I’m interested in finding out if Google Docs can send automated updates to a URL I specify. Specifically, I want to know if it can issue a POST request to my server when documents are added, altered, or deleted within a designated folder. Although I realize there is an RSS feed that can be checked periodically, I’m curious if there’s a more efficient method that pushes notifications in real-time, instead of me needing to manually check for changes. I’m developing an application that requires quick responses to document updates, so a push mechanism would be ideal.
Google Docs doesn’t support webhooks directly, but you can utilize the Google Drive API to receive real-time notifications. I have successfully implemented this in various applications. By setting up a notification channel with the Drive API’s watch method on your specified folder, you’ll receive POST requests to your endpoint whenever files are added, changed, or removed. While there’s initial setup involved, including domain verification and ensuring your endpoint has SSL, this method provides immediate notifications instead of relying on periodic polling. You will receive basic information about the changes, although additional API requests may be needed for specific document content.
Just set this up last month - the Drive API notifications work great once you figure out the setup. Watch out for channel expiration though. Your watch requests will silently die if you don’t renew them regularly. The notification payload is pretty bare-bones too, so you’ll need follow-up API calls to grab actual document details when stuff changes. Still way better than polling, especially for busy folders. Domain verification took me about a day, so plan for that if you’re on a tight deadline.
google drive api works great but fair warning - you’ll get bombarded with notifications. tons of duplicate pings. and double-check ur ssl cert is properly configured or google will just reject ur webhook. learned that the hard way after hours of troubleshooting lol.