Automatically display Google Drive PDFs on Google Sites

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1

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to set up a system where my Google Drive PDFs show up on my Google Sites page automatically. I want it to look like a table with:

  • PDF thumbnails
  • PDF file names
  • Links to the PDFs in Google Drive

The tricky part is I want it to update on its own. So when I add a new PDF to my Drive, it should appear on the Sites page without me doing anything.

Is this possible? If so, how can I make it happen? I’ve got a ton of PDFs and manually updating the list would be a real pain.

Any tips or tricks would be super helpful. Thanks in advance!

2

I’ve tackled a similar challenge in my work. One effective approach is to utilize Google Apps Script in conjunction with the Google Drive API. You can create a script that periodically scans your designated Drive folder, extracts metadata for each PDF, and updates a Google Sheet with this information.

Then, on your Google Sites page, embed this sheet using the ‘Chart from Sheets’ option. Configure it to display as a table, showing thumbnails, file names, and links. While not instantaneous, this method provides a near-automatic solution with minimal ongoing maintenance.

The script can be set to run automatically at specified intervals, ensuring your Sites page stays current. It does require some initial setup and basic scripting knowledge, but it’s quite manageable with some patience and Google’s documentation.

3

hey there! i’ve got a neat trick for ya. use google apps script to make a function that checks ur drive folder and makes an HTML table with the PDF info. then set it to run daily or whatever. for the sites part, make a web app to show the HTML and use an iframe on ur page. it’s not perfect but pretty close to wat u want. lemme know if u need help setting it up!

4

I’ve actually implemented something similar for my team’s documentation site. While it’s not a perfect automatic solution, I found a workaround that’s pretty close.

We use Google Apps Script to create a custom function that scans a specific folder in Drive, extracts the PDF info, and generates an HTML table. This script runs on a time-based trigger (like once a day) to update the content.

The tricky part was embedding this dynamically generated content into Sites. We ended up creating a separate Google Web App that serves the HTML, then used an iframe on our Sites page to display it.

It’s not instant, but it updates regularly without manual intervention. The initial setup took some tinkering, but now it’s hands-off. If you’re comfortable with some light coding, it’s definitely doable. Let me know if you want more specifics on the script or setup process.