Introduction
By integrating your Docebo learning platform with Google Drive, you can upload Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Slides, and Drawings as training material in your platform, making them available to learners both on the desktop and on the mobile version of the platform.
Those who have activated Discover, Coach & Share, can take advantage of this Google Drive integration to upload assets with the Share functionality.
The integration between Docebo and Google Drive can include Google Picker, a File Open dialog where users can upload the files stored in their Google Drive in Docebo. This article describes how to use the integration both with and without Google Picker. For more information about Google Picker, please see the Google Picker API documentation on Google (opens in a new tab).
Requirements and limitations
- You cannot create Google Drive training material directly in courses, but you can create it in the Central Repository and then add it to courses.
Activating Google Drive in Docebo
Activate the Google Drive app as described in the Managing Apps & Features article of the Knowledge Base. The app is listed in the Third Party Integrations tab.
Create a Google project for your Docebo integration
The first step to configure the integration between Docebo and Google Drive is to create a Google Project that utilizes specific Google Drive Scopes.
To do so, log into your Google Account and access the Google Developer Console (opens in a new tab). In the action bar at the top of the page click on Create Project.
Enter the project name and, if necessary, change the organization and location according to your needs. Click the Create button to proceed.
When the project is ready, press the notification icon in the top right corner of the screen and select the project in the drop-down list.
Next, you will need to enable the appropriate APIs for your project. To do so click on Enable APIs and Services link at the top of the page.
You will then be brought to the API Library page. Use the search box to find Google Picker API. In the resulting list of results, click on Google Picker API.
Next, you will arrive on the Google Picker API page, click the Enable button to activate the API.
Next, you will enable the Google Drive API. To do so, click the Library tab in the APIs & Services menu.
You will then be brought to the API Library page. Use the search box to find Google Drive API. In the resulting list of results, click on Google Drive API.
In the search results page, click on Google Drive API.
Next, you will arrive on the Google Drive API page, click the Enable button to activate the API.
The overview page for the Google Drive API will appear next. Click on the Create Credentials button to proceed.
In the following screen, select Google Drive API in the first drop-down box and then choose User data as the type of data you will be accessing. Click the Next button to continue to the next step.
In the next section, give your App a meaningful name in the App name box. Next, select the appropriate email address from the drop-down menu in the User support email box.
Scroll down and, in the Developer contact information section, add an email address. This email address can be the same email address you used in the drop-down box. Next, press the Save and Continue button.
The next section allows you to add the necessary scopes. To do so, press the Add or Remove Scopes button.
In the resulting slide-in menu, select both the Google Drive API (.../auth/drive) and Google Drive API (.../auth/drive.file) scopes. Press the Update button to return to the main screen.
Returning to the Create credentials screen, press the Save and Continue button to move on to the OAuth Client ID section.
In the following section choose Web application from the Application Type drop-down box. Doing so will cause a Name text box to appear. Give the Client ID a meaningful name in the text box and move down to the Authorized JavaScript origins section. Press the + Add URI button to reveal a textbox labeled URIs 1*. In that text box, add the URL of your platform. Please note that this must follow the format of https://yourplatformname.docebosaas.com (replacing yourplatformname with your platform's name) with no slash at the end of the URL.
Next, scroll down and press the Create button.
The next section will display your credentials. Copy and paste this information into a text editor (such as Notepad on Windows, for example) for use when adding the necessary information to the Docebo platform later. Click Done to finish configuring the OAuth2 credentials.
Returning to the Google Drive API screen, press the Credentials tab in the APIs & Services side-menu to access your list of credentials.
The next screen to be displayed shows a list of configured credentials. Click on the + Create Credentials button and select API key from the resulting drop-down list.
Your API key will now be created and displayed on the screen. Copy and paste this API key into a text editor for later use in the Docebo platform. Then, press the Edit API key link in the modal window, do not press Close.
In the following Key restrictions screen, scroll down to the API restrictions section and press the Restrict key radio button. Next, click on the Select APIs dropdown menu.
