Google-drive – Force a public reader on Google Drive to click through a license agreement

google-drive

Short of writing an entire web app, is there a way in Google Drive to present a custom license to the user (reader) and force a click-thru where Accept=access, and Not Accept= no access?

I have data that I'd like to share in Google Drive Fusion Tables (or sheets) and make it so that it can be shared only after the user accepts a license with particular language in it.

Best Answer

Any kind of document in Google Drive can be accessed either

  1. by anyone with a link to the document
  2. by a specific set of users
  3. (for Apps domains) by the users of the domain

None of this is contingent on the acceptance of a license. To make your license work for real, you indeed need a web app (on the Apps Script platform) that would require the user to log in, and then edit the document by adding the user to the list of viewers of that document (i.e., item 2 above).

A cheap alternative is to only show the link to a document after the user accepts the terms. This can be done easily with a Google form: here is an example. The obvious drawback is that nothing stops the user who accepted the terms from copying the URL and sending it to others, or posting it on the web, etc. Those who follow that URL will get to the document directly.