Question

I have been assigned a task at work, to integrate a users Google Drive into our own web-app, to exchange files, and eventually provide some auto-syncing of files from Drive to our end.

I did a some research at found this article: http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/google-drive-sdk-announced-but-apis-are-only-accesible-to-web-apps-for-now/

It states that it is not possible to develop a “stand-alone” (so to speak) webapplication, that lets users connect/authenticate their Drive account. That is, not without having to install our application as a Web App in, say Google Chrome, and then use the app to transfer files that way.
If that’s the case, the whole idea is lost.

Can somebody tell me if this is true?

Answer 1

As far I can tell, looking at the documentation, no.

You can use the drive SDK as you wish:

For example:

https://developers.google.com/drive/manage-uploads

POST /upload/drive/v2/files?uploadType=resumable HTTP/1.1
Host: www.googleapis.com
Authorization: **your_auth_token**
Content-Length: 38
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
X-Upload-Content-Type: image/jpeg
X-Upload-Content-Length: 2000000

{
  "title": "My Image"
}

You authorise the account using OAuth then use that token in the code above.

Have a look at the documentation here: https://developers.google.com/drive/about-sdk and never take ArsTechnica’s word for it 😉