Uploading file to Google Drive with Curl gives 401

Question

I am trying to upload a file on my local system to my google drive account using Curl. I went to Google Developer Console and enabled Google Drive API, created an API-KEY.
This is my Curl Request

curl -X POST -L \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer my_API-KEY" \
    -F "metadata={name : 'JUMBA'};type=application/json;charset=UTF-8" \
    -F "file=@my_file.json;type=application/zip" \
    "https://www.googleapis.com/upload/drive/v3/files?uploadType=multipart"

But I get this Error -

{
 "error": {
  "errors": [
   {
    "domain": "global",
    "reason": "authError",
    "message": "Invalid Credentials",
    "locationType": "header",
    "location": "Authorization"
   }
  ],
  "code": 401,
  "message": "Invalid Credentials"
 }
}

The documentation is also not very clear. Any help here?

Answer 1

"Authorization: Bearer my_API-KEY"

An authorization header should contain a bearer token. A bearer token is a JWT access token. An api key is a public key used for accessing public data only. You need to go though the authorization process and request an access token before you are going to be able to do this.

# Client id from Google Developer console
# Client Secret from Google Developer console
# Scope this is a space seprated list of the scopes of access you are requesting.

# Authorization link.  Place this in a browser and copy the code that is returned after you accept the scopes.
https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?client_id=[Application Client Id]&redirect_uri=urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob&scope=[Scopes]&response_type=code

# Exchange Authorization code for an access token and a refresh token.

curl \
--request POST \
--data "code=[Authentcation code from authorization link]&client_id=[Application Client Id]&client_secret=[Application Client Secret]&redirect_uri=urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob&grant_type=authorization_code" \
https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token

# Exchange a refresh token for a new access token.
curl \
--request POST \
--data 'client_id=[Application Client Id]&client_secret=[Application Client Secret]&refresh_token=[Refresh token granted by second step]&grant_type=refresh_token' \
https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token

GoogleAuthenticationCurl.sh Let me know if you have any issues altering it for Google drive. You can also check my answer on this related question 1841839