Upload to Google Drive

Github action to update an existing GDrive file (with a local one).

Table of Contents

• Setup
  • Google Service Account (GSA)
  • Share Drive folder with the GSA
  • Store credentials as GitHub secrets

Setup

This section lists the requirements to make this action work and how to meet them.

Google Service Account (GSA)

First of all you will need a Google Service Account for your project. Service accounts are just specific Google account types that are used by services instead of people.
To make one go to Service Accounts in the IAM and administration section of the Google Cloud Plattform dashboard and create a new project or choose the one you are already using for your current shenanigans. Click on create new service account and continue with the process. At the end you will get the option to generate a key, we need this key so store it safely. It's a json file whith the following structure:

{
  "type": "",
  "project_id": "",
  "private_key_id": "",
  "private_key": "",
  "client_email": "",
  "client_id": "",
  "auth_uri": "",
  "token_uri": "",
  "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "",
  "client_x509_cert_url": ""
}

Share Drive folder with the GSA

Go to your Google Drive and find the folder you want your files to be uploaded to and share it with the GSA. You can find your service account email address in the client_email property of your GSA credentials. While you are here, take a note of the folder's ID, the long set of characters after the last / in your address bar if you have the folder opened in your browser.

Store credentials as GitHub secrets

This action needs your GSA credentials to properly authenticate with Google and we don't want anybody to take a peek at them, right? Go to the Secrets section of your repo and add a new secret for your credentials. As per GitHub's recommendation, we will store any complex data (like your fancy JSON credentials) as a base64 encoded string.
You can encode jour .json file easily into a new .txt file using any bash terminal (just don't forget to change the placeholders with the real name of your credentials file and and the desired output):

$ base64 CREDENTIALS_FILENAME.json > ENCODED_CREDENTIALS_FILENAME.txt

The contents of the newly generated .txt file is what we have to procure as a value for our secret.

IMPORTANT: This action assumes that the credentials are stored as a base64 encoded string. If that's not the case, the action will fail.