export-doc-pdf

"Exporting Google Docs documents as PDF" code samples

Introduction

This repo contains developer code samples from the post covering how to export Google Docs documents as PDF featured on the Coding #Python and #Google with @wescpy blog. The samples are available in Python and Node.js/JavaScript.

📝 Python 2 and 3 supported
Most of the world is on Python 3 today, but there are still some with dependencies on 2.x that make migration challenging. The Python code samples in this repo are both Python 2-3 compatible, hence why you don't see newer features like async-await, type annotations, f-strings, etc.

Prerequisites/required setup

• NodeJS (16+): Create a basic package.json and install required pkgs with this command:
  • npm init -y; npm i googleapis @google-cloud/local-auth
• Python 2 or 3 (new auth): In your normal or virtualenv environment, run the following command if using the current/new Python auth libraries (most everyone):
  • pip install -U google-api-python-client google-auth-httplib2 google-auth-oauthlib (or pip3)
• Python 2 or 3 (old auth): If you have dependencies on the older Python auth libraries and/or still have old code lying around that do (see warning sidebar below), run this command to ensure you have the latest/last versions of these libraries:
  • pip install -U pip google-api-python-client oauth2client (or pip3)
• For Python specifically, 2.x means 2.7, and if you're already planning the migration to 3.x, you should definitely not be using anything older than 2.6 (as it's the 1st release with 3.x-compatible features). For 3.x, it should work for nearly all releases, but 3.7 or newer are recommend.

💥 Caveat: oauth2client deprecated

The older Python auth libraries, primarily oauth2client, were deprecated in 2017 in favor of modern replacements. However the newer libraries do not support OAuth token storage, hence why the older *-old.py samples are generally always shorter than their modern equivalents. For now, oauth2client still works, even in maintenance mode, and provides automated, threadsafe, and 2.x/3.x-compatible storage of and access to OAuth2 tokens for users whereas the newer libraries do not (yet).

Code samples

Sample	Description
python/drive_export_doc_pdf.py	Python (2 & 3) version using current auth libs (google.auth)
python/drive_export_doc_pdf-old.py	Python (2 & 3) version using old auth libs (oauth2client)
nodejs/drive_export_doc_pdf.js	CommonJS Node.js/JavaScript version
nodejs/drive_export_doc_pdf.mjs	Modern JavaScript/ECMAScript module