What is the Google Data Transfer API?
The Google Data Transfer API is an API developed and maintained by Google for managing the transfer of data between users within a domain.
How is it used in CloudM Automate?
As part of the Transfer Ownership of Documents offboarding step, you can enable the use of the Google Data Transfer API instead of the default CloudM method.
Advantages
- The Google Data Transfer API resolves an issue with the default step where files and folders from shared folders become orphaned if they contain folders owned by the offboarding user. Instead, the API changes ownership and creates a Drive shortcut for the new owner pointing to the original location. Everyone with existing permissions can still access the file, and access is revoked from the offboarded user.
- The Google Data Transfer API is Google's recommended method for transferring Drive, Looker Studio, and Calendar data between users within the same domain. It runs on Google's own infrastructure, which means any changes Google makes to the data transfer process will be reflected in the API automatically.
Limitations
When the Google Data Transfer API is enabled for the Transfer Ownership of Documents step, the following limitations apply:
- Reduced statistics — there is less detail available on step progress compared to the default CloudM method. The status will only show whether the step is in progress, successful, or failed. Transferred drives are shown in the Transferred items section of the Workflows Dashboard, where each entry represents one offboarding.
- Less detailed error logs — error logs exported from CloudM Automate will contain less detail than those produced by the default CloudM method.
- No file filtering — there is no way to control or filter which files are included in the transfer.
- Folder naming — when the Use Data Transfer API setting is enabled, the Folder name field is disabled. The destination folder name will use the email address of the offboarded user instead.
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