Integrating Google Drive with Google Sites (intranet) - google-api

I've setup a Google apps account with the view to use it for my intranet, email, document sharing etc.
With this is Google Sites, in which I have created a basic intranet site, my understanding originally was that Google Sites would enable me to integrate with Google Drive (formerly Google Docs). I presumed it would be easy to create a "Documents" page in my intranet and then display recent documents that were added to Google Drive.
However if you do create a Documents page in Google Sites then this seems to be completely separate from the Documents in Google Drive.
I have read about Google Picker API but I'm not completely sure this is what I'm looking for.
Has anybody any experience of using Google Drive for business in this way? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
Any help would be great thank you

You'll have to get into the scripting a bit. see this link for one way to solve this https://developers.google.com/apps-script/articles/embedding_docslist_in_sites
And yes Sites have a 'file cabinet' which is completely separate form Google Drive.

Overdrive provides this functionality. It is a commercial product though. The folder structure within Overdrive matches the Google Drive folder structure. Documents you see listed within a folder in Overdrive are the same as those you can access directly in Google Drive.
I have no affiliation with this company, I've just been trialling it.

Another product you can use to do such kind of integration is Metadrive. This tool give you the possibility to create views and search within Google Drive and Team Drives.

Related

How do you get a Google Apps Script code to be available for every single spreadsheet in your drive without copy-pasting?

I am using a shared Google account and the rest of the people with access to the account have even less programming knowledge than me. I have a custom function that greatly helps us to reduce the time we spend on a repetitive task but we need to do that task on many sheets and more sheets are continuously being added to the Drive.
They are not too comfortable with bringing up the Apps Script editor each time the code needs to be run so I have been trying to add a custom menu to the GSheets UI so the function can be run just by clicking on one button.
Is there a way for me to get this menu to appear on every single GSheet in the Drive?
I have searched high and low for the answer to this question and have been asked to use libraries and to publish the script as an add-on. I read that libraries might slow down the script execution and the editor still needs to be brought up so I tried the add-on method instead.
After spending hours navigating through the confusing maze that is the Google Cloud Platform and Google Marketplace SDK, I found out that to pass OAuth verification, I need to have my own domain and we just don't have the budget for domain hosting.
Any help or solutions offered would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Where do apps live?

This is a naive question. I'm creating my first app (using Phonegap). I'll create versions in both the App Store and Google Play Store. My question is: where will the downloadable files live?
I haven't been able to find the answer online, because I'm not sure how to phrase the question in a simple Google search. I've thought of 2 possibilities:
The downloadable files live on my server. When someone chooses to install the app from the App Store or the Google Play Store, that store authorizes the download from my server.
The downloadable file lives on the App Store's servers or the Google Play Store servers. When someone chooses to download it, the file is served directly by them.
I'm almost sure the answer is #2. That makes the most sense. But I haven't found confirmation online.
You can opt to host it on your server or use services provided by Google and Apple.
Hosting on your server will require you to maintain those servers , etc.. Hosting with Google & Apple will take away that maintenance.
Use Google Expansion Files for Google Play Store App and Content Hosting for Apple
Google Allow APK size of 100 MB any additional files can be uploaded using Expansion files. Refer to this link - https://developer.android.com/google/play/expansion-files.html
Maximum file size for an IPA file is 2 GB in Apple. If you are using Apple's in-app purchase module , then you can upload additional files using Content Hosting given by apple. Refer to this link https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnectInAppPurchase_Guide/Chapters/CreatingInAppPurchaseProducts.html

Google Home Smart Home integration

Alexa has two kind of Skills: Custom and Smart Home. Smart Home Skills support a predefined API to interact with smart home devices (lights, etc). I can't find anything close to this in the documentation for Google Smart Home. Should I have to develop all the dialogs from scratch or Google have something already done?
Google now has a special kind of action called Smart Home App.
It's similar to Alexa's smart home skill.
You can find its document here:
https://developers.google.com/actions/smarthome/
To create a smart home app, follow the instructions here:
https://developers.google.com/actions/smarthome/create-app
Hope this will help you out. Good Luck.

Online Powerpoint Slide Editor

Is there anything like Google Slides, which can be integrated into the app we are building?
If not, then atleast a way to programmatically import the ppt file, and navigate to the editor for editing?
Any suggestions will be appreciated...
There's an official powerpoint online editor now. You could theoretically put an iframe linking to this page. It seems to require a 365 or Microsoft account, though.
I had a similar requirement and have tested both the online offerings of Microsoft Office (SharePoint, One Drive) and Google docs. However, I finally decided on Only Office (https://www.onlyoffice.com/). The reasons for this were:
The Google and Microsoft offerings didn't (AFAIAK) have the fine tuned security I needed for document editing and access via their various API (i.e. I needed to be able to prevent downloads of documents but allow editing)
Google and Microsoft require sign-in from their respective platforms to use these. This was a UX problem for my project.
Depending on the specific requirement Only Office has the Document Server on a GNU APGL v3 licence. You may need to buy a licence but worth a check.
Their repo is here:
https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/

Automatic download/upload

We are going to develop a client-server application with web interface which will store office documents on server.
When we use browser as a client we need to perform these three steps to edit a document:
download document to the local machine;
open it in office program and edit;
upload document to the server.
It is very inconvenient. Sometimes it is hard to find where a document was downloaded to, when we need to upload it. Customers will also forget to upload document after editing.
Is there any way or technology to upload document automatically?
Or just any ideas how to make this process more convenient.
Thanks in advance!
I would, suggest, if applicable to store all documents as HTML then allowing editing in a web page powered by CKEditor or a similar tool.
If your documents must be in another format, like Office formats, you might start thinking at Office 365, or use ActiveX controls in your web application, something I believe should be deprecated but works in small (better restricted) enterprise environments.
These are just a couple of ideas.

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