In the resulting modal window, select both Google Drive API and Google Picker API, then press OK to confirm your choices.
Next, press the Save button to finish configuring your API restrictions.
You have now completed the configuration in Google and can move on to configuring the Google Drive integration in your Docebo Learn platform.
Configuring Google Drive in Docebo
In order to configure Google Drive in Docebo, access the Admin Menu by pressing the gears icon in the top right corner of the screen.
Next, then find the Google Drive section and press the Manage subitem.
You will then be redirected to the Google Drive Settings page. On top of the page, activate the Enable Google Drive option. Next, enter your API Key and Client ID into the corresponding text boxes.
Press Save Changes to complete the configuration.
At any time, you can reset your Google Drive configuration by clicking on Reset Configuration. When resetting the configuration, both the API Key and Client ID will be deleted and you will no longer be able to take advantage of the integration till you enter some valid values again.
Uploading training material using the Google Picker
You can upload your Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Slides Presentations, or Google Drawings (in native format) directly into a course or in the Central Repository. If you upload it into a course, you can always push it to the Central Repository later. For the sake of this manual, we will upload training material from Google Drive directly into a course.
In order to upload Google Drive content as training material for your course, log in to the platform as a Superadmin and access the Admin Menu from the gear icon in the top right corner of the platform. In the E-Learning section, select the Course Management item. Look for the course for which you would like to upload the Google Drive training material and click on its description, then move to the Training Material tab. From here, select the Add Training Material button, then select Google Drive from the dropdown menu.
Please note: Google Drive content can be uploaded as training material only into e-learning courses.
On the main upload page for your Google Drive training material, flag the Import File option in the Google File Source row at the top of the page. Then, press the Load From Google Drive button. Your Google Picker will then appear. You can use the tabs at the top of the page to view documents, presentations, spreadsheets, or drawings. Once you’ve found which object you want to import, simply press the object’s thumbnail to select it, then press the Select button.
The title of the training material in your platform will automatically appear based on the title of the object in Google Drive but you can change it as needed. Then, add a description to the training material in the corresponding text box and move to the Additional Info tab to add a short description and select a thumbnail.
You can also add tags to your training material to improve its searchability in your platform’s global search. If the auto-tagging feature is enabled in your platform, some tags may be automatically generated based on the content of your asset, as understood by your platform using artificial intelligence (note that this only works for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese content). You can edit or remove tags at any time, with a limit of 15 tags per training material and 32 characters per tag.
For security reasons, the platform artificial intelligence does not access private content (that is, content requiring authentication to be accessed) and can thus automatically generate tags only for public content. When uploading private content, we suggest you add tags manually. The accepted file types for auto-tagging in your learning platform are:
| Content type | Value |
|---|---|
| Text files | TXT, CSV, JSON, RTF |
| Document files | DOC, DOCX, ODT, PPT, PPTX, PDF, XLSX, XLS |
| Image files | GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, TIF |
| Web files | HTML, HTM |
| Video files | MP4, MOV |
| Google Docs | Docs, Sheets, Slides |
| Linked online videos from | YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia |
| SCORM, AICC, and xAPI Files |
Text from HTML pages Transcript from audios and videos (flash videos, SWF, MP4, MOV, WAV, MP3, MKV, OGG, FLAC) Text from documents and images (CSV, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, ODT, PDF, PPTX, PPT, RTF, TIFF, TXT, XLSX, XLS) AICC internal course metadata (title, description) |
When you’re finished, press Save Changes.
Once you’ve uploaded the file, you can find it in the list of training materials for the course on the Training Materials page. From here, you can manage the training material settings or push to the Central Repository by pressing the menu icon in the object’s row and selecting an option from the dropdown menu.
Uploading training material without the Google Picker
To upload a Google Drive object into your platform as training material, follow the instructions outlined in the previous section regarding how to access the upload page for this type of training material. Once you’ve selected the option to upload a Google Drive object into a course and you’ve been redirected to the main upload page for the object, flag the Embed URL option in the Google File Source section at the top of the page.
