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This is a follow up to Google Realtime API - what is the role of a shortcut file in google drive?

What is the effect of share settings on a shortcut file? Does a user need to share this shortcut file with other collaborators?

In my case, my web application already contains share settings between users. These are my own share setting that I store in my database. They are currently sharing between each other but have to edit a file one person at a time. Ideally I would like to just use the settings from my application to seamlessly make it so that they can collaborate at the same time, without having them to once again give edit permissions.

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dev.e.loper
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1 Answers1

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The share settings control who has access to read or write to a realtime document, just like for any other Drive file.

They can be set programmatically via the Drive API, or you can allow users to update settings via a common sharing dialog. See https://developers.google.com/drive/manage-sharing

If you have an existing setup, you could programmatically transfer the share settings to the realtime shortcut files as one-off transition step. We don't generally recommend trying to keep them in sync, as it can be a bit tricky, but its possible.

dev.e.loper
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Cheryl Simon
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  • So, the flow will be something like this? - User starts to collaborate, I create a shortcut file in my app's drive and then apply sharing permissions on it using share settings from my app. – dev.e.loper Jul 12 '13 at 21:21
  • Are you creating the realtime files on a just-in-time basis as someone tries to access a file? I think the flow you described works, although you'll need to figure out how to handle create vs open when multiple people are editing the same file at the same time. – Cheryl Simon Jul 12 '13 at 22:05
  • Yes, it will be just-in-time basis. I'm not sure about create vs open scenario you referring to. The owner of the document will have to create and then share it so the document will already be there. – dev.e.loper Jul 12 '13 at 22:19
  • Ok, I thought you were planning to recreate the realtime document whenever someone opened it. It sounds like you have it worked out though. – Cheryl Simon Jul 12 '13 at 23:30