(NOTE: This is an old project created by a former colleague which uses an older version of the Google API. In 2015, I migrated this from Google Code to Github for posterity.)
Enables *NIX/OSX command line users to add or update ascii files to Google Docs. Local ascii files are converted into Google documents, where they can be edited from a browser, shared online, worked on collaboratively, have comments and revision histories, are readily accessible from mobile devices, and do not use up Google Docs quota space. Formatting of the Google documents can be specified, such as font, font size, page size, orienation, borders, text color, and other basic formatting. Local ascii files can be added or updated one at a time, or in batch. Files can be added to one or more folders, or no folders (Google Docs "root").
Original author: Trever Nightingale at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Migrated from http://code.google.com/p/ascii2gdocs
#summary Documentation
= Introduction =
Documentation is self contained in the program (which is a shell script). Run it without arguments for help.
An excerpt of the documentation contained in the program is reproduced here:
To display help and formatting options:
ascii2gdocs displays this message
ascii2gdocs -h displays detailed help
ascii2gdocs -F displays formatting options
To add files: use the -a option
ascii2gdocs -a file
ascii2gdocs -a -
To add files to folders: separate folder names with | symbol
ascii2gdocs -a "folder|names|go|here" file
ascii2gdocs -a "folder|names|go|here" -
To update files: use the -u option
ascii2gdocs -u file
ascii2gdocs -u -
To add files using a nondefault style: use the -F # option
ascii2gdocs -F # -a file
ascii2gdocs -F # -a -
ascii2gdocs -F # -a "folder|names|go|here" file
ascii2gdocs -F # -a "folder|names|go|here" -
To update files using a nondefault style: use the -F # option
ascii2gdocs -F # -u file
ascii2gdocs -F # -u -
To perform bulk operations: use the - option (see above and examples)
Specifying - instead of a file name means to receive local file names from standard input. Specify one filename or path ending with a filename per line. See examples.
TIP: Create a Google Docs folder named "ascii". When adding ascii files using this program, always tag them as belonging in the "ascii" folder (plus whatever additional folders you wish to put them in). This gives a way to identify all ascii documents when exporting (backing up) Google Docs.
Examples:
EXAMPLE 1:
To add local file ".bash_profile" to the root folder in Google Docs (i.e. no folder) with default style:
ascii2gdocs -a ~/.bash_profile
or (equivalent)
ascii2gdocs -a "folder:root" ~/.bash_profile
EXAMPLE 2:
To add local file ".bash_profile" to folders named "ascii", "config", and "hostname-foo" with default style:
ascii2gdocs -a "ascii|config|hostname-foo" ~/.bash_profile
Example 3:
To add local file ".bash_profile" to a folder named ascii using the style specified with numeral 2:
ascii2gdocs -F 2 -a "ascii" ~/.bash_profile
EXAMPLE 4:
To update ".bash_profile" to Google Docs using default style:
ascii2gdocs -u ~/.bash_profile
EXAMPLE 5:
To add all .sh files (shell scripts) under your home directory to folders named "ascii" and "shell scripts" using the default style:
find ~ -name '{{{*}}}.sh' -print | ascii2gdocs -a "ascii|shell scripts" -
Google Docs in this documentation means the same as Google Drive.
This program is intended to enable {{{*}}}NIX/OSX command line users to programmatically add or update ascii files to Google Docs. Local ascii files are converted into Google documents, where they can be edited from a browser, shared online, worked on collaboratively, have comments and revision histories, are readily accessible from mobile devices, and do not use up Google Docs quota space. Formatting of the Google documents can be specified, such as font, font size, page size, orienation, borders, text color, and other basic formatting. Local ascii files can be added or updated one at a time, or in batch. Files can be added to one or more folders, or no folders (Google Docs "root").
Google documents created with this program are given a title in Google Docs. The title is always identical to the local (base) file name- a different title can not be specified (unless changed later by other means, for example in the web interface).
Any local file can be tried- ascii or not- and there is no requirement that local files have any particular suffix. Only file size and number of characters are checked, to make sure users do not attempt to add or update a local file that Google Docs will reject, since Google limits conversion of files to Google Docs to certain maximums. (2 MB at the time of this writing.)
Add always creates a new Google document that did not exist before.
Update never creates a new Google document.
A log file records the time (YYYYMMDDHHMMSS) of adding or updating, the Google Document's ID, and the full path to the local file. (Optionally, the user can disable logging updates- see program source.)
There is no output on the command line if there are no errors. The user can watch Google Docs or tail -f the log file to monitor progress.
Various parameters (including default formatting) can be changed by the user by simply changing the values of variables in the source for this program (a Bourne shell script).
This progam is intended to be highly portable among different {{{*}}}NIX platforms, with minimal dependencies (the only requirement is https enabled cURL version 7.18.0 or higher). It consists of a single file (shell script) that contains its own documentation.
Multiple Google Docs accounts can be used but the user will need to use one authorization directory per account. It is left to the user to implement a solution, different types of solutions are possible (eg. wrapper scripts).
Usually, one adds a local ascii file to Google Documents only once with this program. Subsequentally, if the local ascii file changes and the corresponding Google Document does not change, update Google Docs with the changes using this program. The update will be reflected in the revision history of the corresponding Google Document (revision history is visible in a browser).
See basic useage information, users can add documents in bulk by passing in files to standard input. This allows for batch jobs that populate many documents, including initial migration of local files to Google Docs ("moving to the cloud").
As its name suggests, this program is not designed to be a two way syncronization program between Google Documents and local ascii files.