Google API Client
Alpha
This library is in Alpha. We will make an effort to support the library, but we reserve the right to make incompatible
changes when necessary.
Migrating from 0.8.x
Version 0.9 is not compatible with previous versions. See MIGRATING for additional details on how to
migrate to the latest version.
Installation
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem 'google-api-client', '~> 0.9'
And then execute:
$ bundle
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install google-api-client
Usage
Basic usage
To use an API, include the corresponding generated file and instantiate the service. For example to use the Drive API:
require 'google/apis/drive_v2'
Drive = Google::Apis::DriveV2
drive = Drive::DriveService.new
drive.authorization = ...
files = drive.list_files(q: "title contains 'finances'")
files.items.each do |file|
puts file.title
end
metadata = Drive::File.new(title: 'My document')
metadata = drive.insert_file(metadata, upload_source: 'test.txt', content_type: 'text/plain')
drive.get_file(metadata.id, download_dest: '/tmp/myfile.txt')
Naming conventions vs JSON representation
Object properties in the ruby client use the standard ruby convention for naming -- snake_case. This differs from the underlying JSON representation which typically uses camelCase for properties. There are a few notable exceptions to this rule:
- For properties that are defined as hashes with user-defined keys, no translation is performed on the key.
- For embedded field masks in requests (for example, the Sheets API), specify the camelCase form when referencing fields.
Outside those exceptions, if a property is specified using camelCase in a request, it will be ignored during serialization and omitted from the request.
Media
Methods that allow media operations have additional parameters to specify the upload source or download destination.
For uploads, the upload_source
parameter can be specified with either a path to a file, an IO
stream, or StringIO
instance.
For downloads, the download_dest
parameter can also be either a path to a file, an IO
stream, or StringIO
instance.
Both uploads & downloads are resumable. If an error occurs during transmission the request will be automatically
retried from the last received byte.
Errors & Retries
Retries are disabled by default, but enabling retries is strongly encouraged. The number of retries can be configured
via Google::Apis::RequestOptions
. Any number greater than 0 will enable retries.
To enable retries for all services:
Google::Apis::RequestOptions.default.retries = 5
With retries enabled globally, retries can be disabled for specific calls by including a retry value of 0 in the
request options:
drive.insert_file(metadata, upload_source: 'test.txt', content_type: 'text/plain', options: { retries: 0 })
When retries are enabled, if a server or rate limit error occurs during a request it is automatically retried with
an exponentially increasing delay on subsequent retries. If a request can not be retried or if the maximum number
of retries is exceeded, an exception is thrown.
Callbacks
A block can be specified when making calls. If present, the block will be called with the result or error, rather than
returning the result from the call or raising the error. Example:
drive.list_files(q: "title contains 'finances'") do |res, err|
if err
else
end
end
This calling style is required when making batch requests as responses are not available until the entire batch
is complete.
Paging
To fetch multiple pages of data, use the fetch_all
method to wrap the paged query. This returns an
Enumerable
that automatically fetches additional pages as needed.
now = Time.now.iso8601
items = calendar.fetch_all do |token|
calendar.list_events('primary',
single_events: true,
order_by: 'startTime',
time_min: now,
page_token: token)
end
items.each { |event| puts event.summary }
For APIs that use a field other than items
to contain the results, an alternate field name can be supplied.
items = drive.fetch_all(items: :files) { |token| drive.list_files(page_token: token) }
items.each { |file| puts file.name }
Batches
Multiple requests can be batched together into a single HTTP request to reduce overhead. Batched calls are executed
in parallel and the responses processed once all results are available
ids = ['file_id_1', 'file_id_2', 'file_id_3', 'file_id_4']
drive.batch do |drive|
ids.each do |id|
drive.get_file(id) do |res, err|
end
end
end
Media operations -- uploads & downloads -- can not be included in batch with other requests.
However, some APIs support batch uploads. To upload multiple files in a batch, use the batch_upload
method instead.
