I’m working with the Google Drive API v2 and need some help understanding how pagination works when listing files. I have a couple of questions about the parameters:
First question: What’s the highest number I can set for the maxResults parameter? Does this control how many files get returned in each page when I make the API call?
Second question: How exactly does the nextPageToken work? Do I just add it to my request URL as a query parameter when I want to fetch the next batch of files?
I’m trying to build a file browser that can handle large numbers of files efficiently, so understanding these pagination mechanics is really important for my project. Any help would be great!
Yeah, maxResults caps out at 1000, but I’ve found 100-500 works way better. Going too high causes timeouts and sluggish responses, especially in folders packed with files that have tons of metadata. For nextPageToken - you’ll get it back in the response if there’s more stuff to load. Just pass it as pageToken in your next request’s query string. Heads up though: these tokens expire, so your file browser needs to handle invalid tokens and restart pagination from scratch when that happens.
Yes, maxResults is indeed what dictates the number of files returned per page, with a ceiling at 1000. Based on my own development experience, I found that staying between 200-300 results in significantly better performance, especially when managing folders with a variety of file sizes and types.
Regarding the nextPageToken, you’ll receive it in the API response as nextPageToken. You must include it as pageToken in your subsequent request to continue fetching results. However, be cautious as these tokens are temporary. If there’s a substantial delay between your requests, the token may expire, forcing you to restart pagination, which can be problematic for applications that allow user pauses or navigation.
yo, maxResults is maxed at 1000 but going high can slow things down, so maybe stick to around 500. for the nextPageToken, just stick it as pageToken=your_token_here in the URL when you wanna move to the next batch. if no token comes back, that’s it!