I'm trying to merge data into a Google Docs file with python and the Google Drive API.
I've added this type of syntax to my doc file: {name} and fill this with data like this (python code running on Google App Engine):
self.content = self.drive_service_auth._http.request(self.download_url)
Where self.download_url is the url of the docs file en self.content is the content of this file. I then merge the data like this:
self.content = self.content.replace('{' + name + '}', value)
And then save the file back to Drive:
# metadata from generated document
body = {'title': title,
'description': desc,
'mimeType': 'text/html',
'parents': [{'id': folder_id}]}
# generate new document
media_body = MediaIoBaseUpload(StringIO(self.content.encode('ascii', 'xmlcharrefreplace')), 'text/html', resumable=False)
drive_result = self.drive_service_auth.files().insert(body=body, media_body=media_body, convert=True).execute()
This works, the data is inserted into the doc file. However, the markup of the original (template) file is different than that of the new file, I don't have controle over it.
I think this is because the doc file is converted to HTML in my python code and when I save it, it's converted back to the original format (XML I think). In these conversions the markup is lost/altered I think.
Is there a better way of accomplishing my goal to merge data in a Google Docs file while still maintaining the option of putting markup in the template file? A way that doesn't destroy the markup of the original file.
