5.5. Sharing large files¶

This is a “guest lecture” from Harry Hawkes. I’ve modified it slightly in some places. Thanks, Harry!

Professor Bowen asked me to share my solution for sharing large files with your group or future users of the programs written for the final project.

The solution I found was to upload the (compressed) files to your Lehigh Google Drive and then group members can download from Google Drive in the program.

This works well if your data is from multiple sources or sources that require an API because you only need to visit those sources once. It also helps because everyone doesn’t need to keep such large files on their computers, and compressing the files speeds up the download times.

PROF: For projects where you only load the big data files one time, and then shrink the data to manageable sizes for analysis, it makes sense to save the analysis-ready files to your shared GitHub repo that rests on everyone’s computer to ensure your analysis always starts from the same point, and everyone can work on the analysis while skipping the data construction steps.

5.5.1. The solution¶

Steps to complete the process:

Upload (compressed) files to Lehigh Google Drive. (A non-Lehigh google drive will work too, but has limitations on space.)
Turn on sharing for the file by right-clicking it and selecting get shareable link, but you don’t need to give edit access.
Turn on sharing for users outside of Lehigh University - you don’t need to give edit access. This makes your project more widely usable.
Copy the function below (or in the community codebook) into the repo you’re working in as a file called “download_file_from_google_drive.py”.
Get the ID from the sharing link (found at the end of the sharing URL) - you’ll need to put that into your code.

In your file that uses this data:

import os
from download_file_from_google_drive import download_file_from_google_drive

# download the file to your computer if you haven't already

filepath_to_download_to = 'my_big_file.csv' # replace with your preferred name/path
if not os.path.exists(filepath_to_download_to)
    download_file_from_google_drive(
        <put the ID here>, 
        filepath_to_download_to)

# open it
<open the file, exact method depends on file type>   

5.5.2. Function:¶

def download_file_from_google_drive(id, destination):
    '''
    Function Author: @turdus-merula, from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25010369/wget-curl-large-file-from-google-drive/39225039#39225039
    
    Docstring Author: Harry Hawkes (GH: @hph220), Lehigh Class of 2020
    
    Purpose: A solution for sharing large files with your group or future users.
    
    Solution:
    1. Upload (compressed) files to Lehigh Google Drive. (A non-Lehigh google drive
    will work too, but has limitations on space.)
    
    2. Turn on sharing for the file by right clicking it and selecting "get shareable link", 
    but you don't need to give edit access.
    
    3. Turn on sharing for users outside of Lehigh University, but you don't need to give 
    edit access.
    
    4. Get the ID from the sharing link (found at the end of the sharing URL), you'll need to
    put that into your code. 
    
    5. In your file that uses this data:
    
        import os
        from download_file_from_google_drive import download_file_from_google_drive
        
        # download the file to your computer if you haven't already
        
        filepath_to_download_to = 'my_big_file.csv' # replace with your preferred name/path
        if not os.path.exists(filepath_to_download_to)
            download_file_from_google_drive(<put the ID here>, filepath_to_download_to)
    
        # open it
        <open the file, exact method depends on file type>   
    '''  
  
    import requests
    
    def get_confirm_token(response):
        for key, value in response.cookies.items():
            if key.startswith('download_warning'):
                return value

        return None

    def save_response_content(response, destination):
        CHUNK_SIZE = 32768

        with open(destination, "wb") as f:
            for chunk in response.iter_content(CHUNK_SIZE):
                if chunk: # filter out keep-alive new chunks
                    f.write(chunk)

    URL = "https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download"

    session = requests.Session()

    response = session.get(URL, params = { 'id' : id }, stream = True)
    token = get_confirm_token(response)

    if token:
        params = { 'id' : id, 'confirm' : token }
        response = session.get(URL, params = params, stream = True)

    save_response_content(response, destination)    


if __name__ == "__main__":
    import sys
    if len(sys.argv) is not 3:
        print("Usage: python google_drive.py drive_file_id destination_file_path")
    else:
        # TAKE ID FROM SHAREABLE LINK
        file_id = sys.argv[1]
        # DESTINATION FILE ON YOUR DISK
        destination = sys.argv[2]
        download_file_from_google_drive(file_id, destination)

LeDataSciFi-2023

5.5. Sharing large files¶

5.5.1. The solution¶

5.5.2. Function:¶