Hey everyone,
I’ve been using Google Docs a lot lately and I noticed something cool. You can publish your document straight to a blog from the app itself. It’s in the Share menu under ‘Publish as a web page’.
I’m really curious about how this works behind the scenes. Does anyone know what kind of data format or protocol Google Docs uses to talk to these blog servers? I’d love to set up my own server that could receive posts this way.
I know I could probably figure it out by looking at the code of supported blog platforms, but I’m hoping there might be some official specs out there. It would make things a lot easier.
Has anyone here tried to do something similar or know where I could find more info on this? Any tips would be super helpful!
Thanks!
I’ve actually experimented with this a bit myself. From what I gathered, Google Docs uses a custom API for publishing, not a standard protocol like AtomPub. It’s not publicly documented, which makes creating a custom server tricky.
However, I found a workaround that might interest you. Instead of trying to replicate Google’s publishing system, I set up a Google Apps Script that automatically exports my Doc to HTML and pushes it to my own server via a webhook. This gives me more control over the formatting and lets me integrate it with my existing CMS.
It took some trial and error to get the formatting right, especially for things like images and tables. But once it was set up, it worked seamlessly. You could potentially expand on this idea to create a more robust publishing system that mimics the ease of use of Google’s built-in feature.
Just remember to be mindful of API usage limits if you go this route. Hope this helps point you in a useful direction!
hey, i’ve messed around with this too. google’s pretty tight-lipped about their publishing stuff. but u could try using zapier or IFTTT to automate the process. they can grab ur google doc content and post it wherever u want. not exactly wat ur looking for, but might be a good workaround til someone cracks the code. good luck!
I’ve looked into this as well, and it’s not as straightforward as one might hope. Google’s publishing system is proprietary, making it challenging to replicate exactly. However, there are alternative approaches you could consider.
One option is to use Google’s Drive API to access document content programmatically. You could set up a server that periodically checks for updates to specific documents and then processes and publishes them to your desired platform. This method gives you more control over the publishing process but requires more setup on your end.
Another possibility is to explore third-party tools that integrate with Google Docs and offer publishing features. Some content management systems have plugins or extensions that can pull content directly from Google Docs.
Ultimately, creating a custom publishing server that works exactly like Google’s built-in feature is likely beyond the scope of what’s feasible without insider knowledge. But with some creative problem-solving, you can achieve similar functionality using available APIs and tools.