Migrating from the Drive API

AI-generated Key Takeaways

• This guide explains how to migrate code using the Drive API for permission management to the Looker Studio API, providing equivalent Looker Studio API code snippets for common Drive API endpoints.

• The Looker Studio API has limited file management functionality compared to the Drive API, with only an equivalent endpoint for listing files (Files: list).

• While the Drive API allows managing multiple permission objects per file, Looker Studio assets have a single, always-existing permission object, leading to different endpoint usage for permission control.

• Despite differences in managing permissions, both APIs offer similar functionalities for updating permissions, with the exception of setting expiration times on Looker Studio permissions.

• Developers should use appropriate HTTP libraries for their chosen language when making calls to the Looker Studio API, as there are no dedicated client libraries available.

This document outlines how to migrate code using the Drive API for permission management to the Looker Studio API. For common Drive API endpoints, it shows the corresponding Looker Studio API code.

Note: There are no client libraries for using the Looker Studio API. To make these calls, use an appropriate HTTP library for your language.

Files

For the Drive API files endpoints, the Looker Studio API only has an equivalent endpoint for the Files: list endpoint.

List

API	Method	Endpoint
Drive	POST	/drive/v3/files
Looker Studio	GET	/v1/assets:search

Comparison:

Drive

const oAuthToken = '123' // This should be replaced with a valid OAuth token.
fetch(`https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files`, {
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${oAuthToken}`
  },
  method: "POST",
})

Looker Studio

const oAuthToken = '123' // This should be replaced with a valid OAuth token.
fetch(`https://datastudio.googleapis.com/v1/assets:search?assetTypes={ASSET_TYPE}`, {
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${oAuthToken}`
  }
})

See search assets.

Permissions

Create, Delete, And Get

API	Method	Endpoint
Drive	POST	/drive/v3/files/fileId/permissions
Drive	DELETE	/drive/v3/files/fileId/permissions/permissionId
Drive	GET	/drive/v3/files/fileId/permissions/permissionId

There are no corresponding endpoints in the Looker Studio API for managing multiple Permissions objects. There is only one permissions object for a Looker Studio asset, and it always exists.

• To remove someone from an asset, see revoke all permissions
• To add someone to an asset, see add members
• To view a permissions object for an asset, see get permissions

List

There isn't a 1-to-1 match between Drive and Looker Studio, but the endpoints serve similar goals. The main difference is that a Drive file can have many permissions objects, and Looker Studio has exactly one.

API	Method	Endpoint
Drive	GET	/drive/v3/files/fileId/permissions
Looker Studio	GET	/v1/assets/assetId/permissions

Comparison:

Drive

This following code lists all the permissions objects for the Drive API. Depending on your code, you may call this method multiple times using pagination tokens (as shown) to ensure you can see all of the permissions that are set for a file.

const fileId = '123'; // This should be replaced with a valid Drive ID.
const oAuthToken = '123'; // This should be replaced with a valid OAuth token.
let nextPageToken = undefined;
let permissions = [];
do {
  const permissionsData = await fetch(`https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/${fileId}/permissions`, {
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${oAuthToken}`
    }
  });
  nextPageToken = permissionsData.nextPageToken;
  permissions = permissions.concat(permissionsData.permissions)
} while (nextPageToken !== undefined);

Looker Studio

Since there is only one permission object for a Looker Studio asset, you don't have to account for pagination.

const oAuthToken = '123' // This should be replaced with a valid OAuth token.
const assetId = '123' // This should be replaced with a valid asset ID.
fetch(`https://datastudio.googleapis.com/v1/assets/{ASSET_ID}/permissions`, {
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${oAuthToken}`
  }
}

See get permissions.

Update

For updating permissions, the Looker Studio and Drive APIs have very similar functionality. The main difference is you cannot set an expirationTime on a Looker Studio permission.

API	Method	Endpoint
Drive	PATCH	/drive/v3/files/fileId/permissions/permissionId
Looker Studio	PATCH	/v1/assets/assetId/permissions

Comparison:

Drive

const fileId = '123'; // This should be replaced with a valid Drive ID.
const oAuthToken = '123'; // This should be replaced with a valid OAuth token.
const newPermissionsObject = {
  expirationTime: '...',
  role: 'owner', // Or any other option
}
fetch(`https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/${fileId}/permissions/permissionId`, {
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${oAuthToken}`
  },
  method: "PATCH",
  body: JSON.stringify(newPermissionsObject)
})

Looker Studio

const oAuthToken = '123' // This should be replaced with a valid OAuth token.
const assetId = '123' // This should be replaced with a valid asset ID.
const newPermissionsObject = {
  permissions: {
    //...
  }
}

fetch(`https://datastudio.googleapis.com/v1/assets/${assetId}/permissions`, {
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${oAuthToken}`
  },
  method: "PATCH",
  body: JSON.stringify({
    name: assetId,
    permissions: newPermissionsObject
  })
})

For use-case specific alternatives, see:

• add members
• revoke all permissions