Quickstart

Authentication

Drive API requires OAuth2.0 for authentication. PyDrive makes your life much easier by handling complex authentication steps for you.

  1. Go to APIs Console and make your own project.
  2. Search for ‘Google Drive API’, select the entry, and click ‘Enable’.
  3. Select ‘Credentials’ from the left menu, click ‘Create Credentials’, select ‘OAuth client ID’.
  4. Now, the product name and consent screen need to be set -> click ‘Configure consent screen’ and follow the instructions. Once finished:
  1. Select ‘Application type’ to be Web application.
  2. Enter an appropriate name.
  3. Input http://localhost:8080 for ‘Authorized JavaScript origins’.
  4. Input http://localhost:8080/ for ‘Authorized redirect URIs’.
  5. Click ‘Save’.
  1. Click ‘Download JSON’ on the right side of Client ID to download client_secret_<really long ID>.json.

The downloaded file has all authentication information of your application. Rename the file to “client_secrets.json” and place it in your working directory.

Create quickstart.py file and copy and paste the following code.

from pydrive.auth import GoogleAuth

gauth = GoogleAuth()
gauth.LocalWebserverAuth() # Creates local webserver and auto handles authentication.

Run this code with python quickstart.py and you will see a web browser asking you for authentication. Click Accept and you are done with authentication. For more details, take a look at documentation: OAuth made easy

Creating and updating file

There are many methods to create and update file metadata and contents. With PyDrive, all you have to know is Upload() method which makes optimal API call for you. Add the following code to your quickstart.py and run it.

from pydrive.drive import GoogleDrive

drive = GoogleDrive(gauth)

file1 = drive.CreateFile({'title': 'Hello.txt'})  # Create GoogleDriveFile instance with title 'Hello.txt'.
file1.SetContentString('Hello World!') # Set content of the file from given string.
file1.Upload()

This code will create a new file with title Hello.txt and its content Hello World!. You can see and open this file from Google Drive if you want. For more details, take a look at documentation: File management made easy

Getting list of files

PyDrive handles paginations and parses response as list of GoogleDriveFile. Let’s get title and id of all the files in the root folder of Google Drive. Again, add the following code to quickstart.py and execute it.

# Auto-iterate through all files that matches this query
file_list = drive.ListFile({'q': "'root' in parents and trashed=false"}).GetList()
for file1 in file_list:
  print('title: %s, id: %s' % (file1['title'], file1['id']))

You will see title and id of all the files and folders in root folder of your Google Drive. For more details, take a look at documentation: File listing made easy