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ryan_b_fiting's avatar
ryan_b_fiting
Post Patron
6 years ago

Connecting to Google Drive FOLDER

Hello - 


I have a client that uses Google Drive to store their files.  I am trying to connect Power BI to a FOLDER on Google Drive, but am not having any luck finding a solution for this.  I have looked at some of the threads on here, but there do not appear to be any solutions.

 

Does anyone know if there is a way to connect to an entire folder from Google Drive, similar to what you would do with a local folder so you can pull all the files in at once, and when a new file is added you only have to refresh the dataset?

 

Any insights, help or documentation on this would be appreciated.  I find it hard to believe Microsoft does not have a Google Drive connector.

 

Thanks

Ryan

 

3 Replies

  • camargos88's avatar
    camargos88
    Community Champion

    Hi ryan_b_fiting ,

     

    I used Google Scripts and Triggers to do it.

     

    1-> Share a folder;

    2 -> Create a Google Spreadsheet to store all shared urls;

    3 -> Create a script to get all shared url on the sheet;

    4 -> Create a trigger to update the sheets (I have scheduled once a day, but you have many options). You can find the Trigger Editor on "Edit -> Current Project's Trigger". Just select the script function you saved and the recurrency;

    5 -> Connect the Spreadsheet (item 2) to Power BI;

     

    This is the script I used:

     

    function onLoad() {
    var ss=SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
    var s=ss.getActiveSheet();
    var c=s.getActiveCell();
    var fldr=DriveApp.getFolderById("USE_THE_SHARED_FOLDER_URL");
    var files=fldr.getFiles();
    var data=[],f,str;
    var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
    ss.clear();
    ss.appendRow(["Name", "Date", "Id"]);
    while (files.hasNext()) {
    f=files.next();
    data = [
    f.getName(),
    f.getDateCreated(),
    f.getId()
    ];
    ss.appendRow(data);
    }
    }

     

     

    I hope this helps you,

     

    Ricardo

     

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable

    Hi ryan_b_fiting,

    Nope, current folder connector only works with the local path.
    For your scenario, you can consider using web connector(work with 'rest API'/'web service'), other connector drivers (e.g odbc driver) or create a custom connector to achieve your requirement.

    Starting to Develop Custom Connectors 

    Regards,

    Xiaoxin Sheng