Migrating from DocsList to DriveApp?

Question

I've been using DocsList for a big project and it was working perfectly. Lately, bugs have been popping up and they mostly have roots with getting a folder or file. When I did research, I found that DriveApp had been updated. The problem is that DriveApp doesn't have search parameters like DocsList had.

For example, if I had a folder structure like this:

Root
-Main Folder 1
--Folder 1
--Folder 2
-Main Folder 2
--Folder 1
--Folder 2

To get folder "Folder 1" in "Main Folder 2," I could put in the search parameter like so: DocsList.getFolder('Main Folder 2/Folder 1')

With DriveApp, I just can't understand how to work with it. From what I understand, I have to do something like this for DriveApp:

var mainFolders = DriveApp.getFoldersByName('Main Folder 2');
while (mainFolders.hasNext()) {
  var mainFolder = termFolders.next();
  var subFolders = termFolder.getFoldersByName('Folder 1');
  // Something like this...
}

So if I had a folder that is more "deep" I would have to expand this even further..?

I feel like instead of making things easier, they made it more complicated with all the FileIterators and FolderIterators. And just making it hard to "get" a file or folder in code terms.

So basically, the point of this thread is to find out how a person who is use to DocsList to navigate and edit Drive files/folders can migrate to DriveApp and achieve the same things.

Small/Discrete examples of different scenarios would be really helpful. I can take it from there. I'll edit this more, if you guys think I'm not being clear about what I need help on.

Answer 1

The discussions from wchiquito's comment are an interesting read, but following all the links is time-consuming.

Bottom line: There will not be DriveApp version of getFolderByPath(), so you will need to roll your own. In the Google+ group, Faustino proposed a work-around and Eric improved it. Here it is, with an added check to allow paths that start with "/".

function getFolderByPath(path) {
  var parts = path.split("/");

  if (parts[0] == '') parts.shift(); // Did path start at root, '/'?

  var folder = DriveApp.getRootFolder();
  for (var i = 0; i < parts.length; i++) {
    var result = folder.getFoldersByName(parts[i]);
    if (result.hasNext()) {
      folder = result.next();
    } else {
      return null;
    }
  }
  return folder;
}

With that, you can simply do myFolder = getFolderByPath('Main Folder 2/Folder 1');. You will end up with a DriveApp Folder instance.

Answer 2

The code below works at mine. It is based on having the same Id

function convertFileFromDocsListToDriveApp(file)
{ // Because of difference between DocsList and DriveApp
   return (file === null) ? null : DriveApp.getFileById(file.getId());
}  

function convertFolderFromDocsListToDriveApp(folder)
{ // Because of difference between DocsList and DriveApp
  return (folder === null) ? null : DriveApp.getFolderById(folder.getId());
}  

I call this in a few 'strategic' positions in my code. I didn't test conversion from DriveApp to DocsList, but I expect this to work as well.