Search Google Drive

[petebocken]

I currently use Found ( https://www.foundapp.com/ ) to search and easily open Google Drive documents in the browser.

 

I would like to use Alfred instead to open Google Drive documents in the browser.

 

I know I can install the official Google Drive Mac app and have it search that folder and launch the file which then opens the file in the web browser.  However, I do not want to sync all other files in my Google Drive (like PDFs, images, etc) to my Mac since I already use Insync to do that.  I can search for my Google Drive files inside my Insync folder, but that will just launch the Mac app instead of opening the file in the web browser.

 

I'm looking for a live search of Google Drive directly in Alfred and selecting the file in the list opens it in the web browser view.

 

[jdfwarrior]

I currently use Found ( https://www.foundapp.com/ ) to search and easily open Google Drive documents in the browser.

 

I would like to use Alfred instead to open Google Drive documents in the browser.

 

I know I can install the official Google Drive Mac app and have it search that folder and launch the file which then opens the file in the web browser.  However, I do not want to sync all other files in my Google Drive (like PDFs, images, etc) to my Mac since I already use Insync to do that.  I can search for my Google Drive files inside my Insync folder, but that will just launch the Mac app instead of opening the file in the web browser.

 

I'm looking for a live search of Google Drive directly in Alfred and selecting the file in the list opens it in the web browser view.

 

If Insync already syncs the files to your Mac, then Alfred should be able to search those documents, depending on where the files are at. Can Spotlight find the files?

[petebocken]

Yes, Alfred can see the Insync folder just fine.  However, I want to be able to launch the Google Drive files in the web browser at drive.google.com, not the OS X file which opens in the native app like Word, Excel, etc.

 

 

If Insync already syncs the files to your Mac, then Alfred should be able to search those documents, depending on where the files are at. Can Spotlight find the files?

[jdfwarrior]

Yes, Alfred can see the Insync folder just fine.  However, I want to be able to launch the Google Drive files in the web browser at drive.google.com, not the OS X file which opens in the native app like Word, Excel, etc.

 

One more quick question then, I don't use Google Drive so I'm unfamiliar with how it links to the files. Could you potentially share a link to one of the files? Just so I can see what is passed? Is it some kind of unique identifier that points to the file? Or does it pass the actual file name? Reason I ask is, if it references the file name then we may could create you a filter that would only show Google Drive files and then make an actioned file in that filter create a url and open it.

[petebocken]

Really? Never used Google Docs even?  I'm guessing what you are talking about wouldn't work since the files in Google Drive are private to the user.  The links are like this "https://docs.google.com/a/domainname.com/file/d/0B2xt_lPQnhscejBiS0k5aEJhNUU"

 

You would first need to authenticate to Google via oAuth to then be able to search a user's Google Drive account: https://developers.google.com/drive/training/drive-apps/auth/

 

Alfred already has a Web Search > drive (Search Google Drive for '{query}' but this just passes your text to the website and requires an extra click to actually open the file in the website.

 

Looks like Google Docs indexing was on the table back in 2010: https://twitter.com/alfredapp/status/19810542596

 

I'm guessing the easiest way to accomplish this is to use the official Google Drive Mac app and index it's synced folder since it essentially saves files as bookmarks that when launched, open the file in the web browser.  I may end up doing this or just continue to use Found.

[rice.shawn]

You might have to dive into this: https://developers.google.com/drive/

 

It looks fun though. Maybe I'll play with writing one after I finish grading all the papers that I have left for the semester. Unless, of course, you write it first.

[petebocken]

I can also see being able to highlight a file in the Finder and have Alfred upload it to Google Drive, upload it and share it with another Google Drive user.

 

 

 

You might have to dive into this: https://developers.google.com/drive/

 

It looks fun though. Maybe I'll play with writing one after I finish grading all the papers that I have left for the semester. Unless, of course, you write it first.

[Ginfuru]

I can also see being able to highlight a file in the Finder and have Alfred upload it to Google Drive, upload it and share it with another Google Drive user.

 

One of the default features of Alfred is under Features >> File Search >> Opening Files: 

 

If you set that to say 'open' and then search for the file you're looking for inside of Insync It will open it in your browser

 

You could also create a File Filter workflow to do the same if you only want to search your Insync files