Embed a Google Drive Folder

jacob_standish
Community Participant
13
42118
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Embedded Folder (List View)Embedded Folder (Grid View)

My district has heavy Google Drive users.  Using the publish to the web feature of Docs and Slides has really helped promote the use of Canvas.  However, Google doesn't give that option for folders.  Many teachers and admins have asked for this and after some digging, I discovered that there is an embed code you can create.

Embed a Google Drive folder on your website | Thomas' Miniblog

From this info, I've been able to embed Google Drive folders into any page like you see above.

In order to make this easier for teachers, I took the code and created tool that lets instructors copy their shared folder URL and convert it to the embed code.

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You can see the embed folder tool here.

13 Comments
kona
Community Champion

Too cool! Thanks for sharing!!

jamely
Community Champion

That would be a cool way to post multiple PDFs, but then have it easily adaptable! For example, if you found something cool and wanted to add it to an upcoming class wiki page, but didn't want to go through all of the extra steps of uploading the file to canvas and editing the wiki page to  include the new link. I especially like the grid view, as that helps with the boring presentation of mostly text-only page view. Granted you couldn't use the Canvas preview window to see it then.

Does the embedded folder still allow a file preview, like being able to read a PDF without having to download it first?

Also, depending on exactly what your cool tool is adding around the html link, it seems like it would be useful for any item that someone designing in canvas could use to add embed code.

Thanks fr sharing!

jacob_standish
Community Participant

The folder embedded that contains a PDF will open the Google drive PDF preview window.  rN4KkW

I have the code default to list view right now.  To get grid view you will have to replace the word "list" to "grid" in the embed code.

Example List View:

<iframe src="</span><a class="jive-link-external-small" href="https://drive.google.com/embeddedfolderview?id=2490afjfajvEAw90DSa3fDj30q#list" width="100%" height="600">Loading...</iframe>

Example Grid View:

<iframe src="</span><a class="jive-link-external-small" href="https://drive.google.com/embeddedfolderview?id=2490afjfajvEAw90DSa3fDj30q#grid" width="100%" height="600">Loading...</iframe>

cgaudreau
Community Contributor

 @jacob_standish ​, this is great. I love lurking in the forums and coming across things like this!

Thank you for sharing!

kona
Community Champion

Just used this for a College Wide Project (so not student use) and it worked perfectly!! Thank you so much for sharing this!!

clong
Community Champion

Great resource Jacob!

You could also use the Redirect App in Canvas to add a folder as a library to the left hand course navigation.

It would look like this:

https://drive.google.com/embeddedfolderview?id=0B5OT37EfCS5RjBNYkczeFQ4eXc#list

mpoole
Community Explorer

Thanks  @jacob_standish1  !  This is a great tool.  I have tons of tech tutorials I have created for my school and needed a way to keep them easily accessible to the faculty.  Since only about 50% of our faculty use google, I can't share the google folder but I do have an all-faculty Canvas course.  This is a great option-- every time I make a new tutorial I can add it to the folder and use our google storage limit instead of our Canvas limit.  It looks great!

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

For those of you interested in exchanging your Google tips and tricks with other teachers, or who want to pick up some new ideas,  @tmercer ​'s CanvasLIVE​ Twitter chat #Canvas4Elem: Getting Googley with Canvas is coming up this week, on Tuesday, October 11, 2016. Please RSVP if you plan to attend--and if you're interested, but your schedule doesn't allow you to participate in the live tweeting, RSVP anyway to receive notifications of comments to the event.

ProfessorBeyrer
Community Coach
Community Coach

Thank you  @jacob_standish ‌ for sharing this and especially for the tip on switching the default view. The ease of making changes in Google, including drag-and-drop file management, makes this tool really useful within Canvas.

GideonWilliams
Community Champion

Fabulous tool. Many thanks for sharing.

Took me a couple of goes to realise that I needed to paste in the ID and not the full URL (if you want some 'old-user' feedback :O)

Now if only Office365 could do this.....damn you Google for being so teacher friendly...!

jenna_townsend
Community Member

How fantastic!  @jacob_standish  Thank You for sharing this. I also work in a Google Drive district and am sure teachers will appreciate a simultaneous way to organize and share materials on Google Drive and on Canvas. Brilliant!

Boekenoogen
Community Contributor

This is a great item to share. I think our college will be interested in seeing if we can get this to work for Fall 2018 courses.

karina_lin
Community Member

Thank you so much for this. We're always trying to figure out better ways for a "gallery" for our students! I am having students submit pdfs/jpgs of their work through Google Forms.