Moving Files to a Google Folder and Subfolder

Sure - there is an action to Create a Folder in Google Drive via Pipelines and then another action to upload a file to Drive. 

In your case - you would want to create the trigger when a new record is created to then create the Folder - at which point you then want to store the Drive ID back in Quickbase in that record. You will need this when you then upload files to make sure you upload to this particular folder without having to do additional searches. 

Then you would have Pipeline(s) to upload the file to the stored Drive Folder ID from above when a new file is attached. 

From your description it sounds a little like you might have several file attachment fields in your record - I might recommend making a 'Documents' table as a child to your main record so you can upload as many attachments as you need. This also allows you to make 1 pipeline bound to the Documents record. However if you keep with having multiple file attachments in the same record - there are a couple ways you could handle it with IF conditions in your pipeline but for simplicity I would suggest setting up a different pipeline for EACH file attachment, triggered whenever a file is uploaded to that field as the trigger. 

I agree with Chayce's approach. One word of caution from recent experience is that the system might not recognize the new folder being created for 10-15 minutes. I was using Box instead of Google Drive, but I imagine the refresh rates are similar across the systems. I spent hours trying to figure out why my Pipeline kept saying the folder I just created didn't exist until I finally realized it was a timing issue.

I'd suggest keeping your folder creation and document upload Pipelines separate and running your folder creation one well in advance to ensure it sees the new folders where the documents are to be uploaded. This can be frustrating from a user perspective though, so I'd love to hear if anyone has found a way around the delay.

Hey Miguel, as Chayce mentioned, one technique is to leverage Quickbase's Google Drive Pipelines Channel to create the Drive Folder and then write the Folder ID back to your Quickbase app once it's been created. I've set this up in the past where we create a new record in a QB "Links" table which relates back a parent record (e.g. Project). This allows us to create a nested directory structure, where one Drive Folder may have subfolders too.

When creating the Drive folder record, I also append the QB Record ID to the Folder name to help with searching via Drive. And in Quickbase you may use a Formula URL to construct a link to Google Drive folder by basically concatenating the base path to Google Drive with the stored Links ID. That way users can click a button on a QB Form or Report to easily get to the right location in Google Drive.

Also, users can upload files directly to Google Drive, which is different than what you're asking, but it may be an alternative to consider. There are pros and cons to consider, especially with data validation.

Hi Miguel, I agree to Oana's point regarding the delay with box google drive channel is pretty fast and I have configured it in the past but still giving it a minute or two time delay using the clock channel helps. Also, when you are using the address field in the naming convention you will have problem with that. Underscore (_) would be missing when you pull the native address fields so be cautious with that.