Can I access and play audio files from Google Docs using their API?

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1

Hey everyone,

I’m working on a project where I need to play audio files stored in Google Docs. I’m wondering if there’s a way to stream these files directly using the Google Docs API.

Has anyone done this before? I’m looking for solutions that work with common audio formats like MP3 or AAC. It would be great if I could avoid downloading the entire file before playback.

Any tips or code examples would be super helpful. Thanks in advance for your help!

Cheers,
Alex

2

hey alex, tried similar b4. google docs API is poor for audio. try google drive API instead, get download URLs and stream via a js lib like howler.js. auth issues can be tricky tho. good luck!

3

I’ve actually worked with the Google Docs API quite a bit, and unfortunately, it doesn’t support direct audio playback or streaming. The API is primarily designed for text-based content manipulation.

However, you might want to look into using Google Drive API instead. It allows you to access files stored in Google Drive, including audio files. You can use the files.get method to retrieve file metadata and download URLs. From there, you could potentially set up streaming using those URLs.

Keep in mind that this approach would require the audio files to be stored directly in Google Drive rather than embedded in a Google Doc. It’s a bit of a workaround, but it should achieve what you’re looking for in terms of audio playback functionality.

4

I’ve tackled a similar challenge recently, and while the Google Docs API isn’t ideal for audio, I found a workaround that might help. Instead of embedding audio in Docs, I switched to storing files in Google Drive and linking them in the document.

With the Drive API, you can fetch file metadata and get a downloadUrl. I used this URL with an audio player library (like Howler.js) to stream the audio without downloading the entire file first. It took some tweaking, but it works smoothly now.

One caveat: make sure you handle authentication properly. I initially hit some roadblocks with permissions, but once sorted, it’s been reliable. Also, consider caching frequently accessed files on your server to reduce API calls and improve performance.

Hope this helps point you in the right direction!