How do a rename a file using the Google Drive API for Ruby?

Question

This seems like a basic question, but I'm well into my second day now :(

I'm using the Google Drive Ruby Api here: https://github.com/google/google-api-ruby-client but the basic file examples in the README appear to be well out of date. In particular, calls to Drive.update_file don't take anything like the parameters shown.

So far, I can get hold of an authorized DriveService:

drive = Google::Apis::DriveV3::DriveService.new
drive.authorization = Google::Auth.get_application_default(['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive'])

I can get a File:

file_id = 'string-of-stuff'
file = drive.get_file file_id

I can set attributes on the File object that look okay:

file.update!(name: 'My new name')

But, I can't figure out how to get the update/patch to actually work after that. The README suggests drive.update_file(file), but that just explodes with a type error.

TypeError: Can't convert Google::Apis::DriveV3::File into String or Array.

Looking at the code, #update_file actually expects a file_id as the first param.

I've tried all sorts of variations based on the README, like:

drive.update_file(file_id, {name: 'New name'})

or:

drive.update_file(file_id, {title: 'New name'})

or (looking at the code):

drive.update_file(file_id, fields: {title: 'New name'})

or even:

drive.update_file(file_id, file)

which explodes with:

Google::Apis::ClientError: fieldNotWritable: The resource body includes fields which are not directly writable.

But nothing works for me. Has anyone used this library? Everything else seems fairly straightforward, but this is just HARD.

Answer 1

Well, after much more trial-and-error, the ONLY way this API works is with a new File object. If you use get_file to get your File, then you end up with an object that has an unwritable id field.

So, this - and only this - appears to work:

drive.update_file(file_id, Google::Apis::DriveV3::File.new(name: name))

Sigh.

Answer 2

Just verified that the following works:

drive.update_file(file_id, { name: new_name })

You no longer need to create a new File object to update the name of an existing file.