What Google Drive Sharing offers us!

I am doing a Podcast on portalZINE.TV since last year and always host a backup of the MP3 episodes on Google Drive.

The link that you create, when enabling file sharing on Google Drive, can not be used to actually embed it on your website.

The link looks something like that:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/78BygKccgGms9ET2lUM0RPVUI1T0U/view?usp=sharing

1	https://drive.google.com/file/d/78BygKccgGms9ET2lUM0RPVUI1T0U/view?usp=sharing

To actually use it directly, we need to get the ID. Sure, you could just extract the ID, but often we just want to copy and paste. The sharing link is also your actual reference to the original file, which I store together with the podcast.

Apply a simple RegEX

We use a simple Regex to extract the ID:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\/

1	https://drive.google.com/file/d/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\/

PHP

$input = "https://drive.google.com/file/d/78BygKccgGms9ET2lUM0RPVUI1T0U/view?usp=sharing";

preg_match("/https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\//", $input, $match);

$GoogleDriveFileID = $match[1];

$input = "https://drive.google.com/file/d/78BygKccgGms9ET2lUM0RPVUI1T0U/view?usp=sharing";

preg_match("/https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\//", $input, $match);

$GoogleDriveFileID = $match[1];

JAVASCRIPT

var input = "https://drive.google.com/file/d/78BygKccgGms9ET2lUM0RPVUI1T0U/view?usp=sharing";

var res = input.match(/https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\//)

var googleDriveFileID = res[1];

var input = "https://drive.google.com/file/d/78BygKccgGms9ET2lUM0RPVUI1T0U/view?usp=sharing";

var res = input.match(/https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\//)

var googleDriveFileID = res[1];

Just use it!

This ID can than be used to embed the file directly using HTML5 audio controls.

Its important to use the “https://docs.google.com/uc?export=open&id=” url to open the file, as it provides the direct access to the shared file

 <audio controls>
 <source src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=open&id=<?php echo $GoogleDriveFileID; ?>" type="audio/mp3">
<p>This browser does not support HTML5 audio</p>
 </audio>

<source src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=open&id=<?php echo $GoogleDriveFileID; ?>" type="audio/mp3">

<p>This browser does not support HTML5 audio</p>

</audio>

10 Comments

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Joe

7 years ago

Hey, can you contact me about this. Im trying to make it work but its not working.

Author

Alex

Reply to Joe

Hi Joe,
just tested this with a MP3 file on my Google Drive. This still works like described above.

Regards
Alex

kamello

5 years ago

Thank you a lot!!! it’s what i’m looking for! Thanks again for sharing

Henrik Härkönen

Thanks, this was brilliant!

gest

4 years ago

this doesn work more duh?

Reply to gest

Hi,
just tested and this still works as described. Just did a quick testdrive.

Cheers
Alex

CuriousGuy

3 years ago

Ok. I believe this doesn`t work anymore. Please can you update us? Sept 2020.

I am sorry for not being specific. I mean this works for desktop applications. However if I try to enter a website from a smartphone this doesn`t work. I may have have been doing something wrong. If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let us be enlightened!

Reply to CuriousGuy

Hey there,
I will take a look and try to make your way to enlightenment as easy as possible :)
Cheers
Alex

Still works perfectly for me on Android & iOS. Only had to switch to https for the audio source.

Hosting MP3 files on Google Drive + HTML5 Audio Player

What Google Drive Sharing offers us!

Apply a simple RegEX

Just use it!

Alexander