Limiting access in Google Drive

Question

In Dropbox, you can request user authentication such that a special app folder is created for your web app. Folders and files placed into that folder are directly accessible by your web app via the Dropbox API, but you don't have access to the user's entire drive.

Is there an equivalent for Google Drive? It seems like it is all or nothing, with either the user granting the app full read/write access for their entire drive, or not at all. Am I reading that correctly?

I'm aware that there is an "Application Data" folder option for the Google Drive API, but this is different as users are specifically unable to access the contents of that folder. What I want is a single folder that the user can add or remove files from, and when they do so those files are synced to the main web app.

yes its possible but at the file level. see the file scope. not at folder level. — Zig Mandel
Drive.file scope limits access to only those files the app created. That doesn't sound like the op's requirement. — pinoyyid
@pinoyyid if the "file" I create is actually a folder (i.e. a file with the mime type application/vnd.google-apps.folder - developers.google.com/drive/web/folder#creating_a_folder), will I have access to files created inside that folder, even if by the user? — Jordan Reiter

pinoyyid pinoyyid · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-23T06:24:42

I've never tried this, and I'm currently traveling so can't test it, but try drive.file scope, and then share a non app file with the email address associated with your app (you can see this in the API console).

Let us know if it works :-)

Limiting access in Google Drive

1 Answers