Files list with an exclusion of folders and all its grand children subdirectories

Question

I have this hierarchy on my drive :

-- logo1.png
|
|-- logo2.png
|
 -- myFolder
|     |
|      --logo3.png
|
|
 -- myPrivateFolder
      |
       --anotherPrivateFolder
           |
            -- logo4.png

I'm using this simple script to list my files :

$client = new Google_Client();
$client->setAuthConfig($oauth_credentials);
$client->setRedirectUri($redirect_uri);
$client->addScope("https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive");
$service = new Google_Service_Drive($client);


$result = array();

try {
  $parameters = array(
      'q' => "mimeType contains 'image/'",
  );
  $files = $service->files->listFiles($parameters);

  $result = array_merge($result, $files->getFiles());
} catch (Exception $e) {
  print "Une erreur s'est produite : " . $e->getMessage();
}
return $result;

As a parameter, I give excluded folders ID after retrieving them :

$parameters = array('q' => "'not 'myFolderID' in parents and not 'myprivateFolderID' in parents");

When running my script, I only expect to get logo1.png and logo2.png , since I excluded myFolder and myPrivateFolder , but I also get logo4.png since it has anotherPrivateFolder and myPrivateFolder is a grandparent. I understood that Google Drive API has no notion of tree structure, so I made a recursive function to spread along all subdirectories of an excluded Folders. In this case, my script will get all the ID of the folders below myFolder and myPrivateFolder . Here is my function :

$excluded_folders_id = array();
function retrieveAllChildren($service, $parameters) {
  global $excluded_folders_id;
  $results = array();
  $pageToken = NULL;
  do{
    try {
      if ($pageToken) {
        $parameters['pageToken'] = $pageToken;
      }
      $files = $service->files->listFiles($parameters);
      $results = array_merge($results, $files->getFiles());
      $pageToken = $files->getNextPageToken();
    } catch (Exception $e) {
      print "Une erreur s'est produite : " . $e->getMessage();
      $pageToken = NULL;
    }
  }while($pageToken);
  foreach ($results as $result) {
    echo "=> New children to exclude : ".$result->name."\n";
    array_push($excluded_folders_id, $result->id);
    retrieveAllChildren($service, array('q' => "'".$result->id."' in parents and mimeType = 'application/vnd.google-apps.folder'"));
  }
}
retrieveAllChildren($service, array('q' => "name = 'myPrivateFolder'"))

As a result I have an array containing the ID of my excluded folder and all of its subdirectories. I then build the query, for each excluded folder ID, I add ...and 'newsubdirectoryID' not in parents. When running a request on a drive containing hundreds of subfolders, I have a 413 error saying that my client request is too large. How can I then exclude a folder and all of its content, without limit ?

Thank you in advance for any help

EDIT :

function isFileInExcluded($service, $entity_id){

  global $excluded_folders_id;

  $entityProperties = $service->files->get($entity_id,array('fields' => 'parents, id, name'));

  If there is no more parents (so if on top of tree - no excluded encountered)
  if($entityProperties->parents == NULL){
    return true;
  }
  // If file has excluded folder on upper part of tree
  if(in_array($entityProperties->parents[0], $excluded_folders_id) == true){
    return true;
  }else{
    // Spread acrosse upper parents
    $parentProperties = $service->files->get($entityProperties->parents[0],array('fields' => 'parents, id, name'));
    isFileInExcluded($service, $parentProperties->id);
  }
}

Answer 1

"When running a request on a drive containing hundreds of subfolders, I have a 413 error saying that my client request is too large"

You will need to redesign your app.

Some approaches you can take:-

1. Instead of excluding, can you not find an inclusive parameter that is common to the files you want to retrieve.
2. Simply fetch all images and then filter out the required ones in your php.
3. Give the images you wish to exclude a common parent. So eg. your logo4.png is a child of anotherPrivateFolder. Create a new folder called say "excludeAllChildren", and make logo4.png a child of excludeAllChildren in addition to a child of anotherPrivateFolder.