Edit:
Refer to issue 2756, noting that an administrator cannot change the ownership of files via Google Apps Script:
...It's related to the fact that you can't change the own for files
you don't own. This error occurs for any illegal ACL change, such as
trying to call addEditor() when you are a viewer.
To change the ownership of files not owned by the administrator, they must use the Google Drive SDK, authenticated via OAuth.
This is certainly possible, although only for files owned by the user running the script.
Here's a script that will find all the files owned by the current user in the Science Shared folder, and transfer ownership to user science-shared. It's designed as a spreadsheet-contained script, which creates a custom menu and uses the spreadsheet Browser UI. Put the spreadsheet into your shared directory, and any teacher should be able to use it to transfer their own files, wholesale.
An admin should be able to use the script to change ANY teacher's files - just collect the id of the origOwner, and pass it to chownFilesInFolder.
Caveat: It only deals with files, not sub-directories - you could extend it if needed.
/**
* Find all files owned by current user in given folder,
* and change their ownership to newOwner.
* Note: sub-folders are untouched
*/
function chownFilesInFolder(folderId,origOwner,newOwner) {
var folder = DriveApp.getFolderById(folderId);
var contents = folder.getFiles();
while(contents.hasNext()) {
var file = contents.next();
var name = file.getName();
var owner = file.getOwner().getEmail();
// Note: domain security policies may block access to user's emails
// If so, this will return a blank string - good enough for our purposes.
if (owner == origOwner) {
// Found a file owned by current user - change ownership
Logger.log(name);
//file.setOwner(newOwner);
}
}
};
/**
* Spreadsheet browser-based UI driver for chownFilesInFolder()
*/
function changeOwnership() {
var resp = Browser.msgBox("Transfer 'Science Shared' files",
"Are you sure you want to transfer ownership of all your shared files?",
Browser.Buttons.YES_NO);
if (resp == "yes") {
var folderName = "Science Shared";
// Assume there is just one "Science Shared" folder.
var folder = DriveApp.getFoldersByName(folderName);
if (!folder.hasNext()) {
throw new Error("Folder not found ("+folderName+")");
}
else {
var folderId = folder.next().getId();
var origOwner = Session.getActiveUser().getEmail(); // Operate on own files
var newOwner = "science_shared@example.com";
chownFilesInFolder(folderId,origOwner,newOwner);
Browser.msgBox("Operation completed", Browser.Buttons.OK);
}
}
else Browser.msgBox("Operation aborted", Browser.Buttons.OK);
}
/**
* Adds a custom menu to the active spreadsheet, containing a single menu item
*/
function onOpen() {
var spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var entries = [{
name : "Transfer 'Science Shared' files",
functionName : "changeOwnership"
}];
spreadsheet.addMenu("Science-Shared", entries);
};
I hope that helps get you started.
