    return file.data.id;
  } catch (err) {
    // TODO(developer) - Handle error
    throw err;
  }
}

How third-party shortcuts work

When you create a third-party shortcut using the files.create method, it uses a POST request to insert the metadata and create a shortcut to your app's content:

POST https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files
Authorization: AUTHORIZATION_HEADER

{
  "title": "FILE_TITLE",
  "mimeType": "application/vnd.google-apps.drive-sdk"
}

When the third-party shortcut is clicked, the user is redirected to the external site where the file is housed. The Drive file ID is contained in the state parameter. For more information, see Handle an Open URL for app-specific documents.

The third-party app or website is then responsible for matching the file ID in the state parameter to the content housed within their system.

Add custom thumbnails and indexable text

To increase the discoverability of files associated with third-party shortcuts, you can upload both thumbnail images and indexable text when inserting or modifying the file metadata. For more information, see Manage file metadata.