Automatically create new Google Drive folder from new files

Question

I currently have a Zapier process running that automatically creates 3 new files uploaded from a form into a folder in my Google Drive called "New Users". Each file is formatted as firstname_lastname-filename.ext but this is not good in terms of organization.

Instead, I would like to dynamically create a new folder labeled as firstname_lastname containing the 3 new files every time they come in with the same firstname_lastname, rather than having a generic "New Users" folder filled with hundreds or thousands of files.

Unfortunately I'm a pretty novice programmer, so I'm not quite sure how to go about this using Apps Script.

Any advice?

I've thought about something like:

var files = DriveApp.getFiles();
  while (files.hasNext()) {
    var file = files.next();
    Logger.log(file.getName());
    if file.getName().includes("firstname_lastname") { // Check if a file name contains the string firstname_lastname
       var folders = DriveApp.getFolders();
       while (folders.hasNext()) {
          var folder = folders.next();
          Logger.log(folder.getName());
          if folder.getName().includes("firstname_lastname") { // Check if a folder exists with a name that contains the string firstname_lastname
              makeCopy(file.getName(), folder.getName()) // if said folder exists, make a copy of the the file and move it to that folder
          } else { // if said folder does not exist... 
          var newFolderName = file.getName() // let the newFolderName be the same name as the file (I know this isn't right if I want the folder name to be firstname_lastname without the actual uploaded file name plus extension)
          createFolder(newFolderName); // then create a folder that has the name newFolderName
          makeCopy(file.getName(), folder.getName(newFolderName)) // then make a copy of the file and put it into the folder
        } 
      }   
    }
  }

Answer 1

You may want to first establish your root folder, "New Users". I've created a snippet for the flow:

//New Users Folder
var rootFolder = DriveApp.getFolderById("FOLDER_ID");

function myFunction() {
  var files = rootFolder.getFolders();
  while (files.hasNext()) {
    var file = files.next();
    Logger.log(file.getName());

    if(file.getName() == fileuploadName){
    //copy file if folder is existing
      file.addFile(child)
    }
    else{
    //create folder
    var newFolder =  rootFolder.addFolder(child);
      newFolder.addFile(child)
    }
 }
 Logger.log("Done")

}

This flow should be ok when you want to implement a dynamic creation of folder then migrate the files to a specific folder name.

Hope this helps.