Converting various Google Drive file types to HTML using Apps Script

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1

I’m working on a project to turn different kinds of files in my Google Drive into HTML. I need to do this for Word docs, Excel sheets, PDFs, and Google’s own Docs and Sheets. The goal is to put these HTML versions into a Salesforce Knowledge Base.

I wrote some code to do this but it’s not working right. When I run it, I get an error message in a text file. The error says something about a missing ‘mimeType’ parameter.

Here’s a simplified version of what I tried:

function convertToHtml() {
  const sourceFolder = DriveApp.getFolderById('source123');
  const files = sourceFolder.getFiles();
  
  while (files.hasNext()) {
    const file = files.next();
    const htmlUrl = makeHtmlVersion(file.getId());
    console.log(htmlUrl);
  }
}

function makeHtmlVersion(fileId) {
  const apiUrl = `https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/${fileId}/export`;
  const options = {
    method: 'get',
    headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${ScriptApp.getOAuthToken()}` },
    muteHttpExceptions: true
  };
  
  const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(apiUrl, options);
  const htmlContent = response.getContentText();
  const newFile = DriveApp.createFile('ExportedHtml', htmlContent, MimeType.HTML);
  return newFile.getUrl();
}

Can anyone spot what I’m doing wrong or suggest a better way to convert these files to HTML?

2

hey mia, i’ve had similar probs. your code’s missing the mimeType in the API call. try adding ‘?mimeType=text/html’ to your apiUrl. also, different file types might need different approaches. for PDFs, you might need a separate solution or external service. good luck with your project!

3

I’ve been down this road before, and it can be tricky. Your approach is on the right track, but there are a few things to consider. First, as others mentioned, you need to specify the mimeType in your API call. But beyond that, you might want to create a switch statement to handle different file types.

For Google Docs and Sheets, you can use the getAs() method directly. For other file types like Word and Excel, you’ll need to use the export API. PDFs are a different beast altogether - you might need to look into using something like Google Cloud Vision API for text extraction.

Also, don’t forget about rate limits when dealing with a large number of files. You might want to add some Utilities.sleep() calls to avoid hitting API quotas. And lastly, error handling is crucial - wrap your main logic in try-catch blocks to gracefully handle any issues that might pop up during the conversion process.

Keep at it, and you’ll get there!

4

I’ve encountered similar issues when working with the Drive API for file conversions. The error you’re getting about a missing ‘mimeType’ parameter is likely because the export endpoint requires you to specify the desired output format.

To fix this, you need to add the mimeType as a query parameter in your API URL. For HTML conversion, use ‘text/html’. Also, different file types may require different approaches.

Here’s a modified version of your makeHtmlVersion function that should work better:

function makeHtmlVersion(fileId) {
  const file = DriveApp.getFileById(fileId);
  const mimeType = file.getMimeType();
  let htmlContent;

  if (mimeType === MimeType.GOOGLE_DOCS) {
    htmlContent = file.getAs('text/html').getDataAsString();
  } else {
    const apiUrl = `https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/${fileId}/export?mimeType=text/html`;
    const options = {
      method: 'get',
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${ScriptApp.getOAuthToken()}` },
      muteHttpExceptions: true
    };
    const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(apiUrl, options);
    htmlContent = response.getContentText();
  }

  const newFile = DriveApp.createFile('ExportedHtml.html', htmlContent, MimeType.HTML);
  return newFile.getUrl();
}

This should handle Google Docs and most other convertible file types. For PDFs, you might need a different approach, possibly using a third-party service.