FlowXO with Google Drive

(prizewriting1@gmail.com) #1

Hi there,

I want to know if I can use the Flow XO bot to interact with the Google Drive API. Specifically, I want to create a Google document and share it with the customer at the email address they gave during the same interaction.

If Flow XO cannot do this, can you suggest the simplest way? Like Zapier? The information from the bot conversation is stored in a Google sheet, so it could be something like, when a new email is added, a document is created and shared with that email address.

Some literature on Google Drive API related to permissions is here: https://developers.google.com/drive/v3/web/manage-sharing

Thank you very much for any insight.

Steve

(Daniel Beckett) #2

Hi Steve,

Our Google Drive service is admittedly quite basic at the moment. The only available action is to add a new document and following that you only see the document ID as an output.

What you need to do may be possible by using Google Drive’s API but unfortunately the scope of a project like that falls outside of what I could provide support for :slightly_frowning_face: A quick glance at their documentation indicates that this wouldn’t necessarily be a simple task.

With your intention to use Google Docs and share it with the user, are you just looking to provide them with a copy of the document or do you intend to give them permission to edit the document?

If the intention is just to provide the user with a copy of the document then may I suggest that the contents just be sent as an email? You could populate the body of the email with any content captured in Google Sheets.

As far as alternative solutions go I’m afraid that I’m not too sure what to recommend. Even Zapier doesn’t look to have an option to share Google Drive documents using their integration. Perhaps another community member has undertaken similar projects before and could suggest a way that this could be done.

(prizewriting1@gmail.com) #3

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the informative reply, once again!

Unfortunately I need the document to be shared with the user, so they can work on it at the same time, not just a copy.

I don’t want to take up too much of your time!

One alternative I am considering is sharing a SmartSheet sheet that would either already have the document attached, or it would be manually attached a few hours after the client has made the order. The sharing function is integrated with Flow XO. But there seems to be a warning that sharing permissions could mess up the flow, as I have asked about here: Smart Sheet Integration Question

Thanks for the great support Dan (and anyone else who weighs in),

Steve

(Matt Durr) #4

Hi @steve_rob -

I would use the Flow integration to create the doc, then use the file id returned to share the file with the user (assuming you’ve already captured their email address in an earlier step).

The link you posted earlier has example code for doing this, that you should be able to use within a Flow Code step.

(prizewriting1@gmail.com) #5

Hi Matt,

Thanks for this! Sounds very promising.

I am regrettably not a coder, and this step is still a little ways out from where I am now.

So just to make sure I understand, you’re saying it should be possible for FlowXO to interact directly with Google Drive, sharing the file ID to their email automatically using the Flow XO Flow Code? I will try to test this soon if so.

Thanks for your help,

Steve

(Matt Durr) #6

Ah, sorry, no it can’t be done automatically. You would need to write custom code to do this in a Flow Code block (https://support.flowxo.com/article/145-code).