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Authorization

Follow this guide to create a new Google Drive API credential that will allow Nexla to authenticate to and exchange data with your Google Drive account using the Google Drive REST API v3.
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Google Drive API

Prerequisites​

Before creating a Google Drive API credential in Nexla, ensure the following requirements are met.

Google Account​

An active Google account with access to the Google Drive storage you want to connect is required. If you are accessing a shared drive or a drive belonging to a Google Workspace organization, ensure your account has appropriate permissions to the relevant files and folders.

Google Drive API Enabled​

The Google Drive API must be enabled for the Google Cloud project associated with your OAuth 2.0 credentials. To verify or enable the API:

  1. Sign in to the Google Cloud Console.

  2. Select or create a Google Cloud project from the project selector at the top of the page.

  3. Navigate to APIs & Services > Library from the left navigation menu.

  4. Search for Google Drive API in the search box.

  5. Select Google Drive API from the results, and click Enable if it is not already enabled.

Required OAuth 2.0 Scopes​

The Nexla Google Drive API connector uses OAuth 2.0 to authenticate with the Google Drive API. During the authorization process, Nexla will request the following access scopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive — Full access to all files in Google Drive, including reading, creating, modifying, and deleting files and their metadata.
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly — Read-only access to file metadata and file content. Sufficient for data source use cases where no write operations are needed.

Google recommends requesting the most narrowly scoped permissions your use case requires. For read-only data ingestion workflows, the drive.readonly scope provides the minimum necessary access and reduces the permissions granted to the application.

Google Workspace Considerations​

If you are using a Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) account, your organization's administrator may need to approve third-party application access before the OAuth flow can complete. If you encounter an authorization error, contact your Google Workspace administrator to ensure the Nexla application is permitted to access Google Drive data. For details, refer to Google's documentation on controlling third-party app access.

Create a Google Drive API Credential​

  • To create a new Google Drive API credential, after selecting the data source/destination type, click the Add Credential tile to open the Add New Credential overlay.

Credential Name & Description​

  1. Enter a name for the credential in the Credential Name field and a short, meaningful description in the Credential Description field.

    Resource descriptions are recommended but are not required. They should be used to provide information about the resource purpose, data freshness, etc. that can help the owner and other users efficiently understand and utilize the resource.

Authorize with Google​

  1. Click the Authorize button to initiate the OAuth 2.0 authorization flow. A new browser window will open, directing you to the Google sign-in page.

  2. Sign in with the Google account that has access to the Google Drive storage you want to connect. If you are already signed in, select the appropriate account from the list.

  3. Review the permissions that Nexla is requesting on the consent screen, and click Allow to grant access. Google will redirect you back to Nexla once authorization is complete.

    The OAuth 2.0 authorization flow is managed entirely by Google. Nexla does not have access to your Google account password. The authorization grants Nexla a secure, scoped token that allows it to access Google Drive data on your behalf. This access can be revoked at any time from your Google Account permissions page.

Save the Credential​

  1. Once all of the relevant steps in the above sections have been completed, click the Save button at the bottom of the overlay to save the configured credential.

  2. The newly added credential will now appear in a tile on the Authenticate screen during data source/destination creation and can be selected for use with a new data source or destination.