Admin Help: Google Drive Best Practice & Share Settings

SchoolBlocks uses Google Drive to store all the files and folders that will go on your website. For district and school files and folders, we use a fake user account which is usually maintained by your district web admin. or technology director. Within that fake user account's Drive, will be a folder for each site containing the files and folders needed to display on the sites.

Teachers have access to the Google Drive via their district issued Google Account, and can use their Google Drive for files they may want to display on their teacher pages. All other content should live in the fake user account managed by the district admin.

Best Practices:
SchoolBlocks will help create the folder structure in Google Drive, under the fake user account. Be sure to make the top level folder's Share Settings Public, or set to "Anyone with the link" Can View. That way any file or folder placed under that will take on those shared settings. This will make it so you do not have to do that for each file you put in the folders. They will take on the shared settings of their parent folder. 

Setting up a shared folder in Google Drive

The most important step to linking files and folders on your website is to set those files and folders shared settings to "Anyone with the Link Can View". This will allow any user who visits the website to view and not edit the files you provide on your website. 

To set up a view-able Google Drive folder with endless files or folders, please follow these steps.  

1. Log into the Google Drive using the "Fake User Account" provided by your main Web Admin. 
2. Create a new folder in Google Drive with an obvious name, so that you can not confuse other folders in the Google Drive. We would suggest calling the top folder the name of the district, and having all the folders inside that folder named for each individual school.  
3. Click the new button in the top left and select the option to create a new folder.
4. Set the title to the name of your school district. 

When you create the new folder, it will show up in the Google Drive, but it will still not have the proper settings to share the files with the users coming to the site. Once you change the share settings for the district folder, you will not have to change the share settings for any other folder inside the district folder. 

To change the share settings on a folder, you will first want to right click on the folder you wish to share, in this case the district folder. Once you have right clicked on the folder, you will notice a menu that expands with many options. Click on the "Share" option to open a new window that gives you the chance to share with others. In the share window, refer to the "General Access" section. Make sure to change the settings to "Anyone with the link" and select "Viewer" to the right, then click the "done" button. 

Once you have the share settings set properly, you can share any document that you place in that folder. You will however need the shareable link. This is a simple process that takes a few clicks to do. The steps are as follows:

• Locate the file or folder to which you would like to find the shareable link. 
• Right click on that specific file. This will expand a menu you have seen before, except you will choose a different option for the purposes of the shareable link. 

• Once you select the option that says "Get Link", you will be directed to a new smaller window that has the share options. Under "general access", click on the "copy link" button. 

Once you have copied the sharable link, here are a few examples on how to share it with your visitors: 

1. Create a "Files Block" and use the file/folder picker option, or the shareable link. Navigate to your public folder and select items within it. For more on adding a Files Block click here.
2. Create a "Links Block" using the shareable link. For more on adding a "Links Block", click here 

For more information or for a visual, please watch this video on the Google Drive best practices.