Utilizing Google Drive from Workflow – Sending files to people outside the company

In this post I will explain an automated process concerning Google Drive.

Google Drive is a cloud storage service offered by Google. In addition to personal use, if you are using Google Workspace you can create and use Drive (Team Drive) which is shared by multiple people. Also, it is possible to perform various operations using the API, and the automatic Step I am going to introduce uses this.

For more information about Google Drive please see Google’s official help page.

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Automatic Steps

Concerning Google Drive, there are auto-steps such as File Upload, Create Folder, and Delete File which are pre-installed, and those which become available by adding Add-ons, such as Create Permission and File Download. In this article, I will focus on three of the types; File Upload, Create Folder, and Delete File.

First, I will briefly explain each Step.

Google Drive: File Upload

It uploads files to Google Drive. Files to be uploaded are specified with File-type Data Item. Multiple files can be uploaded at the same time by setting multiple files in the File-type Data Item. The upload destination folder is specified with either its folder ID or the path. If not specified, the file will be uploaded to the root folder of My Drive of the uploading user. In addition, the ID and URL of the uploaded file can be saved in a Data Item.

Google Drive: Create Folder

Designates a folder on Google Drive and creates a new folder inside it. The ID and URL of the created folder can be saved in a Data Item.

Google Drive: Delete File

Specifies files and folders on Google Drive and deletes them. If you use a multi-line String-type Data Item you can delete multiple files and folders at one time. To do so, write one ID per line.

All auto-steps support Team Drive. However, the process will fail if the connecting user does not have permission on Team Drive (as of v12.2). Be sure to specify an authorized user to connect.

Note that to use these auto-steps you need to connect the Google Account whose Drive stores the target file/folder with the Questetra BPM Suite account. Please set up according to the following procedure.

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Setting up Google Connectivity

System Settings

These settings must be done by Users with System Administrator Authorization.
Open [System Settings], then go to [Google Connectivity]. There, you must check the box Enable Google Workspace Connectivity. You can enter your Google Workspace domain, however this is not necessary.

Click on Submit to complete the settings.

This allows the federation function with Google, such as single sign-on, to be available in your environment.

The Google Connectivity item will appear in the [Account Settings] screen, and you will be able to configure the integration of your account.

Account Settings

First, open the [Account Settings] screen and click on [Google Connectivity].

Then check the button in the Google Drive section. If it says “disconnect” your account has already connected with your Google account. In that case the following procedure is unnecessary.

If the button says “connect” then it is not connected yet, so click on that button. On the page that opens log in to the Google Account you want to connect to, then click on “Allow” in the following page.

This completes the connection settings. Please also visit this page for Google connection information.

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Example App

Below is an example App created by incorporating these auto-steps.

This App is for “sending files to people in other sections within the company”. The method is to upload the file to a dedicated shared folder created on Google Team Drive. It is assumed that the folder URL will be communicated to people outside the company by email, etc. In addition, the folder (and the files inside it) will be deleted one day after its creation. This is used when a file is too large to send by e-mail or there are multiple files to send.

The Data Items are as follows.

Data Item Name	Data-type	Required	“Attach file” Task	“Confirm URL” Task	Description
Title	–	No	Editable	Only display	The title of the Process
ID of created folder	String type (single-line)	No	No display	No display	Stores the ID of the folder created at the Create Folder step
URL of created folder	String type (single-line)	No	No display	Only display	Stores the URL of the folder created at the Create Folder step
Uploading file	File type	Yes	Editable	Only display	Stores the file to be uploaded and shared

First, specify the files to be shared at the Attach file step. At the following Create folder step (Google Drive: Create Folder) a folder for sharing is created on Google drive.

The config items in Google Drive: Create Folder are as follows.

Item name	Required	Description
C1: User who connects to Google Drive	Yes	Specify which User it connects to Google Drive as. The User to be specified must have configured Google Connectivity.
I1: Parent Folder ID	No	Specify inside which folder to create a new folder by its ID. The ID is shown at the end of the display URL of the folder. (The part of [id] in “https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/%5Bid%5D”) When empty it is created in My Drive root. Leave it empty this time.
I2: Folder Name to create	Yes	Specify the name of the folder to be created. Name it as “Sharing#{processInstanceId}” in this example. Since the Process ID will be inserted to the part of #{processInstanceId}, it will not conflict with other folders that are created by this App.
O1: Data Item that will save Folder ID	No	Specify a Data Item to store the ID of the created folder. In this example specify “ID of created folder”.
O2: Data Item that will save web view url of Folder	No	Specify a Data Item to store the URL of the created folder. In this example specify “URL of created folder”.

Although the save destination of the ID and URL are not required, we will need them in this case so please set them.

At the next Step, Upload file (Google Drive: File Upload), the specified file is uploaded to the created folder.

The config items in Google Drive: File Upload are as follows.

Item name	Required	Description
User who connects to Google Drive	Yes	Specify which User it connects to Google Drive as. The User to be specified must have configured Google Connectivity.
Data item whose attached files will be uploaded	Yes	Specify the Data Item that stores the files to be uploaded. In this example, specify “Uploading file”.
Folder ID that files will be uploaded	No	Specify to which folder the files to be uploadedwith the folder ID. When empty, the My Drive root folder is used. In this example, set an Expression Language to read the ID stored in the Data Item “ID of created folder”.
Data item that will save uploaded file ids	No	Specify a Data Item to store the ID of the created folder. In this example, leave it empty.
Data item that will save web view urls of uploaded files	No	Specify a Data Item to store the URL for displaying the file. In this example, leave it empty.
Data item that will save download urls of uploaded files	No	Specify a Data Item to store the download URLs for uploaded files. In this example, leave it empty.
Data item to save error details	No	Specify a Data Item to store error contents when an error occurred. In this example, leave it empty.

When the sharing setup is completed the App proceeds to the Confirm URL Step. There you confirm the URL stored in “URL of created folder”, and convey it to the recipient. Since the App does not include a mechanism for conveying this please do it manually with email, etc.

After you have confirmed, the App proceeds to the Timer Intermediate Event. The config items in the Timer Intermediate Event are as follows.

Item name	Description
Datetime specified by a data item	Specify with a Data Item the date and time when it will proceed. Not used in this example.
Datetime specified by an expression	Specify with an expression the date and time when it will proceed. In this example select this option and set “processInstanceStartDatetime.addDays(1)” as the expression.

With this, it delays by 1 day after the Process started. Let the recipient receive the file during that period.

After 1 day elapses the folder will be deleted at the Delete folder Step (Google Drive: Delete File).

The config items in Google Drive: Delete File are as follows. To the C1: User who connects to Google Drive, specify a user with authorization to Team Drive.

Item name	Required	Description
C1: User who connects to Google Drive	Yes	Specify which User it connects to Google Drive as. The User to be specified must have configured Google Connectivity.
I1: Data Item with File / Folder IDs to delete	Yes	Specify the Data Item that stores the ID of file/folder to delete. In this example, specify “ID of created folder”.

When deletion of the folder is completed the whole Process ends.

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That’s it for today.