Android app integration with Google's cloud storage

Other Questions Google drive
1

Hey everyone! I’m having a tough time with Google’s cloud storage API for my Android app. Dropbox was a breeze to set up, but Google’s stuff is giving me headaches.

Their SDK is huge and confusing. It’s making my app way bigger than it should be. I’ve looked everywhere for examples, but I can’t find anything helpful.

Does anyone know of any good sample apps or tutorials? I’m just trying to do basic file uploads and downloads. Even a simple code snippet would be super helpful. Thanks in advance!

fun uploadFile(fileName: String, fileContent: ByteArray) {
    // Code to upload file to Google's cloud storage
}

fun downloadFile(fileName: String): ByteArray {
    // Code to download file from Google's cloud storage
    return byteArray
}

I’d really appreciate any guidance on this. It’s driving me crazy!

2

I’ve been through the same struggle with Google’s cloud storage API. It’s definitely not as straightforward as Dropbox. What worked for me was using the Google Drive API instead of the Cloud Storage API directly. It’s more user-friendly and has better documentation.

For file uploads, you can use the Drive.Files.create() method. Here’s a basic example:

val fileMetadata = File()
    .setName("myfile.txt")
val mediaContent = InputStreamContent("text/plain", FileInputStream(filePath))
val file = drive.files().create(fileMetadata, mediaContent).execute()

For downloads, use Drive.Files.get() with the file ID:

val outputStream = FileOutputStream(filePath)
drive.files().get(fileId).executeMediaAndDownloadTo(outputStream)

Hope this helps you get started. The Drive API documentation has more detailed examples and explanations.

3

I’ve been working with Google’s cloud storage API recently, and I feel your pain. It’s not the most intuitive system out there. One thing that really helped me was using the Google Cloud Storage client library for Java. It simplifies a lot of the complexity.

Here’s a basic snippet for uploading:

val storage = StorageOptions.getDefaultInstance().service
val blobId = BlobId.of("your-bucket-name", "path/to/your/file.txt")
val blobInfo = BlobInfo.newBuilder(blobId).setContentType("text/plain").build()
storage.create(blobInfo, fileContent)

For downloading:

val blob = storage.get(blobId)
val content = blob.getContent()

It’s still not perfect, but it’s more manageable than dealing with the raw API. Also, make sure you’re using the latest version of the library - they’ve made some improvements recently. Good luck with your project!

4

hey, have u tried using Firebase Storage? its way easier than Google’s cloud storage API for android apps. i used it in my last project and it was pretty straightforward. heres a quick example for uploading:

val storageRef = storage.reference
val fileRef = storageRef.child("files/myfile.txt")
fileRef.putBytes(fileContent).addOnSuccessListener {
    // File uploaded successfully
}

hope this helps!