Is it feasible to use ArchiveBox in conjunction with Google Drive to elegantly move a "Google Drive wiki-ish thingie/thingamabobber" from one Google Drive account to another Google Drive account?

[Raytle]

Apology

I am really sorry that this grew into a wall of text.

Preamble

I installed ArchiveBox and tested it by archiving a one page web site. It seems like it worked properly because I was able to view the following...

I take advantage of the fact that every file and every folder on Google Drive has an ordinary URL to use Google Drive kind of, sort of, like a personal wiki.

I've used several different wikis such as Twiki, MediaWiki, and Dokuwiki. I stopped using them because I prefer using Google Docs for two main reasons.

First and foremost I detest their terrible "word-processors" in wikis. By contrast, although it's simple and has hardly changed in over a decade, I enjoy using Google Docs. Sure. It's not as robust as LibreWriter or Microsoft Word, but Google Docs serves my needs very well. In particular, I use outline mode and styles in Google Docs very frequently. I also like being able to use voice dictation in Google Docs.

Yeah, sure, I know all the "kool kidz" these days use Bookstack, or Notion, or Wiki.js as wikis. But, I vastly prefer using Google Docs to any of the wikis mentioned above and, well, actually, any wiki I have ever seen.

Secondly, I prefer using Google Docs because Google Drive has been extremely reliable for me. I think my Google Drive went down a couple of times, maybe about 10 years ago and then maybe 8 years ago, for a few hours. But, in the last 8 years I don't ever remember it being down... ever. Not once!

Sure, I know Google spies on its users. And, yes I know Google infamously discontinues its services. Killed by Google disdainfully drips with gallows humor. That is, I know: Google is not all puppies and rainbows. But let me be blunt: you can take my Google Drive from me when you pry it from my cold dead hands. In other words, I do not intend to give up my Google Drive for another solution such as a wiki.

With that preamble out of the way, I'd like to discuss the problems I would like to solve.

A typical use case of mine

I often link one of my Google Docs to another of my Google Docs. In the following case, I have linked Google Doc 1 to Google Doc 2. Similarly, I often link from a Google Doc to a particular webpage "somewhere on the web" that I am interested in. For example, I often link from a Google Doc to a Wikipedia article or to a Github page.

Overview of my concerns

I assume millions of people around the world use Google Drive in a similar manner. I've been doing this for around a decade. As you might imagine, I have a significant amount of data in my "Google Drive Wiki-ish thingie/thingamabobber". I am starting to get a tad bit nervous about a couple of potential link rot problems: an internal Google Drive link rot problem, and a normal link rot problem.

The internal Google Drive link rot problem I am worried about

Of course I regularly back up (download) my Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drawings, and Google Drive Folders. Therefore, if Google were to cancel my current Google Drive account, I would be able to upload my Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drawings, and Google Drive Folders to a new Google Drive account, but… the links I had created between my files on my current Google Drive account would not work on my new Google Drive account!! I want to avoid this potential form of link rot.

Therefore I'm planning to have a Python script created that will read the URLs of the files and folders on my current Google Drive account, create a URL on my own domain (not on Google Drive) for each of those URLs, and redirect each of those URLs (on my own domain) to the corresponding URL on my current Google Drive account.

As a result, for example, when I create a link from, say a Google Sheet of mine to a Google Doc of mine I intend use something like...

https://MY-DOMAIN.COM/document/d/1g8SXEMRM

instead of...

https://DOCS.GOOGLE.COM/document/d/1g8SXEMRM

Why?

See,

https://MY-DOMAIN.COM/document/d/1g8SXEMRM

will redirect to...

https://DOCS.GOOGLE.COM/document/d/1g8SXEM

As a result, in case Google were to shutdown my current Google Drive account, then if I were to subsequently open a new Google Drive account, I would redirect...

https://MY-DOMAIN.COM/document/d/1g8SXEMRM

to

https://DOCS.GOOGLE.COM/document/d/the_new_URL of the document (which would be a copy of https://DOCS.GOOGLE.COM/document/d/1g8SXEM).

If that's too confusing, then here's a simplified explanation: currently I link between URL A and URL B. Both URLs are owned by Google. In case Google were to shutdown my current Google Drive account, both URL A and URL B would immediately cease working. That is, link rot would have ensued.

Therefore, I plan to link from URL A to URL X. I plan to have URL X forward to URL B. What is URL X? URL X will be a link on my domain which, initially would point to URL B. Therefore, in case Google were to shutdown my current Google Drive account—which would cause both URL A and URL B to immediately cease working—I presume that I would upload my backup files to a new Google Drive account.

My new Google Drive account would have files which contained the same data as the the files which had previously existed at URL A and URL B: both of which had been on my old Google Drive account (which, for the purposes of this discussion, I am assuming Google had shut down).

For example, let's say URL C (which would be on my new Google Drive account) were to contain a copy of the data which had existed at URL A. Similarly, let's say that URL D (which also would be on my new Google Drive account) contained a copy of the data which had existed at URL B.

I would then update URL X on my server so that instead of pointing to URL B, it would point to URL D. Why? Because that way, if I were to open URL C, and click on URL X instead of forwarding to a dead link (the no longer extant URL B) it would forward to URL D (which would contain a copy of the data which had existed on URL B).

The ordinary rot problem I am worried about

This is the same link rot problem myriad people have.

As and aside: I am not worried about linking to new versions of webpages. That is, when I link to a webpage I only care about obtaining a so-called snapshot of data on that webpage. Usually when I find a webpage with information I am interested in, well, that is the data I am interested in. For example, if I were to read a blog posting with some information I liked, that would be the information I would want to link to. Therefore, in the unlikely event the author were to update his blog, I would not care about updating my link with that new information.

Yes. I do realize that regularly updating archives is one of ArchiveBox's "big features". But that feature is essentially irrelevant to me. I don't dislike it; rather, I'm indifferent to it. Will I regret my opinion when—after nuclear Armageddon—I am hunkered down in a cave on some remote desert island, and am missing the last three or four years of xkcd? Maybe. But. Well. That's a risk I'm willing to take. See... I like to live dangerously. (Sarcasm).

Ideally I would like to upload a single .html file snapshot of a webpage (not 4 levels down, not 3 levels down, not any levels down, just that one single webpage) to my Google Drive. In case you don't know, a URL is automatically assigned to every file that is uploaded to Google Drive. For example, when a user uploads a photo, a video, or a text file, a URL is assigned to each of those files.

Of course I would like the same link forwarding model I described previously (URL A –>URL X–> URL B) applied to the aforementioned .html file snapshot that I would like to upload to my Google Drive account.

Concluding thought

This became a remarkably verbose posting despite my assumption that, "Gee, I just want this easy-peasy (simple and little) feature." Such is life.