Google Drive File Reader API

Python 3.6

Summary

This API lets user read the files directly from their Google Drive. Currently, this supports reading of plain text file formats like - txt, csv etc.

This is designed to work with AWS Lambda and AWS API Gateway; nonetheless, it will work on any other server by tweaking main.py as per specific requirements.

Pre-Requisite

• Python 3.6 (not tested for compatibility with other versions)
• Pip
• A service account in Google API Developer Console.
• Environment variable SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE_CONTENT (description below)

Description

• This API connects to Google Drive via service account's json file (using OAuth 2.0). Read more about service accounts, go to Reference #2.

• A service account is different from user account; which implies that the files on Google Drive for my_personal_email@gmail.com are not accessible to api-user@project-id.iam.gserviceaccount.com (service account's email ID). To allow access to person drive files, one should share the file with service account email ID. Refer section 'Computer > Choose who to share with > Specific People' from this link.

• Use of environment variable - As a general practice, it is not preferred for credentials to be inside repo or hardcoded. Hence, I have used environment variable SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE_CONTENT to hold contents of service account JSON file (a sample of this is available in repo).

Installation

pip install -r requirements.txt or pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Code

• main.py: lambda_handler(): event, context AWS Lambda passes the event and context param to bootstrap function. event receives the input JSON from AWS Lambda; context param is unused.

• Rest is self explanatory

Payload

Type - application/json, Python dict

Sample Payload - { "filename":"myfile.txt" }

Response

Type - plain text

Sample Response - This is the content of file myfile.txt

References and Documentations

1. Drive API Reference Python - https://developers.google.com/resources/api-libraries/documentation/drive/v3/python/latest/drive_v3.files.html#get_media
2. Google Service Account OAuth 2.0 - https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/OAuth2ServiceAccount