I’m working on a project where I need to let customers save purchased digital files straight to their Google Drive. I don’t want to use Google Checkout for this process.
Basically what I’m trying to do:
I have my own payment system and store all the files on my servers.
After someone buys something, I want to give them an option to save the file directly to their Google Drive instead of just downloading it.
Is there a way to create a button or link that would let users authenticate with their Google account and then transfer the file from my server to their Drive? I’ve been looking into the Google Drive API but I’m not sure if this is the right approach.
Any suggestions or examples would be really helpful. Thanks!
Using the Google Drive API is indeed the correct approach for allowing users to send files directly to their Drive. To accomplish this, you must implement OAuth 2.0 to grant the necessary permissions for file uploads. After setting up your Google Cloud project and enabling the Drive API, you can utilize the files.create method for uploads. Ensure that the authentication flow is correctly handled on your backend, as secure access tokens are crucial for this operation. The user experience should be seamless; they will simply click the button, authenticate, and their files will transfer without hassle.
totally agree! the Drive API is the key here. just get that OAuth going so users can link their Drive accounts. after auth, you can use files.create to send files from your server. don’t forget to keep those auth tokens safe!
Built something like this last year - hit a few snags that’ll save you headaches. Drive API’s solid but nail down your scope permissions first. Just request what you actually need (https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file) instead of full Drive access. Users freak out otherwise. File size limits and timeouts got me early on. Anything over a few MB needs resumable uploads or you’re asking for trouble. UX matters too - throw up a progress bar during uploads. People expect to see something happening. Auth popups get blocked constantly, so prep a fallback message explaining what’s going on. Performance tip: stream files straight from your server to Drive. Way better than dumping to temp storage first.