I have an application that currently retrieves a google spreadsheet in excel format and saves the xls file to the file system. It is using the ColdFusion google Api wrapper on riaforge, http://cfgoogle.riaforge.org/.
The wrapper is authenticating with a google account and then using cfhttp to download the file in binary format. The url to retrieve the document looks like the following.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/download/spreadsheets/Export?key=#urlEncodedFormat(arguments.id)#&fmcmd=#spreadSheetFormat(arguments.format)#
I would like to change the behavior of the app so that it downloads the document directly from a publicly shared document url, but if I use the public document url I end up with an xls file that tells me that my browser does not meet the minimum requirements, so I’m being served the web based view. If I use the same url format that the google docs api wrapper uses then I need to authenticate even though I pass the id of the public document.
I’ve searched the Google api docs, but I’ve been unable to find the proper url format to request the public document so that I can directly download the spreadsheet in binary format using cfhttp? What is the format that I need to download a public spreadsheet in xls format without authenticating using cffhttp?
I ended up having to authenticate using Ray’s Google API cfc on riaforge. Once authenticated with my own account I could pass the id of a public spreadsheet to the download function of the google cfc and I’m able to download the spreadsheet as xls file. I was not able to find a way to download it without authenticating, but this method will keep the end users from having to authenticate with their account.