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[Forminator Pro] Integration: Google Drive for File Attachments

5

I would like to request the feature to be able to have uploaded files via the Upload File field in Forminator Pro to get synced to Google Drive.

REASON:
– Files uploaded in Forminator are stored unencrypted and anyone on the internet can view and download the file once the URL structure of the folder or file is known.

Thus, Forminator is not good for commercial forms that requires customers to upload sensitive data.

INTEGRATION SETUP EXAMPLE:
Since Google Sheet integration includes allowing Google Drive API, I’m sure this can be done.

USE CASE:
– Forminator + Google Sheet Integration + Google Drive Integration.

PROCESS FLOW:
STEP #1: Customer fills up the form with an uploaded file.

STEP #2: Forminator Pro via the Google Drive integration will upload the file in Google Drive designated upload folder (the location of the uploaded files in Google Drive can be configured by the user).

There’s an additional scenario that can be implemented based on the settings that the customer can configure in the integration settings of Google Drive.

Scenario 1: Files Uploaded In The Website Server Are Kept
– Files Are Stored In The Website Server
– Files Are Uploaded and Stored in Google Drive
– File Link in the Google Sheet integration will use the Website Server URL.

Scenario 2: Files Are Deleted Upon Successful Upload to Google Drive.
– Files are uploaded and stored in Google Drive
– Files are then deleted in Website Server.
– File Link in the Google Sheet integration will use the Google Drive URL.

For your review and consideration.

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 12:02:57
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  • Phil
    • Look Up

    Hi Adam Czajczyk I know you said to reference the roadmap, but this feature would be a nice to have and I’m curious if you can expand on where it sits in terms of priority? :)

    The roadmap just shows what’s coming next, not if xyz feature is in the next top 5 to be worked on, or if it’s at the bottom of the pile!

    • Nithin Ramdas
      • Support Wizard

      Hi Phil ,

      but this feature would be a nice to have and I’m curious if you can expand on where it sits in terms of priority?

      Unfortunately, there Isn’t any update we could provide at the moment in terms of priority. There haven’t been enough requests for this feature that the feature could be considered in the roadmap yet. Even if you check the current ticket and its timestamp you should find it wasn’t highly requested.

      The Roadmaps page help in giving a better idea what are the upcoming major features which our team is working on next with high priority.

      You can check whether Zapier and its integration with Google Drive help in such use cases:
      https://zapier.com/apps/google-drive/integrations

      Please do note that I haven’t specifically tested the above integration, it’s more of a suggestion for you to check and see whether it fits your requirement.

      Kind Regards,
      Nithin

  • Tony G
    • Mr. LetsFixTheWorld

    PMJI : When we see a request for a specific integration like this, I frequently jump in to suggest hooks or an API. This feature request is a perfect example of why.

    This well- thought-out and well-documented feature request was put into a pile and then it died a lonely death.

    “It’s not dead, it’s still in the pile.” Yeah…No. It’s been over two years. It’s dead. No one has officially said it’s dead because as a marketing policy that’s not what this company does.

    In this situation, for whatever reason, there hasn’t been a combination of priority and resources to process this specific request. That is, there isn’t enough demand for it, OR, there is adequate demand and there just isn’t time or personnel available to process it yet amongst all of the other prioritized things that they’d love to do. I have no complaint about this. This is how all development is processed.

    But the end result is that in these forums we see a lot of great ideas simply die. My ongoing recommendation is to not create anticipation for upcoming functionality, and then not do it, but to add in hooks that will allow any solution in the same category to be created by third parties.

    In this case, when a file is uploaded, hook the event so that some other process can route the data to some other destination. WPMU DEV doesn’t need to code for OneDrive, Google Drive, or DropBox, or the thousand other services that store objects like this. DEV doesn’t need to rsync or zip or FTP, or tar or implement any other form of compression or data transfer. DEV doesn’t need to reformat CSV or JSON into CPTs, or save it in a database. Just hook the event and then foster the idea that third-party developers can create the individual solutions.

