Issues accessing Google Slides presentation via PHP and cURL

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1

Hey everyone,

I’m running into a problem when trying to fetch a published Google Slides presentation using PHP and cURL. Regular Google Docs work fine, but presentations are giving me trouble. I’ve already reached out to Google support, but they couldn’t help and suggested I ask here.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

  1. Using cURL to access the presentation, but I got an SSL error.
  2. Added an SSL vhost to my dev box, but now I’m getting redirected to a Google support page about clearing cookies.
  3. Tried different cURL options and played around with cookie settings, but no luck.

My PHP code looks something like this:

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $presentation_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
// ... more options ...
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

I’ve also attempted to use the Google Docs API export URL, but it’s asking me to sign in and then says the file doesn’t exist.

Has anyone successfully retrieved Google Slides presentations using PHP? Any suggestions or alternative approaches would be super helpful. Thanks in advance!

2

hey man, have u tried using a proxy server? sometimes google can be picky bout IP addresses. u could set up a proxy with curl options like CURLOPT_PROXY and CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE. might help bypass those annoying redirects ur getting. worth a shot if nothing else is workin for ya

3

I’ve dealt with similar issues when working with Google Slides, and I can tell you it’s not always straightforward. Have you considered using a headless browser like Puppeteer? It’s a Node.js library that can control Chrome or Chromium, which might help bypass some of the issues you’re facing with cURL.

With Puppeteer, you can navigate to the Google Slides URL, wait for the content to load, and then extract the HTML. This approach simulates a real browser session, which can help avoid redirects and authentication problems. You’d need to set up a Node.js environment and use PHP to execute the Node script, but it could be worth the effort if you’re consistently running into walls with cURL.

Just keep in mind that this method might be slower than direct API access, so it’s best suited for occasional use rather than high-frequency requests. Also, make sure you’re complying with Google’s terms of service when scraping content.

4

Have you considered using the Google Slides API instead of direct cURL requests? It is a more robust solution for accessing presentations programmatically. You will need to set up OAuth 2.0 credentials and employ the Google API Client Library for PHP. This method sidesteps many of the SSL and redirect issues that arise with direct URL scraping.

A basic workflow involves setting up a Google Cloud project, enabling the Slides API, creating the necessary credentials, installing the client library, and finally using it to authenticate and fetch your presentation data. Although it involves more initial setup, the process is ultimately more reliable and secure.