Hello Everyone,
Later this year, Google is making some changes to the way that their API works with Templater. This change has already resulted in the new File Picker workflow implemented in Templater 3.7.01. However, this update has had an unintended side effect. Because Templater is no longer granted general access to all of the files in Google Drive, it can no longer utilize links to media files contained in Google Drive Accounts.
After investigating the issue, we came up with a workaround that should be implemented into Templater 3.7.2 and later, the Google Drive Media Connector. The upside is that this allows users to create a custom login protocol using Google’s development tools that will grant Templater access to any files in a user-authorized Google Drive. The downside is that the process to get this access up and running can be a bit complicated, so we’ve created this guide to help streamline the process.
Before we get started, a quick note about Google Accounts, the Google Drive Media Connector, and Templater. The account that we use for this process and the account that we use to log in to Google Sheets do not have to be the same account. This means that we can store our Google Sheet data on one account and our media on another. With that out of the way, let’s get started.
To begin, open a browser and navigate to https://console.cloud.google.com
- Click on the button to the right of the Google Cloud header. This button may change depending on whether the Google account is part of an organization.
- Click NEW PROJECT.
- Type a name for the new Project, select an Organization if this option exists, and then click Create.
NOTE: If the account used to set up the Project is part of an Organization and this org is chosen during the setup process, you should only have to login once when authenticating with Templater. However, if the account used is a personal Google Account with no Organization, Google will require that the account re-authenticate with Templater once every 7 days.
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Click on Select a project at the top of the window and choose your newly created Project.
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Click on the Navigation Menu icon 
in the upper-left hand corner of the page and choose APIs & Services>Library.
- Search for “Drive” in the Search for APIs & Services field and click on Google Drive API. Click ENABLE.
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Once the Google Drive API has been enabled, click on MANAGE or click on the Navigation Menu in the upper-left-hand corner and navigate to APIs & Services>Enabled APIs & services. Finally, click on Credentials in the left-hand menu.
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From there, click on +Create Credentials and choose OAuth client ID.
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Click on “Configure consent screen” to continue.
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Add an App name and fill in the email address of the user account that we’ll use to log in. Once those are filled in, click Next.
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Under Audience, choose External and then click Next.
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Under Contact Information, enter in the Email addresses of the user whose account owns the media assets that Templater will access, and that will be used to authenticate Templater. Click Next.
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Finally, check the “I agree to the Google API Services: User Data Policy” checkbox and click Continue.
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Finish the process by clicking Create.
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On the next screen, click on Create OAuth client
- Choose Desktop app for the Application Type and name the client. Once we hit Create, a screen will appear with the Client ID and the Client secret code. These two values are needed to log in to the account using the new Media Connector for Google Drive dialog in Templater, so be sure to record them in a safe place for later.
- Click Data Access in the left-hand menu and click Add or remove scopes. Check the first two entries that read “See your primary Google Account email address” and “See your personal info, including any personal info you’ve made publicly available”
- Once that’s done, type “Google Drive API” in the “Enter property name or value” field and click on the “Google Drive API” entry with the description that reads “See and download all your Google Drive Files”.
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Under the Data Access section verify that the three scopes have been added. The first two should be listed under Your non-sensitive scopes while the third should be under Your restricted scopes. If all the information is present and correct, click on the Save button.
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From there, click on the Audience listing on the left-hand side and click on Add users under the Test users section.
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Enter the email address that you will use to authenticate Templater’s Media Connector for Google Drive and click Save.
- Navigate back to Templater and click on the Preferences button. Click on the Footage tab and click Configure Google Drive.
- Enter the Client ID and the Client Secret code that we generated earlier in this process and then click Sign In.
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The Sign In process should navigate to a Google login page that will prompt you to choose a Google Account and bring up a warning stating that Google hasn’t verified this app. Hit Continue and then Continue again to sign into the newly created Project.
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Finally, we’ll need to check the “See, edit, create, and delete all of your Google Drive files.” option to give Templater full access to any links generated from this Google Drive.
NOTE: If we ever need to retrieve the Client ID or Client Secret code, navigate to console.cloud.google.com. From there, we can click on the Navigation menu in the upper left-hand corner and go to APIs & Services>Credentials. Finally, click on the name of the client under OAuth2.0 Client IDs. This should take us to a screen that contains the Client ID and the Client secret on the right-hand side of the page.
If all goes according to plan, Templater’s new Google Drive Connector should now be connected to the custom Project we set up. This should give Templater and After Effects access to any media links generated from that account.
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to post here or get in touch with us directly at support@dataclay.com. We’ll do our best to answer any questions that you might have and help out however we can.
Happy Rendering!
