Overview
Drive Explorer is an add-on that works on top of Google Sheet or Google Drive. It lists your Google Drive files in an easy to visualise tabular view.
How it all started
Drive Explorer has an interesting history of how it came into existence. In late 2014, I (Ganapathy) wrote a simple JS function to generate the direct download link of a Google Drive file from its share link and hosted it on my blog. It gained traction and thousands of users started using it on a daily basis. The limitation of the tool is it can only process one link at a time.
I wanted to automate and scale the process. I was looking for a way to process a bunch of links at a time with a click of a button.
The inception of Drive Explorer
In 2018, I learned about Google Apps Script. It seamlessly integrates with the Google services to build custom apps. I made use of it to generate direct download links of all files in one's Google Drive. I published it on Chrome store for public use (then it was called Drive Direct Links).
People started using it and I received a handful of feature requests. After a lot of iterations, it has become what it is now. The script outgrew its initial scope of generating download links and that's how Drive Direct Links became Drive Explorer.
How Drive Explorer can help you
When you use Google Drive extensively, over time you will find it difficult and time-consuming to know,
- Which file is where
- Who has which access to what
- Description of files
- Created, Modified date
- Direct download links of files
- How to quickly rename files & descriptions
- The size of files & folders
- Image links of image files
- How to share files from different folders at a time
- Dimensions of image files
- Duration of video files
Drive Explorer helps with all the above. You can know all the above without ever leaving your Google Sheet (When you use it with Google Sheet).
Installation
Go to Drive Explorer Google Marketplace page, click on 'Install'. Select the Google account with which you want to use Drive Explorer and authorize. Drive Explorer requires access to a bunch of things. The need for all permission is explained below.
Permissions required
See, edit, create and delete Drive files - To rename & share files from the sheet. Drive Explorer doesn't create or delete files.
Add itself to Google Drive - You can open files/folders directly from Google Drive with Drive Explorer to list metadata of the files on the browser.
View basic data about the Google Drive folders or files you select - To display download links, image links for files, and folder sizes in the Google Drive side panel.
See, edit, create and delete your spreadsheets in Google Drive - When used with Google Sheet, the file details are written in a Google Sheet.
Connect to an external service - To fetch the user's license details, Drive Explorer needs to communicate with the developer's backend system.
Allow this application to run when you are not present - Scheduled automatic refresh feature requires this permission.
Display and run third-party web content in prompts and sidebars inside Google applications - You can pay to unlock premium features without leaving the Google Sheet using PayPal or your credit card.
Supported files
You can get details of any files within,
- Your personal My Drive
- Any Shared Drive (formerly Team Drive) you have access to
- Shared with me
- Files uploaded & synced from your devices