Getting past permissions for a file through the API/Apps Script

Question

I'm trying to create a list of files stored in my Google Drive and also a list of their current and previous permissions. Specifically, I want to create a list of files in my Google Drive which at any point in the past have had the 'Anyone with a link can view/edit (etc)' permission set.

I have created a Google Apps Script to do this and I can iterate through all the files OK and I can get files which currently have that permission set, but I can't see a way to get the history of the file's permissions.

I have found and activated the revisions list API: https://developers.google.com/drive/api/v2/reference/revisions/list

This gets revisions but I can't see anywhere that it lists the sharing history of a revision.

Is what I'm attempting to do possible?

Jescanellas Jescanellas · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-07T08:34:03

It's definitely possible using the Drive Activity API. You can use the Quickstart for Google Apps Script to view all the activity of an item (file or folder) or done by a User. In this case I modified the Quickstart to show the Permissions changes of a given Drive Id.

function listDriveActivity() {
  var request = {
     itemName: "items/1bFQvSJ8pMdss4jInrrg7bxdae3dKgu-tJqC1A2TktMs", //Id of the file
    pageSize: 10};
  var response = DriveActivity.Activity.query(request);
  var activities = response.activities;

  if (activities && activities.length > 0) {
    Logger.log('Recent activity:');

      for (var i = 0; i < activities.length; i++) {
      var activity = activities[i];
      var time = getTimeInfo(activity);
      var action = getActionInfo(activity.primaryActionDetail);
      var actors = activity.actors.map(getActorInfo);
      var targets = activity.targets.map(getTargetInfo);

      if (action == "permissionChange"){ //Only show permissionChange activity
      Logger.log(
          '%s: %s, %s, %s', time, truncated(actors), action,
          truncated(targets));
      }
    }
  } else {
    Logger.log('No activity.');
  }
}

/** Returns a string representation of the first elements in a list. */
function truncated(array, opt_limit) {
  var limit = opt_limit || 2;
  var contents = array.slice(0, limit).join(', ');
  var more = array.length > limit ? ', ...' : '';
  return '[' + contents + more + ']';
}

/** Returns the name of a set property in an object, or else "unknown". */
function getOneOf(object) {
  for (var key in object) {
    return key;
  }
  return 'unknown';
}

/** Returns a time associated with an activity. */
function getTimeInfo(activity) {
  if ('timestamp' in activity) {
    return activity.timestamp;
  }
  if ('timeRange' in activity) {
    return activity.timeRange.endTime;
  }
  return 'unknown';
}

/** Returns the type of action. */
function getActionInfo(actionDetail) {
  return getOneOf(actionDetail);
}

/** Returns user information, or the type of user if not a known user. */
function getUserInfo(user) {
  if ('knownUser' in user) {
    var knownUser = user.knownUser;
    var isMe = knownUser.isCurrentUser || false;
    return isMe ? 'people/me' : knownUser.personName;
  }
  return getOneOf(user);
}

/** Returns actor information, or the type of actor if not a user. */
function getActorInfo(actor) {
  if ('user' in actor) {
    return getUserInfo(actor.user)
  }
  return getOneOf(actor);
}

/** Returns the type of a target and an associated title. */
function getTargetInfo(target) {
  if ('driveItem' in target) {
    var title = target.driveItem.title || 'unknown';
    return 'driveItem:"' + title + '"';
  }
  if ('drive' in target) {
    var title = target.drive.title || 'unknown';
    return 'drive:"' + title + '"';
  }
  if ('fileComment' in target) {
    var parent = target.fileComment.parent || {};
    var title = parent.title || 'unknown';
    return 'fileComment:"' + title + '"';
  }
  return getOneOf(target) + ':unknown';
}

Remember to enable the Drive Activity API in Resources > Advanced Google Services

In my example this returns the logs:

You can also look deeper into the Permissions by using the permissionChange Parameters in the query.

Getting past permissions for a file through the API/Apps Script

2 Answers