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 Settings → Authentication in Mechanic

2. Select Google in the provider list

3. Connect your Google account

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": "[e-mail]",
    "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 creating spreadsheets with one or many sheets, reading and writing data, deleting rows, managing sheets (tabs), and exporting. \

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

Basic Usage

{% action "google_sheets" %}
  {
    "account": "[e-mail]",
    "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, with one or many named sheets

• append_rows: Add data to existing spreadsheets

• update_rows: Overwrite data at a specific range

• clear_values: Clear values from a range or a whole sheet

• get_values: Read values from a spreadsheet into the action result

• delete_rows: Delete a span of rows from a sheet

• add_sheet: Add a sheet (tab) to an existing spreadsheet

• rename_sheet: Rename a sheet (tab)

• delete_sheet: Delete a sheet (tab)

• 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