Create nested folders with Google Drive API

I need to add a new file in a nested folder on Google Drive using Google Drive api in the form YYYY/MM/DD/HH/mm/file where the dates are dynamically created basing on the current date. For example:

2021/06/16/11/30/my_file.csv

I created the following script in Python, but it is creating one single folder (named “2021/06/16/11/30”) instead of the desired nested structure (multiple nested folders named “06”, “11” and “30”) inside the parent folder “2021”:

from googleapiclient.discovery import build
import google.auth
from googleapiclient.http import MediaFileUpload

SCOPES = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.metadata', 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive']

credentials, project_id = google.auth.default(scopes=SCOPES)
service = build('drive', 'v3', credentials=credentials)

folder_id = 'parent-folder-id'

# Create folder
file_metadata = {
    'name': '2021/06/16/11/30',
    'mimeType': 'application/vnd.google-apps.folder',
    'parents': [folder_id],
}
file = service.files().create(body=file_metadata, fields='id').execute()
new_folder_id = file.get('id')
print(f'Folder ID: {new_folder_id}')

# Upload file
file_metadata = {
    'name': 'my_file.csv',
    'parents': [new_folder_id],
}
media = MediaFileUpload('my_file.csv', mimetype='text/csv', resumable=True)
file = service.files().create(body=file_metadata, media_body=media, fields='id').execute()
print(f'Folder ID: {file.get("id")}')

Is there a way to create such nested folder structure in one call instead of iterate on each folder creation and pass the new folder id as new parent id?

Answer

Modification points:

• At Google Drive, each file and folder are managed by the unique ID instead of the filename and folder name. In this case, when the file of my_file.csv is uploaded to the nested folder of 2021/06/16/11/30/, it is required to retrieve the folder ID from the folder name. And, when the folder is not existing, it is required to create new folder.
• In order to achieve this, unfortunately, the method of service.files().list() is used in a loop. Because it is required to check each folder ID.

When above points are reflected to your script, it becomes as follows.

Modified script:

service = build('drive', 'v3', credentials=credentials)

path = '2021/06/16/11/30' # Please set the path.
folder_id = 'parent-folder-id' # Please set the top folder ID.

# Check the folder structure and create new folder if the folder is not existing.
pathList = path.split('/')
for folder in pathList:
    q = "'" + folder_id + "' in parents and name='" + folder + "' and mimeType='application/vnd.google-apps.folder' and trashed=false"
    files = service.files().list(q=q).execute().get('files')
    if not files:
        file_metadata = {
            'name': folder,
            'mimeType': 'application/vnd.google-apps.folder',
            'parents': [folder_id],
        }
        folder_id = service.files().create(
            body=file_metadata, fields='id').execute().get('id')
    else:
        folder_id = files[0].get('id')

# Upload file
file_metadata = {
    'name': 'my_file.csv',
    'parents': [folder_id],
}
media = MediaFileUpload('my_file.csv', mimetype='text/csv', resumable=True)
file = service.files().create(body=file_metadata, media_body=media, fields='id').execute()
print(f'Folder ID: {file.get("id")}')

• In this modified script, when the path is path = '2021/06/16/11/30', when the folder is not existing in each folder, the folder is created. When the folder is existing in each folder, new folder is not created.

References:

• Files: list
• Search for files and folders