Integration with Google Drive

Integrate your Google Drive account with MangoApps

Overview

Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google which enables users to store files on the Google Cloud, synchronize file across multiple devices and share them. It also provides collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets, presentations and more.

MangoApps provides the capability to connect your Google Drive to its Intranet Solution enabling users to share and collaborate, attaching files from Google Drive adding relevant data to your work.

How do we connect your Google Drive to MangoApps?

Well, your Google Drive account can be connected to your MangoApps solution with a few easy steps. As a pre-requisite, users should be signed up for a Google Drive account or have an existing account which they are using for storing their files and data. Such accounts can be a personal or a business account as well. A business account will necessarily refer to your Google Drive account setup with your work email address or credentials.

Let's have a look at the configuration steps which are primarily divided into two sub-steps.

Admin Configuration
User Configuration

Admin Configuration

The Admin Configuration refers to the settings/configurations that needs to be implemented on the Admin Portal of MangoApps. Hence, this is to be carried out by a Network Admin.

MangoApps Network Admin should login and then access the Admin Portal by clicking on the gear icon beside the Admin's name on the top right-hand corner of the console and then clicking on 'Manage Domain'. This will bring you to the Admin Portal.

Here's a screenshot which highlights the settings the Network Admin needs to go through in order to successfully enable the integration of Google Drive.

Once we are at the Admin Portal, Click on the 'Modules' option on the left hand pane which will open its own sub-menu.
From the sub-menu, click on 'Files' which will bring you to the entire list of settings related to file management and file repository.
Click on the tab that says 'External Document Repositories'.
Select the checkbox for the option 'Enable Google Drive Integration'.
Click on 'Save Settings' to enable the integration.

Once the above configurations are implemented on the Admin Portal, the users can be notified that the integration is enabled so that they can start connecting their Google Drive with MangoApps.

User Configuration

Users can login to their MangoApps portal after which using the universal 'Compose', they can compose a Post, Private message, Team update or access any other functionality which provide the 'Attach' option.

Note: Users need to connect to the Google Drive only once from MangoApps portal and all other functionalities that allow attaching files from Google Drive will automatically sync.

Let's look at a screenshot which will go through the step-by-step process for connecting the Google Drive. The screenshot here depicts the attach section when composing a private message.

When composing a message, Click on the 'Attach' section and you will see the option for 'Google Drive' listed.
Click on Google Drive option.
Click on 'Connect to Google Drive'. Once this option is clicked, a pop-up window opens requesting you to select your Google Account(if already cached in the browser) or enter your Google Account credentials. Please proceed with this part so that MangoApps can have permissions to your Google Drive.
As the Google Drive is successfully connected now, it will list all files and folder structure

With the Google Drive connected for the user, they can now see and attach their files from Google Drive to their conversations on MangoApps.

Let's see a few screenshots below how we can attach files and how they appear in a private message.

The attached files in the message are direct links to the files in Google Drive. To open the files, once can simply click on it which will open it straight from the connected Google Drive Account.

Clicking on the highlighted three-dot options gives us the ability to download a local copy of the attached file as well as delete reference of the file from the message as an attachment. Delete Reference option will only be available to the creator of the message.

Sample screenshots of attached files in Posts, Team updates, Tasks

a. Attaching files to a Post

Click the universal 'Compose' button to start creating your post. Enter the Team/Group/Department name or 'Everyone' for a larger audience.
Click on the 'Content' tab to select the template of your choice. Note: The templates from the 'Alert' section does not have any option to attach files. This is by design.
Click on Continue to proceed to the next part of authoring the post.
Click the 'Attach' section to open the list of available file repositories.
Click on the 'Google Drive' option to list all files and folders.
Select the files to be attached with the post.
From the 'Search' bar, you also perform a deep search for files inside Google Drive.
Click on 'Done' to successfully attach the files now and then publish the post

The post is now live with the attachment from Google Drive. Let's open it to have a look how the attachments are displayed. The attachments to the post can be accessed from two different locations, as highlighted, once the post is opened.

b. Attaching files to a Team Update

Team updates can be posted to teams which you are a member of. Teams refer to different Groups, Departments, Projects where your updates will appear as communication on the news feed to which we can attach files from Google Drive. Let's look at how we can do that.

Once you enter the name of the Team the update to be addressed to, click on 'Attach'.
Now, click on 'Google Drive' option from the list of file repositories.
Check the box on the right for the files to be attached.
Click on 'Done' to successfully attach the files to your update.
Finally, click on 'Share' to share your update to the selected team.

Once you have successfully shared your update within a Team, it will appear on the 'News Feed' for the members of that team.

c. Attaching files to a Task

When creating a Task, be it a standalone task or a task within a project, user's can also attach files to add relevant details and evidences for the work needed to be achieved.

Here's how we attach files while creating a Task or when editing an existing one.

Click on the 'Attach' section and select 'Google Drive' from the list.
Select the appropriate files to be attached with the task.
Click on 'Done' to successfully attach the files to the task.

How to publish a file to Google Drive from MangoApps?

All this while, we have been looking on how to connect your Google Drive account to your MangoApps Intranet/Collaboration suite and share/attach your files to MangoApps. So, let's talk about files/documents/data which resides on MangoApps which the user wishes to keep a copy on his connected Google Drive account as well.

MangoApps provides a two-way integration where we can publish a file residing on MangoApps platform to Google Drive.

Let's quickly go through the few easy steps to do so.

On the User portal, Click on the 'Files' option on the left hand pane which will then list all your files associated with MangoApps for your account.
For the file you want to publish click on the three dots which displays the pop-up menu with multiple options.
Highlight the 'Publish' option and click on 'Google Drive'. This will open a new Dialog box requesting to select a destination to publish the file.
Use the 'Search' box to search for specific folders to place the file inside Box.
Select the appropriate folder where you want the file to be saved in Box.
Click on Publish. Wait for a few minutes(time taken to upload the data to Google Drive) and refresh your Google Drive browser window. Then, check the folder you had published the file to and it should be there.