Python: Unable to download user documents with admin access in Google Docs (403 Forbidden)

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1

Hey everyone! I’m having a tough time with Google Docs API in Python. I’m trying to download user documents using admin access, but I keep getting a 403 Forbidden error. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

  1. I’ve set up authentication using both clientLogin and OAuth tokens with my domain key.
  2. I can get document feeds for all users in the domain.
  3. I’m using the ‘entry’ from the feed to export/download documents.

The problem is, I can’t access documents that aren’t shared with the admin. I’ve tried adding xoauth_requestor_id to the URI and as a client property, but no luck.

Here’s a simplified version of what I’m doing:

# Set up client
client = gdata.docs.client.DocsClient()
client.ClientLogin('[email protected]', 'password', 'HOSTED')

# Get user feed
feed = client.GetDocList(uri='https://docs.google.com/feeds/[email protected]/private/full/')

# Try to export document
for entry in feed.entry:
    client.Export(entry, 'document.doc', extra_params={'xoauth_requestor_id': '[email protected]'})

Any ideas on what I’m missing? I feel like I’ve tried everything! Thanks in advance for any help!

2

I’ve dealt with similar issues when working with the Google Docs API. One thing that helped me was using a service account instead of client login or OAuth. Service accounts have more privileges and can act on behalf of domain users.

Here’s what worked for me:

  1. Create a service account in Google Cloud Console
  2. Enable domain-wide delegation for the service account
  3. Use the service account credentials in your Python script

The code would look something like this:

from google.oauth2 import service_account
from googleapiclient.discovery import build

creds = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(
    'path/to/service_account.json',
    scopes=['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive'],
    subject='[email protected]'
)

service = build('drive', 'v3', credentials=creds)

# Now you can use the service to access and download documents

This approach bypassed the 403 errors for me and allowed access to user documents. Hope this helps!

3

yo, have u checked ur admin permissions? sometimes theyre wonky. also, try using the drive API instead of docs. it’s way more flexible for this kinda stuff. i had better luck with it when i was doing smthing similar. just make sure u got the right scopes set up

4

I encountered a similar issue when working on a project for my company. The solution that worked for us was using the Google Drive API instead of the Docs API. It provides more comprehensive access to files, including those not explicitly shared.

Here’s the approach we took:

  1. Set up a service account with domain-wide delegation, as mentioned by OwenNebula55.
  2. Use the Drive API’s files().list() method to retrieve all files for a user.
  3. Then use files().get() with the ‘alt’ parameter set to ‘media’ to download each file.

This method bypassed the 403 errors we were seeing and allowed us to access and download user documents across the domain. It’s worth noting that this approach requires careful handling of permissions and data privacy considerations.