Which Is the best way to use file storage for Android app by Google API? Google Drive sdk or Google cloud Storage API?

2
votes

I want to build the Android App which downloads many files from server securely. I want use the Google api! Right know I confused which one use when in Google Drive sdk API's or Google cloud storage?

Requirement :

I want to download the files (20mb to 40mb Zip files) securely with authentication to file server or cloud server. I want to know is it possible with google api's available.

I found that some sample codes available for Google Drive sdk for Android but no samples available for Google Cloud Storage api in android!

Any guidance for google cloud storage download for Android App Any help will be helpful to me.

Note: I can't use APK expansion file which downloads all data at once.

2
androidgoogle-drive-apigoogle-api-java-clientgoogle-cloud-storage
Check this out to choose your storage options: cloud.google.com/docs/storing-your-data – live-love

2 Answers

3
votes

It sounds like either service could be used for your purpose, however I think Google Storage would be a better fit. Drive is better suited for storing user-specific files such as settings, application state, or backup. Uses Google Storage you could access the files securely via a service account that only your app has access to. Google storage also has ACLs so you could add/remove access as needed to each user if you wanted to take that route.

You can access the Storage API by using standard REST protocols however Google has created some great client libs that take the hard work out of it. The client libs are pretty standard across most of there APIs (including new appengine endpoints) so once you learn one service you can easily use one of the others. Below is a link to an example for cloud storage. They are written for appengine and command line so they may need to be some modification and checking the dependencies to make sure you have the android jars.

http://code.google.com/p/google-api-java-client/wiki/APIs#Cloud_Storage_API

Hope this helps.

1
votes

Google Cloud Storage is a more appropriate service to serve files in "Web" scale. Drive focuses on user data and applications around it. There are several quotas that are fine-tuned for user focused usage, I'd not consider it as an alternative of Google Cloud Storage.