A text box will appear below and you can copy and paste the Google Drive link to the object into this text box. To get this link, open the object in your Google Drive. Once you’re on the object’s page, press the File option, then select Publish to Web from the dropdown menu.
Then, in the pop-up box, you need to UNFLAG the option to require viewers to sign in before viewing the document (if you can’t see this option, press the Published Content & Settings item first). Next, press Publish and copy the link that will appear in the text box. You can then paste this link into the corresponding text box on the upload page in your Docebo platform.
Once you’ve pasted the link into your platform, a green checkmark will appear on the right side of the page if your Docebo platform recognizes the link as a valid Google Drive link. Otherwise, a red X will appear, and you’ll need to retry copying and pasting the link.
Then, add a title and a description to the training material in the corresponding text boxes, and move to the Additional Info tab to add a short description and select a thumbnail. You can also add tags to your training material to improve its searchability in your platform’s global search. If the auto-tagging feature is enabled in your platform, some tags may be automatically generated based on the content of your training material, as understood by your platform using artificial intelligence (note that this only works for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese content). You can edit or remove tags at any time, with a limit of 15 tags per training material and of 32 characters per tag.
For security reasons, the platform artificial intelligence does not access private content (that is, content requiring authentication to be accessed) and can thus automatically generate tags only for public content. When uploading private content, we suggest you add tags manually. The accepted file types for auto-tagging in your learning platform are:
| Content type | Value |
|---|---|
| Text files | TXT, CSV, JSON, RFT |
| Document files | DOC, DOCX, ODT, PPT, PPTX, PDF, XLSX, XLS |
| Image files | GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, TIF |
| Web files | HTML, HTM |
| Video files | MP4, MOV |
| Google Docs | Docs, Sheets, Slides |
| Linked online videos from: | YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia |
| SCORM, AICC, and xAPI Files |
Text from HTML pages Transcript from audios and videos (flash videos, SWF, MP4, MOV, WAV, MP3, MKV, OGG, FLAC) Text from documents and images (CSV, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, ODT, PDF, PPTX, PPT, RTF, TIFF, TXT, XLSX, XLS) AICC internal course metadata (title, description) |
When you’re finished, press Save Changes.
Once you’ve uploaded the file, you can find it in the list of training materials for the course on the Training Materials page. From here, you can manage the training material settings or push to the Central Repository by pressing the menu icon in the object’s row and selecting an option from the dropdown menu.
Preparing and managing your files in Google Drive
Before uploading a file from Google Drive into your Docebo platform, make sure that the Share settings are set to Anyone with a link can view. To set this option, press the File button in Google Drive, then press Share from the dropdown menu. In the pop-up box, select the Get Sharable Link option. Open the dropdown menu at the top of the box, then press More. Then, flag the option that Anyone with a link can view the object. When finished, press Done.
When you change the content of a Google Drive object that is also a training material in Docebo, changes are applied in the platform almost in real-time; the synchronization between Google Drive and Docebo occurs every five minutes.
If you delete an object in Google Drive after it has been published as training material in Docebo, do not delete the training material in your platform, as then you will lose the data for that object.
Managing Google Drive files in Docebo
Once a file is uploaded in Docebo from Google Drive, it can be played in any view mode: Theater mode, fullscreen, inline, or new window. Remember that the links and the videos that are embedded in your files are clickable and playable in Docebo.
When a learner opens the training material in his or her Docebo platform, the Google Drive training material is automatically marked as completed upon opening, regardless of the amount of time spent watching the object.
Tips & tricks
- If you wish to de-activate the Google Drive app in Docebo after you have added Google Drive objects as training materials within your courses, you have to delete all of the training material in your Docebo platform before disabling the app.
- Remember that the Google Drive integration only allows documents to be pulled from a non-shared Drive. Google documents stored in a shared Drive cannot be imported.