Accessing Google Drive public folder from Android app without authentication

Question

Accessing Google Drive public folder from Android app without authentication

I want my application to be able to read from a predefined Google Drive shared public folder without having to log in or select a Google account.

Background / environment

Using my desktop browser, I created a shared folder in my Google Drive that is set to publish. Anyone with the link can access (read) the drive, so no authorization is required:

In my Android Studio project, I went to File > Project Structure > Dependencies

and addedcom.google.android.gms:play-services-drive:10.2.0

Now I have the opportunity to create new GoogleApiClient.Builder()

.

Question

I've looked at various examples, but in most cases the drive was generated by an Android app. This is not the situation I am trying to cope with.

This question is about disk access that was made public using a "folder id" or whatever you call 0B6X74x23H....

that was assigned when the folder was originally split and made public.

I looked at the demo code provided by Google , but this is presumably not for a shared folder because it says:

... the OAuth 2.0 client must be registered

At a minimum, I could manage the process with http-client, going to the link https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6X74x23Hx7DNE13M0ZIbVI....?usp=sharing

without authentication and not needing to go through the hoops. But of course it would be easier to use a specific API and just specify a shared shared folder to display content and optionally download files from the shared folder.

When I try this code:

        Scope publicFolder = new Scope(EXISTING_FOLDER_ID);
        mGoogleApiClient = new GoogleApiClient.Builder(mActivity)
                .addApi(Drive.API)
                .addScope(publicFolder)
                .addConnectionCallbacks(this)
                .addOnConnectionFailedListener(this)
                .build();
        mGoogleApiClient.connect();