    There are any number of tutorials that explain how to upload a file to Google Drive – and any number of developers who know how to do it. The same goes for all of the other post-processing options above. This specific challenge is simple and useful to this audience. But because this one company (no doubt for all good reasons) hasn’t processed this request, everyone here simply does without. That’s no fun.

    There are so many benefits to this model of extensibility, compared to the current model where really good ideas get positive initial feedback – and then years later people are asking “what happened?”.

    So to anyone who is reading this, please:

    – ThumbUp this note.
    – When you want a specific thing done in a WPMU DEV plugin, think about how that concept can be a little more abstracted so that DEV developers don’t need to learn about some foreign service. Ask for an interface, a hook, and tell them how you’d like to use it.
    – When you see requests for specific functionality, and you recognize how it might be abstracted, do what I do and ask DEV to create a hook rather than implementing the specific feature.
    – Look for documentation for hooks that do these things (cuz DEV documents everything, right?). Give that documentation to a local developer and ask them to implement the functionality that you want. Publish the functionality in GitHub and then tell everyone here about it. That’s how FOSS works!

    And WPMU DEV : When you get specific requests like this, PLEASE first approve and process a hook in the area, don’t implement the specific feature. Hooks take almost no time or resources and require no special knowledge. Hell, do a marathon on your code to create hooks where you can’t imagine people would want them – and then watch the ideas pop up. Then, as another project, maybe, when priority is established and resources permit, use your own hooks to implement functionality that’s been requested. It will be so much easier to hook an event than to pack a bunch of addon features into a plugin’s core. You already do this with addons. Just keep doing it.

    Thank you all.

    • Phil
      • Look Up

      Great post, Tony G Unfortunately I’m not getting into custom feature dev myself (nor will I seek to outsource it to local devs) so I’m at the “mercy” of whatever comes down the official pipeline. This is because I do web design on side and I don’t care to spend extra cycles to make something happen – I’ll just leverage what’s given to me.

      I do support upvoting good ideas, opening tickets with useful tickets, etc. But you’re right, the majority of the time they die on the pile of good ideas :)

      • Tony G
        • Mr. LetsFixTheWorld

        I completely understand, Phil

        I know you get this, thanks: My intent is always to present options, to ensure people are aware of the options. For fellow members who have different priorities, the idea of looking outside of the box might be worth further enquiry.

        Two more requests for Forminator came up this week that can be satisfied by a similar approach to the one presented above. That is, we can have these things now, if we really want them.

        What I don’t like to see happen, and it happens all the time, is that people think “I can’t get what I want, I need to go somewhere else”. Really, I see this happen frequently with WordPress plugins and in my primary business industry. It costs vendors a lot of revenue, and then more development expense as they try to come up with new products because they can’t answer “what happened? we thought we were doing great.” And it chases talented people out of the industry when they just want an opportunity to earn a living by producing software just like those who earn a living by consuming software.

        The Free and Open Source Software model confuses Free (liberty) with Free (no cost). We pay for all of this with our time, and sometimes with out money. But make no mistake, we pay for Free. In this WP industry people solve the problem of “I want it for free” with a never-ending quest for the next no-cost plugin. That’s such a shame because talented developers then avoid this industry because they can’t support themselves. We get So much in this industry, truly for free / no cost, compared to other industries. We bathe in the joy of paying nothing for so much. And yet the majority of the industry still insists on wanting more, to improve profits, at the expense of those with other talents. It’s a self-destructive model really, and we could all do much better just by recognizing the dynamics.

        Anyway … I hope you get a solution to your challenges.

        < /soapbox > :smiley:

  • Luis Soriano
    • Staff

    Hi New Now Creative Agency

    Thanks for your message and interest on this thread!

    I am afraid there’s no update on the priority of this feature right now. There haven’t been enough requests for it yet as you can see in the amount of replies in this ticket, so it’s not on the roadmap.

    However, I’ll ping the development team so they aware a new vote has been made for this feature to be accomplished.

    Kind regards

    Luis