Hello again!
We assume that organizations using Google Workspace are actively using Google Drive. In order for such organizations to make more effective use of Google Workspace, we will introduce a method to automate folder creation using the Quote Approval Flow as an example.
Share Folders with Google Drive
The following two articles established a system whereby the approved quote file is uploaded to Google Drive and the URL for viewing and downloading the file is emailed to the customer.
- Recommendation for Automation – Google Drive: Upload File
- Recommendation for Automation – Google Drive: Delete File
In this mechanism, if there are multiple files to be uploaded, a URL for viewing and downloading is prepared for each file.
Let’s say you have three quotation types and two related reference documents (this happens sometimes, doesn’t it?). In this case, a total of five files are uploaded to Google Drive, five URLs are prepared for viewing and five URLs are prepared for downloading. As a result, 10 URLs will be inserted into the email sent to the customer.
In this situation, the problem is that you do not know the file name until you click on it. It is not possible to guess the priority from the file name and look at the files in order.
A possible solution to such a problem is to guide the user to the URL of the folder where the file is saved. When the folder is opened, a list of file names is displayed so that the user can determine the priority of the files to be viewed.
Automated Folder Creation with No Code
Automated Items for Creating Google Drive Folders
The no-code development platform Questetra BPM Suite provides automated items that can perform various operations on Google Drive files and folders.
By utilizing these items you can automate your business operations, even if you have no knowledge or experience with Google Drive’s API (Application Programming Interface). (For more information on the API, please refer to The Perfect Match for Workflows!? What is API?.
The following three automation items will be used in this project.
- Google Drive: Create Folder
- Google Drive: Upload File
- Google Drive: Delete File / Folder
The other two, [Upload File] and [Delete File / Folder] are explained in Recommendation for Automation – Google Drive: Upload File and Recommendation for Automation – Google Drive: Delete File respectively, so I will omit their explanation in this article.
As the name suggests, [Google Drive: Create Folder] will automatically create a folder at a certain location in Google Drive by using this item.
Upload Files to Automatically Created Folders
This section shows how to use the three automation items introduced in the previous section to build a system in which the following is automated.
- Once the quote file is approved, a folder is created with a name consisting of the customer’s name.
- The quote file is uploaded to the created folder.
- An email is sent to the customer with the URL of the created folder.
- After a certain period of time the created folder is deleted.
We begin by making a few changes to the workflow diagram created in Recommendation for Automation – Google Drive: Delete File.
The green and red squares in the figure above are explained in these articles on file uploading and automatic deletion.
In this case, we will insert the [Google Drive: Create Folder] item into the flow when the quote is approved in the Quote Approval Process (highlighted by the purple rectangle). This item specifies the location of the folder to be created (parent folder) and the Data Item where the ID of the created folder will be entered.
The location of the folder to be created (parent folder) should be created in advance in an appropriate folder on the Google Drive. Enter the folder ID (the blue part below) included in the parent folder URL as the ID of the parent of the folder to be created.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/example1234567890EXAMPLE1234567890Set the parent folder’s share settings to everyone who knows the link. (Settings in Google Drive)
For Data Items, add a String-type item where the ID and URL of the created folder will be entered.
The following figure shows the email setup that will be sent to the customer. It also describes the contents of the email that will be sent after it is actually executed. It is much cleaner than the first email shown in the first figure, which contains as many URLs as there are files.
Summary
We showed you how to automate folder creation using Google Drive.
Questetra BPM Suite, a cloud-based no-code development platform, provides automated items to operate Google Drive. By utilizing automation items you can easily operate Google Drive without knowledge or experience of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) as introduced in this article, just by configuring the settings.
Questetra BPM Suite is available on a 60-day free trial basis and up to 100 users can register. If you are interested, please apply using the following link.
The structure established in this article can be easily operated in the Questetra BPM Suite platform you are using. Simply import the file that can be downloaded from the following page. If you want to check the operation right away, please use this page.
There are more automation items. We will introduce them in future articles.
That’s all for now!
