Google Drive and Google Sheets

Mechanic provides a streamlined integration with Google Drive and Google Sheets, allowing you to automate common file management and spreadsheet operations without having to directly interface with the Google Drive API.

Authentication

You can connect more than one Google account choosing which account to use when writing your task code.

Before using Google integrations connect your Google accounts:

1. Go to your Mechanic Settings screen

2. Click on Authentication

3. Connect your Google account from the Google tab

4. Grant the necessary permissions when prompted

Google Drive Integration

The Google Drive action allows you to upload and manage files in Google Drive. See in-depth documentation of the Google Drive action here.

Basic Usage

{% action "google_drive" %}
  {
    "account": "[email protected]",
    "uploads": {
      "overwrite": true,
      "simple.txt": "Hello, world!",
      "report.pdf": {
        "pdf": {
          "html": "<h1>Report</h1><p>Content here</p>"
        }
      }
    }
  }
{% endaction %}

Supported Features

• Upload multiple files in a single action

• Paths can include folders (e.g., 'reports/monthly/file.txt')

• Overwrite existing files (optional)

• Generate various file types (TXT, PDF, CSV, HTML, etc.) using Mechanic File generators or linking from external URLs (e.g. Shopify Files - CDN)

Google Sheets Integration

The Google Sheets action enables focused interaction with spreadsheets, including sheet creation, appending data, and data exports.

See in-depth documentation of the Google Sheets action here.

Basic Usage

{% action "google_sheets" %}
  {
    "account": "[email protected]",
    "operation": "append_rows",
    "spreadsheet_id": "your-spreadsheet-id",
    "sheet_name": "Sheet1",
    "rows": [
      ["Column1", "Column2", "Column3"],
      ["Value1", "Value2", "Value3"]
    ]
  }
{% endaction %}

Supported Operations

• create_spreadsheet: Create new spreadsheets

• append_rows: Add data to existing spreadsheets

• export_spreadsheet: Export spreadsheets in various formats

File Type Support

Drive Upload Formats

• Text files

• PDFs (generated from HTML)

• CSV files

• HTML files

• Any binary file format (e.g. ZIP)

Sheets Export Formats

• XLSX (Excel)

• CSV

• PDF

• HTML

• ODS

• TSV

Permissions

The integration requires the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file scope, which allows:

• Access to files created by the app

• Access to files explicitly shared with the app

• No access to other files in your Google Drive