Setting up and using Ping&Bump

Ping&Bump reads Google Docs, Word, Markdown and text files in the shared drives one Google account can see, and builds cards from what people wrote. You make that account for Ping&Bump, and add it to the shared drives Ping&Bump may read.

It does not read anybody's My Drive, Gmail, Sheets, Slides or PDFs. A shared drive the account was never added to is out of reach, whatever the Ping&Bump admin does.

In your Google Admin console, create a user such as keegi-reader@yourcompany.com. Keep its password where you keep other shared passwords. Nobody signs in as it day to day.

Use a new account, not your own. Ping&Bump sees exactly what this account sees, so on your own account it would see everything you can.

Open each shared drive, choose Manage members, and add the account as Contributor.

Contributor, not Viewer, because Google shows a document's history only to people who can edit it, and that history is how Ping&Bump learns who created each document. Ping&Bump's own permission is read-only whatever role the account has: it never writes, moves or deletes a file.

Google has not verified Ping&Bump yet, so your organisation trusts it first, before the account can approve it. In the Admin console, open Security, then Access and data control, then API controls. Choose Manage third-party app access, then Configure new app, and search for the client ID below. Select Ping&Bump, and choose who it applies to.

The organisational unit that holds the Ping&Bump account is enough, so the rest of your company is untouched. Set access to Trusted and finish.

<Ping&Bump's client id>

On /app/[org]/sources, press Connect Google Drive. When Google asks which account, choose the one you made for Ping&Bump, and approve.

A Google account can be connected to one Ping&Bump workspace. If it is already connected somewhere else, make a second account or disconnect it there first.

The Google Drive row lists the shared drives the account is in, all turned off. Turn on the ones Ping&Bump may read and press Save. Nothing is read until you do.

After adding the account to another shared drive, press Check for new shared drives and it appears, turned off.

Press Read Google Drive now. The row then says when it was last read. Later reads only open files that changed.

Whoever created it, and only them. The last person to save it is not credited. Google sometimes keeps no history back to a file's creation, for very old or heavily edited files. Those are read and credited to nobody, rather than to whoever edited them later.

By the address Google shows on a document's history, which is the person's Google Workspace address. Invite people on /app/[org]/people by the same address and their Drive work lands on the same card as everything else.

Disconnect makes Ping&Bump forget the shared drives and everything it read from them. The grant itself lasts until somebody signed in as the Ping&Bump account removes Ping&Bump under third-party apps in its Google Account's security settings, or an admin stops trusting it in the Admin console.

Google says it has not verified the app

The trust step above has not been done, or has not reached that account yet. Changes in the Admin console can take a while.

That Google account is not in any shared drive

Add it to at least one shared drive, then connect again.

Google connected without permission to read Drive

The Drive box was unticked on Google's screen. Connect again and leave it ticked.

Drives are read, and nobody is credited

The account is a Viewer, so Google hides who created each file. Make it a Contributor on those shared drives and read again.

Google Drive stopped letting Ping&Bump in

The account's password changed, its access was removed, or an admin stopped trusting Ping&Bump. Connect it again.