Google Drive native connector
Overview
The Google Drive connector uses all the features of the Workplace Search connector framework, for a consistent experience across the product:
- General and quick search integration (content types, filters, taxonomy)
- Content Widget integration (advanced filter)
- Content Listing Block integration (advanced filter)
- Mobile integration
- Permissions (external identities)
- Logging and troubleshooting features
Google Drive API clients
Internally, the Google Drive connector uses several Google APIs to perform synchronisation.
Directory service
The directory service:
- Discovers all users associated with Google Drive
- Discovers the Google Drive groups each user is associated with
Drive service
The drive service synchronises shared drives and My Drives. It:
- Gets files from a drive
- Resolves the ID of a My Drive when synchronising one
- Gets permissions for a file
- Gets all folders within the drive
- Gets all shared drives
- Downloads docs, sheets, slides, and files
Synchronisation strategy
The Google Drive connector uses a basic synchronisation strategy. There is no delta functionality (unlike the SharePoint connector), so every time the synchronisation job runs, it re-evaluates all synchronised users and content.
All user external identities and docs are synchronised using Session deletion mode. If they are not returned during a fresh synchronisation job, they are deleted from the search index and the synchronisation database at the end of the job.
Optimisations prevent repeated downloading and parsing of file contents. File content is only downloaded again if the updated date returned for the file differs from the recorded updated date. The connector does not use deltas or change tracking when synchronising users, drives, or files.
Taxonomy values
For synchronised content, various metadata (taxonomy) values are stored against the content. You can configure taxonomy values to be filterable in the Filters panel on the general search results page. Any taxonomy value can also be used in advanced filters in the Content Widget or Content Listing Block.
Content type
By default, synchronised entities have one of the following content type taxonomy values set, depending on their type:
- Google Drive
- Google Drive File
- Google Drive Folder
- Google Drive Site
You can customise the text labels for these types using the Google Drive connector config. The relevant content type is then available for filtering in the Content Types filter in general search.
Additional taxonomy
For synchronised files, the following additional taxonomy values are stored:
- Google Drive
- Google Drive File Type
- File Extension
- Directory
Folders and sites also include the Drive and Directory taxonomy values. You can customise the text labels for these types using the Google Drive connector config.
Synchronising the My Drives of users
If the service account configured for the connector has Domain Wide Delegation configured within Google Drive, and you have enabled UseDomainWideDelegation in the connector config, the connector synchronises the My Drives of all or a configured list of users. These are only accessible to those users.
With Domain Wide Delegation enabled, you must also set the SynchroniseMyDrive config value, which defaults to true.
By default, MyDriveFilters is configured to synchronise a specific list of users, which is empty. Populate it to synchronise any My Drives. Alternatively, change the Mode to All rather than Specific to synchronise all users' My Drives.
Permissions
Synchronised Google Drive content is permissioned the same way as in Google Drive. Within the intranet quick search, general search, content widgets, and Content Listing Blocks, users see only the content they have access to in Google Drive. This includes content shared explicitly with them or with a group they belong to.
Sharing: anyone with the link
In Google Drive, you can share a file or drive through a link and select the Anyone with link option. Content shared this way is technically accessible to everyone, but it is not made accessible to all synchronised users within the intranet. Making it accessible would also make it discoverable, which is a higher and different level of access than in Google Drive.
A Google item share link is not discoverable, so synchronised content with share links is not discoverable within the intranet either.
Icons
Default Google Drive-style icons are used for synchronised content:
- Google Drive
- Google Sheets
- Google Docs
- Google Slides
- Site
- Folder
- File
All files use the same icon by default, but you can override this and define custom icons for different file extensions.
Domain mapping
If your Google Drive account is configured with a different domain than the one associated with your intranet and users, you can configure a domain replacement. During user synchronisation, when a Google Drive user is matched with a user in the intranet, the email address is altered, only for the purpose of user lookups, based on this configured domain replacement.