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I have been using a service account to read and update existing Google Sheets which have been shared with the service account.

Now I want to create a new Google Sheet using a service account, and then share it with a user by email address, or at least provide a link which the user can open.

All the examples I can find seem to want the user to be authorised, rather than everything to be done using the service account.

Tanaike
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StripyTiger
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1 Answers1

3

I believe your goal is as follows.

  • You want to create a new Google Spreadsheet and share it with an email address.
  • You want to achieve this using PHP.

Although, unfortunately, I'm not sure about your current script from your question, when you want to achieve this using googleapis for php, how about the following sample script?

Sample script:

$client = ###; // Please use your client from the service account.

$name = "sampe Spreadsheet name"; // Please set Spreasdheet name.
$email = "###"; // Please set email address you want to share.

$service = new Google_Service_Drive($client);

// 1. Create a new Spreadsheet.
$mimeType = "application/vnd.google-apps.spreadsheet";
$f = new Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile();
$f->setName($name);
$f->setMimeType($mimeType);
// $f->setParents(["###folderId###"]); // If you want to put the created Spreadsheet to the specific folder, please use this.
$spreadsheet = $service->files->create($f);
$spreadsheet_id = $spreadsheet->getId();

// 2. Share the created Spreadsheet with an email address.
$permission = new Google_Service_Drive_Permission();
$permission->setEmailAddress($email);
$permission->setType('user');
$permission->setRole('writer');
$service->permissions->create($spreadsheet_id, $permission);

// 3. Show URL of created Spreadsheet.
$spreadsheet_url = "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/" . $spreadsheet_id . "/edit";
print($spreadsheet_url);

  • When this script is run, a new Google Spreadsheet is created to the root folder, and the created Spreadsheet is shared with the email address as the writer.

  • In this case, as a sample, the scope of Google_Service_Drive::DRIVE was used.

References:

Tanaike
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  • Thank you - this works. Is it possible to give the ownership of the file to the user - I am a bit worried about lots of files being owned by the service account and never being deleted, whereas if owned by the user, they can remove when necessary. – StripyTiger Oct 14 '22 at 08:14
  • @StripyTiger Thank you for replying. I'm glad your issue was resolved. About your new question of `Is it possible to give the ownership of the file to the user`, in the case that the service account is the owner of the file, this thread might be useful. https://stackoverflow.com/q/38910935 And, when the owner is transferred, in the case of Google Docs (Document, Spreadsheet, Slides, and so on), you can transfer the owner. But, in the case without Google Docs files, the owner cannot be transferred. Please be careful about this. It seems that this is the current specification. – Tanaike Oct 14 '22 at 11:54