Google Drive
Askel connects to your customer's Google Drive account, letting your product upload files, organise them into folders, and share them with the right people without requiring customers to log into a separate portal.
What you can do
Upload files to a specific folder
Use the Drive files.create endpoint with multipart upload to place a file in a named folder, setting the correct MIME type and file name.
Create and navigate folder hierarchies
Create new folders, list existing ones, and resolve folder IDs by name so your product can route files to the correct destination without hardcoded IDs.
Set sharing permissions
Grant reader, commenter, or editor access to individual users, groups, or anyone with the link, using the Drive permissions API.
Search for files by name or MIME type
Use the files.list endpoint with query parameters to find existing files by name, MIME type, parent folder, or modification date.
Download and read file content
Fetch file content from Drive to read CSVs, JSON exports, or binary files that customers have placed there for your product to process.
Move and rename files
Update a file's parent folder or name using files.update, useful for archiving processed files or moving them from a staging folder to a final destination.
Delivering monthly reports into the customer's Google Drive
You sell a financial reporting tool. Maple and Ember, a boutique accounting firm, wants each client's monthly report placed in a dedicated subfolder in their shared Google Drive the moment it is generated. Their team should not have to download anything from your product.
- 1
Connect once
Maple and Ember's Google Workspace admin completes OAuth in your product, approving the drive.file scope. Askel stores the refresh token.
- 2
Locate the reports folder
Askel lists the top-level folders in the shared Drive. Your onboarding team picks Monthly Reports as the parent folder and stores its Drive ID.
- 3
Create a client subfolder
When a new client is added, Askel creates a subfolder named after the client inside Monthly Reports. Your product stores the new folder ID on the client record.
- 4
Upload the report
On report generation, your product calls Askel with the PDF content and the target folder ID. Askel uploads the file with the correct name and MIME type.
- 5
Set sharing and return the link
Askel sets commenter access for the client's email address and returns the shareable link. Your product sends the link to the client by email.
OAuth 2.0
The customer's Google user completes a standard OAuth consent flow. Askel requests the drive.file scope by default, which limits access to files the app itself creates. For workflows that need to read arbitrary files in the customer's Drive, the broader drive.readonly scope is available but requires explicit customer approval. Refresh tokens are stored by Askel and renewed automatically.
How Askel sits between your product and the customer's system
FAQ for Google Drive
What is the difference between the drive.file and drive scopes?+
Can we upload directly to a shared Drive (formerly Team Drive)?+
Are there file size limits?+
What happens if a folder is deleted after we store its ID?+
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