I’ve been uploading images/thumbnails to Webflow via API for a while because I was uploading the images to my Notion database.
I’m currently working on a project with hundreds of images to get through and Notion does not allow uploading images from API.
The images are all in Google Drive, but none of those links are transferring to Webflow CMS. I’ve tried all the share link, as well as the web content / web view (which usually fix these issues).
I can’t find any way to get a temporary .extention file from Google Drive.
What kind of intermediary could I use? Now that Notion isn’t an option. I had no idea it could be this difficult to get a file with an exposed extension!!
Weird, I’ve never had issue clicking through that web content link until now. Regardless, Google Drive seems like a dead end.
I wish there was a reverse module like the HTTP get data from URL tool. I can see the data in the gDrive information. But the Webflow API seems to only accept a URL.
What is it that you’re trying to accomplish exactly?
If you have a bunch of image files in Google Drive that you’re trying to upload to WF assets, I’d export them as a zip and then upload all of the files into the asset manager. I believe you can drag and drop multiple files at a time into the asset panel.
In general with Google drive, you need to make certain the URL is correct for download and that the file ( or folder ) is accessible to anyone with the link.
In general with WF, anything complex about the URL will trip up its importer. Especially length or special characters.
If you’re trying to import rich text content including images, you can usually use Google Docs, and copy-paste the content including images into a WF rich text element or CMS field, and it will pick them up and import them fine.
I have a few hundred products to post and the only aspect of the automation that is making the process take hours per handful of products instead of hours for majority of them is my inability to hand off the product images from one API to the other. (Other than physically saving all products their own .jpg for social, a .webp for Webflow, a thumbnail .webp for Webflow).
Basically I just never had run into this issue in the past because I use Notion as databases and they hand off media with exposed file extension. That and most API will have a data option, too, or like with Instagram et al. the Google Drive ‘web view link’ works as if it had an exposed file extension.
I don’t code otherwise I presume this would be simple and sometning to do with throwing the images in my own small server idk.
For anyone interested, it is super easy to use in Make/Integromat for automations and it looks like I’ll be able to eliminate having to create different file versions and compressing them along with cropping the thumbnail completely thanks to the tool. Surprisingly inexpensive — I think it said my trial has 1,000 image edits which is crazy.
So thank you all mucho for the replies. I was desperate to turn months of tedious clicking and uploading multiple images to Notion for hundreds of entries into a week. But this Cloudinary tool is way more than I expected to find. So weird how you can search for solutions for days, multiple times, and then one day randomly find the solution that has been right there the whole time.
Setting it up into the rest of the automation flow today and if all goes smoothly it looks like it might turn those months of work into literal hours (until I max out my Webflow basic e-commerce product limit lol).
I hate Google Drive so much and desperately miss Dropbox. I suffered Adobe’s absolutely baffling segmented cloud (which now they’re finally getting rid of half).
BUT this company is almost a year in building and the tech has moved so fast that staying nimble and shifting from business plan to business plan has left me so bootstrapped that I even tried using the iCloud+ 2TB because I was using their custom domain. Well now I know why that is wildly cheap. I’ve since moved to Google Workspace simply for some sense of familiarity and Google Drive is maybe better than 5 years ago? Mostly it is wack. It does sync promptly now. That used to be an issue when I was being a nomad designer for a dao lol
Im using only Google Spreadsheet from all Google eco-system to store data from complex form instead DB only because client use GS internally and will be easy for them to use these data in this format for further processing if needed.
Cloudinary offer very nice features for image serving and processing, the only thing where dev needs to be careful are videos especially streaming bg videos.
If it’s a one-time import into Webflow, the easiest way I’ve found is to simply prepare all of the files locally, zip them and drop then on Netlify. This gives you clean, standard URLs you can import into Webflow, with no added chars or codes that trip it up.
If you’re building an ongoing publishing pipeline, then you may want to get a little more creative for transactional adds. S3 is useful here. Cloudinary if you’re doing transformations. Even dropbox. Basically any environment where you can upload the file, deliver that URL to the Webflow API, and then later delete the file.
I was using Shotstack for automated video production before I got bogged down with creating hundreds of product pages — but mass amount of visual aids that illustrate iconic characteristics from art history movements is part of the strategy because holy sht I sort of did it by accident and learned SO MCUH more than the 2o83u0o3u museums and art teachers could have ever gotten me to learn to recognize. So now the whole team of robots are gettin’ it done as I struggle to design a shop that’s UI feels innovative enough. Lots of swiping I want lots of swiping; designed mobile first legitimately.
I’ve been building webflow for years now and only recently added e-commerce and idk why but I can’t freaking wrap my head around displaying and linking to series of art from categories the way I want. Like, I’m assuming it isn’t really different than how collections worked together in general so I’m pretty sure I’m just having a weird asd moment lol
we got the first 100 products uploaded at least tho august.style — was watching a docu earlier about why AI is inherently more creative than us and it is sort of wild how similar they work and our brains work.
I’m legitimately obsessed and ahave done nothing but learn from robots for a year now hahhaa sooo apologies for the tangent.
What is the issue with video on Cloudinary? The assistant did an art deco photoshoot of apartment decor i’m hoping to figure out a process that can be repeated/automated so I’m curious.
yeah, transformations ended up being what i was finally able to get off my plate — and it solved me weird linking / API issue fortunately
so this “Basically any environment where you can upload the file, deliver that URL to the Webflow API, and then later delete the file.” < < but was looking for a way to do 20 photos in 2 minutes. lol
It is not related exactly to Cloudinary but I have used Claudinary like two years ago to test what they offer and it was spectacular. But I have used one animation as bg video. when I was done I left comp and went to bed and of course video was streaming all night long as I kept website open with bg video in viewport.
So next day I have got email I have reached my monthly limits and I should upgrade my subscription. That was fine as I said I will wait and continue on experimenting next month, no problem as it was not my primary goal. So I have send them email that was an accident and I’m fine to wait and ask if they can stop sending me these annoying emails and had a few emails exchange with support. Result? I have been receiving these emails every f…g day for another week or so I have decided to cancel my subscription.
The point is when you have bg video you can stop streaming when is out of viewport, that is easy, but if someone (like me) leave website open for several hours and bg video keep streaming it can hit your pocked badly.
I have never come back to Cloudinary since so I did not have chance to explore new services as AI.
me too but s…t accidents happen lesson learned If they didn’t push so hard to get me on the board I will find solution and may be jump in but after these annoying marketing practices I have decided to go.
Random but came across your name while making sure the fact that I have 250 items and almost all have 2 variants, but apparently I like categories and tags too much so I maxed out already? Is this a joke?
Downloaded local cause the robot told me I should switch to WordPress. Was overwhelmed by the plugins and lack of simplicity. Like is it even possible to design something near the quality of a Webflow site on WordPress … noting I have no code experience.
I have at least 1,000 more prints and like, I can’t stop making them lol f
Any ‘headless’ cms solution? I’m art and design first everything but feeling like I’m going to have to break my soul and choose functionality.
Anyway. Just in case you see / have thoughts. Honestly I am tired of these kind of surprised from Webflow. And their lack of API improvements is baffling — the Airtable connect coming looked sweet (I use Notion tho) and not that it would help the product count.
Initially I was trying to figure out how to post and entire series of work as variables for one product, but now I’m realizing that that wouldn’t even have saved me any space, right?
lesson learned 
