Google Drive

The Google Drive action allows you to upload files to your Google Drive.

It supports various file types and can generate files dynamically using file generators, including text files, PDFs, CSVs, and HTML files. Mechanic interacts with Google Drive via the Google Drive API, using OAuth2 for authentication.

Options

Option	Type	Description
account	string	Required: the Google account email address to authenticate with
uploads	hash	Required: a has specifying files to upload and their contents

Uploads hash structure

The uploads hash supports these properties:

Property	Type	Description
overwrite	boolean	Optional: when true, files with matching names will be overwritten. Defaults to false
[path/filename]	string | hash	One or more file paths mapped to their content. Paths can include folders (e.g., 'reports/monthly/file.txt'). Content can be either a direct string or a file generator object.

Authentication

This action requires connecting a Google account with the appropriate Drive permissions. To connect an account:

1. Go to the Settings screen

2. Click Authentication

3. Follow the Google account connection flow

Folder Support

Files can be organized in folders by including path information in the filename:

• Use forward slashes to separate folder names (e.g., "reports/2024/monthly/file.pdf")

• Folders will be created automatically if they don't exist

• Can only access folders created by this integration

• Invalid characters not allowed: < > : " / \ | ? *

Path Examples

reports/monthly/report.pdf        # Three levels deep
data/2024/q1/sales.csv           # Four levels deep
archives/backups/files.zip        # Three levels deep

Examples

Simple Text File Upload

{% action "google_drive" %}
  {
    "account": "[e-mail]",
    "uploads": {
      "simple.txt": "Hello world!"
    }
  }
{% endaction %}

Multiple Files with Overwrite

{% action "google_drive" %}
  {
    "account": "[e-mail]",
    "uploads": {
      "overwrite": true,
      "report.pdf": {
        "pdf": {
          "html": "<h1>Monthly Report</h1><p>This is a PDF generated from HTML</p>"
        }
      },
      "data.csv": "Date,Value\n2024-01-01,100"
    }
  }
{% endaction %}

Files in Folders

{% action "google_drive" %}
  {
    "account": "[e-mail]",
    "uploads": {
      "overwrite": true,
      "reports/monthly/sales.pdf": {
        "pdf": {
          "html": "<h1>Monthly Sales Report</h1><p>Data for this month</p>"
        }
      },
      "data/exports/stats.csv": "Date,Value\n2024-01-01,100",
      "archive/backups/data.zip": {
        "zip": {
          "files": {
            "readme.txt": "Backup files",
            "data.csv": "id,value\n1,test"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
{% endaction %}

Dynamic File Generation

{% capture report_content %}
  <h1>{{ shop.name }} - Monthly Report</h1>
  <p>Generated on {{ "now" | date: "%Y-%m-%d" }}</p>
  <ul>
    {% for order in shop.orders %}
      <li>{{ order.name }}</li>
    {% endfor %}
  </ul>
{% endcapture %}

{% action "google_drive" %}
  {
    "account": {{ options.google_account | json }},
    "uploads": {
      "overwrite": true,
      "inventory-report.pdf": {
        "pdf": {
          "html": {{ report_content | strip | json }}
        }
      }
    }
  }
{% endaction %}

Action Response

The action returns details about the uploaded files. The response is an object with the following structure:

{
  "uploads": {
    [filepath: string]: {
      "id": string,          // Google Drive file ID
      "name": string,        // File name as stored in Drive
      "mime_type": string,   // MIME type of the uploaded file
      "web_view_link": string, // URL to view the file in Google Drive
      "path": string         // Full folder path where file was created
    }
  }
}

Example response

{
  "uploads": {
    "reports/monthly/report.pdf": {
      "id": "1ABC...xyz",
      "name": "report.pdf",
      "mime_type": "application/pdf",
      "web_view_link": "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ABC...xyz/view",
      "path": "reports/monthly"
    }
  }
}