Batch uploads should only be used when uploading multiple small files. For large files, upload files individually to
take advantage of the libraries built-in resumable upload support.
Hashes
While the API will always return instances of schema classes, plain hashes are accepted in method calls for
convenience. Hash keys must be symbols matching the attribute names on the corresponding object the hash is meant
to replace. For example:
file = {id: '123', title: 'My document', labels: { starred: true }}
file = drive.create_file(file, {})
is equivalent to:
file = Drive::File.new(id: '123', title: 'My document')
file.labels = Drive::File::Labels.new(starred: true)
file = drive.update_file(file)
IMPORTANT: Be careful when supplying hashes for request objects. If it is the last argument to a method, ruby will interpret the hash as keyword arguments. To prevent this, appending an empty hash as an extra parameter will avoid misinterpretation.
file = {id: '123', title: 'My document', labels: { starred: true }}
file = drive.create_file(file)
file = drive.create_file(file, {})
Authorization
OAuth 2 is used to authorize applications. This library uses
both Signet and
Google Auth Library for Ruby for OAuth 2 support.
The Google Auth Library for Ruby provides an implementation of
[application default credentials] for Ruby. It offers a simple way to get authorization credentials for use in
calling Google APIs, best suited for cases when the call needs to have the same identity
and authorization level for the application independent of the user. This is
the recommended approach to authorize calls to Cloud APIs, particularly when
you're building an application that uses Google Compute Engine.
For per-user authorization, use Signet to obtain user authorization.
Passing authorization to requests
Authorization can be specified for the entire client, for an individual service instance, or on a per-request basis.
Set authorization for all service:
Google::Apis::RequestOptions.default.authorization = authorization
On a per-service level:
drive = Google::Apis::DriveV2::DriveService.new
drive.authorization = authorization
Per-request:
drive.get_file('123', options: { authorization: authorization })
Authorization using API keys
Some APIs allow using an API key instead of OAuth2 tokens. For these APIs, set
the key
attribute of the service instance. For example:
require 'google/apis/translate_v2'
translate = Google::Apis::TranslateV2::TranslateService.new
translate.key = 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'
result = translate.list_translations('Hello world!', 'es', source: 'en')
puts result.translations.first.translated_text
Authorization using environment variables
The GoogleAuth Library for Ruby also supports authorization via
environment variables if you do not want to check in developer credentials
or private keys. Simply set the following variables for your application:
GOOGLE_ACCOUNT_TYPE="YOUR ACCOUNT TYPE"
GOOGLE_CLIENT_EMAIL="YOUR GOOGLE DEVELOPER EMAIL"
GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY="YOUR GOOGLE DEVELOPER API KEY"
Logging
The client includes a Logger
instance that can be used to capture debugging information.
To set the logging level for the client:
Google::Apis.logger.level = Logger::DEBUG
When running in a Rails environment, the client will default to using ::Rails.logger
. If you
prefer to use a separate logger instance for API calls, this can be changed via one of two ways.
The first is to provide a new logger instance:
Google::Apis.logger = Logger.new(STDERR)
The second is to set the environment variable GOOGLE_API_USE_RAILS_LOGGER
to any value other than 'true'
Samples
Samples for versions 0.9 and onward can be found in the samples
directory.
Contributions for additional samples are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.
Samples for previous versions can be found in the
samples
folder.
Generating APIs
For Cloud Endpoints or other APIs not included in the gem, ruby code can be
generated from the discovery document.
To generate from a local discovery file:
$ generate-api gen <outdir> --file=<path>
A URL can also be specified:
$ generate-api gen <outdir> --url=<url>
TODO
- ETag support (if-not-modified)
- Caching
- Model validations
License
This library is licensed under Apache 2.0. Full license text is
available in LICENSE.
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.
Support
Please report bugs at the project on Github. Don't
hesitate to ask questions about the client or APIs
on StackOverflow.