Retrieve Google Document Content as Plain Text

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1

Hey everyone, I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the content of a Google Doc as plain text in Java. I don’t want any formatting, just the raw text. I’ve looked everywhere but can’t find a straightforward way to do this.

Is there a way to grab the text content from a Google Doc URL and store it in a String variable? Something like this:

String docContent = getGoogleDocText("google-doc-url-here");

I’m hoping to do this without using any external libraries. Just standard Java stuff. Is this even possible? I’d really appreciate any help or pointers on this. Thanks!

2

hey john, i’ve had this issue too - try using the google drive api to export your doc as plain txt. you’ll need to set up a cloud project and get some api keys, but it’s simpler than digging thru docs api formatting mess.

3

I’ve actually tackled this issue in a previous project. Although it isn’t as straightforward as a single function call, you can retrieve the plain text from a Google Doc by leveraging the Google Docs API. This approach requires setting up a Google Cloud project, configuring credentials, and enabling the Google Docs API. Once that’s done, you can call the Documents.get() method to fetch the document content. You will then need to parse the structured response to extract the raw text, which can be tedious but ultimately effective.

4

While it’s not possible to directly retrieve Google Doc content as plain text using just standard Java, there is a workaround that might suit your needs. You could use the Google Drive API to export the document as plain text. This method still requires some setup, including creating a Google Cloud project and obtaining credentials, but it’s more straightforward than parsing the Docs API response.

Here’s a high-level overview of the steps:

  1. Set up Google Cloud project and enable Drive API
  2. Authenticate your application
  3. Use the Files.export method to download the document as text/plain
  4. Read the exported content into a String

This approach gives you raw text without formatting, which seems to be what you’re after. It’s not as simple as your example function, but it’s achievable with Java’s standard libraries and the Google API client.