A Google Drive application to manage file download and export links. Export options are supported for Google office suite documents.
Note: native Google office suite documents hereinafter referred to as the NGD.
When you share a link to a file located on Google Drive your vis-a-vis may face:
- need to switch to a Google account in order to access NGD
- inability to access NGD when vis-a-vis has got no Google account
- take extra step to download other types of files as by default those are opened in a preview mode
- inability to access any file if access permissions aren't set properly
You may also want to track access activities.
This tool integrates with Google Drive and offers:
- convert-and-download direct links for native Google documents
- direct download links for other types of files
The tool doesn't fetch files contents.
- Convert and download link for NGD
- NGD gets converted to MSO document, pdf, or other types
- Google Sheets pdf export can be tuned
- Direct download link for other types
- goo.gl url shortener embedded
- access authorization shortcut
| NGD file type | MSO | OpenDoc | html | rtf / epub | txt | csv / tsv | jpg / png / svg | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Docs | docx | odt | (1) |
+ | + | + | - | - |
| Sheets | xlsx | ods | (1) |
- | (2) |
- | (3) |
- |
| Slides | ppsx / pptx | odp | - | - | + | + | - | (4) |
| Drawings | - | - | - | - | + | - | - | + |
Forms (5) |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Fusion Tables (6) |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Notes:
(1)- zipped web-page with media assets if any(2)- customized pdf output available(3)- available on per sheet basis and therefore from Sheets open context; see Google Sheets section below for details(4)- available on per slide basis and therefore from Slides open context; see Google Slides section below for details(5)- Google Forms download or export makes no sense, therefore only open link shortening offered(6)- Google Fusion Tables is an experimental application and not supported yet
Native Google documents conversion MIME-types
This app is based on the drive.file OAuth2 scope, where permission is granted only for individual files that the user authorizes.
open- equivalent to shareable link available from Google Drive context menu. NGD are get opened with native google applications. Other files are get opened with Drive preview or associated application if any.download- direct file download link. NGD can be exported in either of supported formats, so user is presented with a list of links.
When Google authorized user requests a short url via google URL shortener a new goo.gl id is being generated every time, which makes stats collection near senseless. This app generates goo.gl id for each type of targeted long URL only once and stores those in file description as a JSON document.
NB! The JSON preceded with LINKMAN= string is appended to the
end of file description. However user can accidentally remove
or corrupt the JSON, in which case new goo.gl ids will be generated.
File description gets updated only upon Save action or upon first access to a file.
Types of short URLs stored:
open: preview|NGD openDL: download for non-NGD files
For NGD documents exporting urls are stored. MSO and pdf export urls are generated by default. Other types require manual activation.
Google Sheets pdf export can be customized.
Available settings are:
size = letter|A4|A3...portrait = true|falsefitw = true|falsesource = custom stringsheetnames = true|falseprinttitle = true|false// optional headers and footerspagenumbers = true|falsegridlines = true|falsefzr = true|false// frozen rows on each pagegid = sheet_Id// not , see remark below
NB! Per sheet exports (employing gid sheet id)
available only from Sheets open context.
Please, use ExportLink
Google Script.
Short url for each set of export settings can be stored in the LINKMAN JSON.
pdf : [
{ settings : export settings,
shortUrl : shortened url for given settings
},
...
]
Export to images is supported on per slide basis and therefore is available only from Slides open context. Please, use ExportLink Google Script.
Exporting Google Forms makes no sense. Therefore only open
link gets shortened.
Google Fusion Tables is an experimental application
and not supported yet. It is most likely exporting those
will not make much sense and therefore only open
link shortening will be available.
If you feel it's time to start supporting Google Fusion Tables drop the author a note on that.
Registered MIME-types
text/*
application/*
image/*
video/*
audio/*
Supported MIME-types (target list)
text/plain
application/octet-stream
image/gif, image/png, image/jpeg, image/bmp, image/webp
video/webm, video/ogg, video/mp4
audio/mpeg, audio/webm, audio/ogg, audio/wav
application/vnd.mspowerpoint,
application/xhtml+xml, application/xml
application/pdf
Registered file extensions
pdf, png, jpg, jpeg,
ppt, pptx, doc, docx, xls, xlsx,
Reserved MIME-types (not targeted)
text/html, text/css, text/javascript
audio/midi
Native Google documents MIME-types
While this feature allows to grant
"Anyone with the link can view (download) the file"
powers it is recommended to grant access on per folder basis.
In either case consider possible negative consequences when granting any level of access.
Install the application from Chrome web-store.
Clone and customize the script. The resulted app should have been hosted somewhere.
Options for hosting include Google App Engine, where a simple Python configuration provides an easy-to-use way to expose only static content (in this case, serving the JavaScript and html). Other alternatives include using a Google Drive public folder to host the files, or your own web server.
In all cases, a configuration will need to be created in the Google Developers Console, as outlined here.
Note: The resulting App ID, Client ID, and API Key
generated as part of that process will need to be put
into the your app's configuration (in actual code).
For ZIP Extractor, that configuration information in found
in config.js under the /js/linkman/ directory.
These projects were used as a source of inspiration and Google Drive Apps building practices:
© Oleksiy Rudenko, 2017
For native google documents {exportIds} sent to an app instead of {ids}. Details
Publishing & Integrate with button
- add API
- add and use credentials
- check app permissions before production
- verify your ownership of domain your app resides at
ExportLink is a script that also is able of generating links for individual sheets and slides.