How to export Google Docs as plain text using Android Drive API

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1

I managed to create a file picker for Google Drive that lets users select and read regular files. But I’m stuck when it comes to Google Docs files. I want to export them as plain text so I can read their content in my app.

Most solutions I found online use the REST API instead of the Android Drive API. I’m wondering if there’s a way to do this with the regular Android API that I’m already using.

Here’s my current code for reading file contents:

private class FetchFileContentTask extends ApiClientAsyncTask<DriveId, Boolean, String> {

    public FetchFileContentTask(Context ctx) {
        super(ctx);
    }

    @Override
    protected String doInBackgroundConnected(DriveId... fileIds) throws IOException {
        String fileContent = null;
        DriveId selectedFile = fileIds[0];
        DriveFile driveFile = selectedFile.asDriveFile();
        DriveApi.DriveContentsResult contentResult =
                driveFile.open(getGoogleApiClient(), DriveFile.MODE_READ_ONLY, null).await();
        if (!contentResult.getStatus().isSuccess()) {
            return null;
        }
        DriveContents contents = contentResult.getDriveContents();
        BufferedReader fileReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(contents.getInputStream()));
        StringBuilder textBuilder = new StringBuilder();
        String currentLine;
        while ((currentLine = fileReader.readLine()) != null) {
            textBuilder.append(currentLine);
            textBuilder.append('\n');
        }
        fileContent = textBuilder.toString();
        contents.discard(getGoogleApiClient());
        return fileContent;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(String content) {
        super.onPostExecute(content);
        if (content == null) {
            return;
        }
        Intent newIntent = new Intent(getContext(), TextEditorActivity.class);
        newIntent.putExtra("documentText", content);
        startActivity(newIntent);
    }
}

This works fine for regular files but doesn’t handle Google Docs properly. Any ideas?

2

hey! yeah, google docs can be tricky since they’re not plain text. try the export option through the rest api, or check out google drive api v3 - it’s got better support. good luck!

3

Had this exact problem 6 months ago building a document reader app. The Android Drive API just can’t export Google Docs - it’s a known limitation Google never fixed before killing the API. I solved it with a hybrid approach: kept the Android API for regular files, but added REST calls specifically for Google Docs export. Check the MIME type (application/vnd.google-apps.document) to detect Google Docs, then hit the Drive REST API’s export endpoint with a separate HTTP request. You’ll need extra auth setup, but it gets you the plain text you’re after. Not too painful since you can reuse your existing OAuth credentials.

4

The Android Drive API doesn’t support exporting Google Docs files. Google Docs use a proprietary format, not plain text, so your code won’t work on them. You’ll need the REST API with the export parameter to convert them to text. I hit this same problem last year and had to switch to HTTP requests with Drive REST API v3. The export endpoint lets you specify text/plain as the MIME type. It’s more work, but there’s no other way to get readable content from Google Docs.