How to integrate your form with Google Drive

Our new Google Drive integration allows you to send your new submissions and file uploads from 123FormBuilder directly to Google Drive.

You can find Google Drive integration under Integrations section, Most used tab. Google Drive is available starting from Gold plan.

Users under a lower pricing plan then Gold will be seeing the premium icon.

Setup configuration

In order to set up your Google Drive integration, all you have to do is click on Connect button. If you do not have a Google account linked to your 123FormBuilder account, then you need to click on Sign in with Google.

When there is a Google account already connected with 123FormBuilder, you will be seeing the below screen. All you have to do is to choose an account from the dropdown list.

After choosing the account to connect with, all the settings related to Google Drive integration will be displayed.

Default setup

When there is no file upload field added on your form, the default setup of Google Drive will look like below. You will be informed through the second orange banner that you need to add a file upload field on your form in order to be able to enable Send uploaded files to Google Drive.

When there is at least one file upload field added on your form, the default setup of Google Drive will look like below.

Folder name

The first setting is related to folder name. By default, the folder name will be the name of the form, but you can easily change that.

Create subfolder for each submission

By having this option enabled, each submission will have its own subfolder in the main folder created by the Google Drive integration. If you want to have all submissions within a single folder (named as you have provided it in Folder name), then disable this option.

When Create subfolder for each submission is enabled, an additional option is displayed: Submission folder name. By default, Submission folder name is the Entry ID of each submission. You can customise the submission folder name according to your needs. All you have to do is click on the plus sign and you will be displayed different variables: submission variables & form variables.

Submission variables – these are variables that are linked to the submission information, such as Entry ID, IP, Country, Browser, Device Type, Reference ID & Form name.

Form variables – form variables are fields that are added on the form. Here you will have displayed the actual field labels in order for you to easily identify the fields. You also have a search functionality so you could speed up the process of finding a field/variable you are interested in.

Regarding form variables, one thing to keep in mind is that for complex fields, such as multiple choice, first/last name, address, you can use the field in its entirety or just parts of that specific field:

You can even make a combination of submission variables, written text by form user and form variables.

Now that you’ve customised the structure and name of your folders, it’s time to actually set up the most important thing: what exactly do you want to send to Google Drive.

Send a submission PDF to Google Drive

By enabling Send a submission PDF to Google Drive, it means that you want to receive a PDF of the submission in your Google Drive folder/subfolder.

When Send a submission PDF to Google Drive is enabled, we are displaying an additional dropdown, Submission PDF from where you need to choose one PDF option.

Submission PDF with form layout – this PDF has the exact layout & design of the form, but completed with the information provided by the respondent

Submission PDF – this PDF is a minimalist version of the submission information, exactly as it was set up in the Emails section. If no customisations have been brought to it, then the Submission PDF will contain a table with 2 columns: one column has the field and the other column has the answer provided by the respondent.

Send uploaded files to Google Drive

Besides the submission, you can also send the files that were uploaded by respondents on your form through a File upload field.

After enabling Send uploaded files to Google Drive, an additional selection will be displayed: Choose File Upload fields. Here, all your File Upload fields from your form will be displayed, with their appropriate field label.

Error states

When saving the integration setup, we are verifying:

• folder name → if it is empty, we are displaying an error state
• submission folder name → if it enabled & no name provided we are displaying an error state
• choose file upload → if it is enabled & no file upload selected we are displaying an error state

Installed integration

When the integration is saved, it is automatically enabled. You can go to the Drive folder by clicking on the hyperlink under the account email address, you can edit the integration and you can remove it.

Edit integration

When editing the setup for Google Drive, you can:

• modify if you want to create a subfolder for each submission or not
• modify the submission folder name
• modify if you want to send a submission PDF to Google Drive or not
• modify which PDF you want to send to Google Drive
• modify if you want to send or not uploaded files to Google Drive
• modify which file upload fields you want to send to Google Drive.

How the setup looks in Google Drive

Based on the folder name, a folder is created in the Google Drive account that was authenticated with 123FormBuilder.

Based on the Submission folder name (that in my example was the Entry ID), a subfolder is created in the root folder.

Based on the setup, the following files have been sent to the submission folder:

• file upload field 1
• file upload field 2
• submission PDF with form layout

Other scenarios

1.Folder in Google Drive is deleted

Let’s take the following scenario:

• you create the form
• you set up the Google Drive integration
• form receives submissions → folder is created in Google Drive according to the setup
• later on, you delete the folder from Google Drive
• form still receives submissions & Google Drive integration is still enabled

In the above scenario, as the folder has been deleted from Google Drive, the files/PDFs are no longer send to Google Drive as the root folder has been deleted. If you have deleted the folder from Google Drive, they you will need to redo the Google Drive setup.

2.Edit submission

If the form has Edit submission feature enabled, users can modify the initial submission. This will have an impact on the Google Drive integration as it follows:

a. the initials uploaded files and PDFs are sent to the appropriate folder according to the Google Drive setup

b. if the uploaded files have been modified completely, the new files are also sent to the appropriate folder. Also, the second Submission PDF has a timestamp added to the end of its naming so that users could differentiate between the two versions of Submission PDF.

Example:

layoutPDF-3b6ad3dfff68bdc1dce9a83128399dea_1737022113.pdf → second PDF

layoutPDF-3b6ad3dfff68bdc1dce9a83128399dea.pdf → first PDF

c. if the uploaded files have not been modified at all, but the answers to other questions of the form have been, the entire content set up in Google Drive is sent once more to the appropriate folder. The files have a timestamp added to the end of its naming so that users could differentiate between the two versions.

Examples:

Blue_Gradient_Abstract_Lines_Phone_Wallpaper_1737022330.png → second uploaded file

Blue_Gradient_Abstract_Lines_Phone_Wallpaper.png → first uploaded file

3. File upload field used in Google Drive setup has been deleted from the form

If you have created the Google Drive integration setup with one file upload field selected and after enabling the integration, then make changes to the form and that specific file upload field is deleted from the form, the Google Drive integration will go through some changes:

a. Send uploaded files to Google Drive is automatically disabled as there is no other file upload field to send to Google Drive

b. we are displaying a red banner in Installed integration informing users that the file upload field has been deleted and that a new file upload field needs to be added on the form in order to send files to Google Drive.

c. when you click on Edit button, we are keeping the red banner visible & Send uploaded files to Google Drive is disabled (as that one single file upload field that was being used has been deleted). After clicking on Save (regardless of what changes there are made), we are no longer displaying the red banner as the assumption is that this is the desired outcome (of not having a uploaded file sent to Google Drive)