Precipitate syncing, but only bringing down document titles (not content)

[Brad Ummer]

I'm using OS 10.6.8 and Precipitate 1.0.7. I just installed Precipitate and was able to connect it to my Google Apps account, which worked as expected. In the preference pane it lists a date of the most recent update. And I can see the files in my ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Precipitate/com.google.precipitate.GoogleDocsSource/ directory. Also, I confirmed that the importers are installed:

[~]$ mdimport -L 2>&1 | grep Precipitate

"/Users/myname/Library/PreferencePanes/Precipitate.prefPane/Contents/Resources/Precipitate.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/PrecipitateDocsImporter.mdimporter",

"/Users/myname/Library/PreferencePanes/Precipitate.prefPane/Contents/Resources/Precipitate.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/PrecipitatePicasaImporter.mdimporter",

"/Users/myname/Library/PreferencePanes/Precipitate.prefPane/Contents/Resources/Precipitate.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/PrecipitateBookmarksImporter.mdimporter",

I then manually ran mdimport to ensure that the folder was indexed:

[~]$ mdimport /Users/myname/Library/Caches/Metadata/Precipitate 

So everything seems to be set up. Indeed, when I do a Spotlight search for a unique word that I have in the title of one of my google docs, it finds the file successfully. However If I search for a unique word that is in the body of a google doc, it doesn’t find it. 

I'm not sure where this information would normally be stored. I looked at the files that are being created in the Caches folder, and I see this:

|- com.google.precipitate.GoogleDocsSource

|---- document%3A1d6HZWmdoTAhafgACOz1wr1e0C-pfIZUdmm5MGDgVry8

|------ PHP SMS options and ideas.gdocdocument

|---- document%3A1dJ8dFqpTrlFfMQPCjbrHx9tSfAfB18oaSExUXhkRBFk

|------- Test gDoc by Brad.gdocdocument

etc.

But when I look in the .gdocdocument files it doesn't contain any actual content, just meta information about the file. Can anyone provide any information about how this should function, and what I could do to get this working? Thanks.

[Stuart Morgan]

This sounds like something reported over the summer:

https://code.google.com/p/precipitate/issues/detail?id=49

Given that the API that Precipitate is built on is deprecated, it may well be that the part that gets full content simply isn't working any more. If it were working correctly, the same step that crates the files you have with the metadata would populate them with the full text content, so there's nothing misconfigured at your end.

Most likely, the whole docs importer would need to be rewritten using the Drive API, and while I haven't looked I suspect that the auth system would need to be rewritten to support that (since ClientLogin has also been deprecated for a while). Given that I'm not actively working on the project, a full rewrite is very unlikely unless someone else is interested in picking it up.

For now I'll add a note to the project page explaining that it's not currently active.

-Stuart

[Brad Ummer]

Thanks for the information- what you say makes sense. Although I must say, on a larger thought, I'm amazed that there aren't people all around the world clamoring for the functionality that Precipitate provides. This is such an incredibly useful tool, and fill such a needed gap in modern Mac usage, that I can't believe that anybody that uses a Mac and Google Drive wouldn't want to be able to search it via Spotlight. I guess I'm just amazed that I'm the first person to notice that it's not working anymore. Are there any alternatives that you know of that provide similar functionality?

Thanks for taking the time over the years to build Precipitate. Although I never got a chance to use it when it was fully functional, your past efforts are appreciated. 

[Stuart Morgan]

On Wednesday, December 18, 2013 5:18:26 AM UTC-8, Brad Ummer wrote:

I can't believe that anybody that uses a Mac and Google Drive wouldn't want to be able to search it via Spotlight.

Obviously I can't speak for anyone else, but the reason I no longer use Precipitate is that it's been long enough now since I made any text-based documents of consequence that weren't in Drive that I essentially never have any reason to use Spotlight or Quick Search Box any more--I just search in Drive (just as I do on the non-Mac devices I access the same content from). Precipitate is useful for a hybrid local/cloud flow, but once the local part mostly died out, I've found it much less useful.

Are there any alternatives that you know of that provide similar functionality?

I'm not aware of any, but I've never looked.

-Stuart 

[Brad Ummer]

Thanks for the information. I'm still about 75% local files, 25% in Drive, so I'm constantly using Spotlight. But I understand that I'm probably in the minority who still keeps files local on their machine. Old habits die hard I suppose.

In case anyone else is looking for alternatives, these are a few less ideal options:

Using the app Alfred to search:

http://subprint.com/blog/google-drive-search-with-alfred-app

The app Found also appears to be able to search Google Drive:

https://www.foundapp.com/