Dropbox API using Python (flask) : authentication - python

I have to develop a service (using flask and dropbox API) in order to synchronize a server with my dropbox account. (This service has to be run in back in background as a daemon)
First, I have begun with "authentication" : in the beginning I used OAuth 2 (but it was an issue that every time, the client has to confirm the authorization)
So, now I am using an authentication with a generated access token :
dbx = dropbox.Dropbox('ACCESS TOKEN')
So I have some questions:
1) Is it recommended and secure to use such authentication ?! otherwise , what it the best solution for this ?
2) What is the advantage of using the microframework flask in that case , because until now I'm just using native Python language
thanks

1) Yes, using an OAuth 2 access token is the right way to authorize API calls to the Dropbox API.
Note that you don't have to process the authorization flow each time though. You can store and re-use the access token once you retrieve it once.

Related

API call switching to Oauth 2.0 with openid

I used to query my financial data through Power Query in Power BI. Recently I've switched to doing it through a python script running on Google Cloud functions, triggered by Cloud Scheduler. (is this the best way?) It saves a csv file to GCStorage.
The party that provides the data I'm after is switching to oAuth 2.0 using either implicit or authorization code flow. I believe this means that somewhere in this flow a browser is opened where username and password must be entered. Also I need to give a redirect uri to this party, I'm not sure how to implement this in my current setup.
Anyone have an idea? More info about the API can be found here. https://accounting.twinfield.com/webservices/documentation/#/ApiReference/Authentication/OpenIdConnect
Usually the Authorization Code flow would be the way to go in your kind of application.
You will send a authentication request to their API(redirecting the user). They will authenticate the User and redirect the user back to your application, using the redirect URI you provided.
You can get an access token or ID token from their token endpoint using the code, your client id and your client secret.

Google Drive API with Python from server(Backend) without browser autentication

I'd like to save the files of my Saas Appication to my Google Drive Account, all the examples I've seen was with oauth2 autentication and needs the end user autenticate openning the browser, I need to upload files from my server without any user interation, sending files direct to my account!
I have try many tutorials I found on internet with no success, mainly the oficial
Google Drive API with Python
How can I autenticate programatically from my server and upload files and use API features such as share folders and others?
I'm using Python, the lib PyDrive uses the same aproach to autenticate
You can do this, but need to use a Service Account, which is (or rather can be used as) an account for an application, and doesn't require a browser to open.
The documentation is here: https://developers.google.com/api-client-library/python/auth/service-accounts
And an example (without PyDrive, which is just a wrapper around all this, but makes service account a bit trickier):
from apiclient.discovery import build
from oauth2client.service_account import ServiceAccountCredentials
from httplib2 import Http
scopes = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly']
credentials = ServiceAccountCredentials.from_json_keyfile_name('YourDownloadedFile-5ahjaosi2df2d.json', scopes)
http_auth = credentials.authorize(Http())
drive = build('drive', 'v3', http=http_auth)
request = drive.files().list().execute()
files = request.get('items', [])
for f in files:
print(f)
To add to andyhasit's answer, using a service account is the correct and easiest way to do this.
The problem with using the JSON key file is it becomes hard to deploy code anywhere else, because you don't want the file in version control. An easier solution is to use an environment variable like so:
https://benjames.io/2020/09/13/authorise-your-python-google-drive-api-the-easy-way/
I know it's quite late for answer but this worked for me:
Use the same API you were using, this time in your computer, it will generate a Storage.json which using it along with your scripts will solve the issue (specially in read-ony platforms like heroku)
Checkout the Using OAuth 2.0 for Web Server Applications. It seems that's what you're looking for.
Any application that uses OAuth 2.0 to access Google APIs must have
authorization credentials that identify the application to Google's
OAuth 2.0 server. The following steps explain how to create
credentials for your project. Your applications can then use the
credentials to access APIs that you have enabled for that project.
Open the Credentials page in the API Console. Click Create credentials
OAuth client ID. Complete the form. Set the application type to Web application. Applications that use languages and frameworks like PHP,
Java, Python, Ruby, and .NET must specify authorized redirect URIs.
The redirect URIs are the endpoints to which the OAuth 2.0 server can
send responses. For testing, you can specify URIs that refer to the
local machine, such as http://localhost:8080.
We recommend that you design your app's auth endpoints so that your
application does not expose authorization codes to other resources on
the page.
Might be a bit late but I've been working with gdrive over python, js and .net and here's one proposed solution (REST API) once you get the authorization code on authorization code
How to refresh token in .net google api v3?
Please let me know if you have any questions

How to query a private table in google-bigquery from a python script WITHOUT authorization token?

I'm trying to submit a query into Google's BigQuery and retrieve results - all from a python script. While there's straightforward documentation on doing so, the only option that I've found for querying from private tables/collections is to use an authorization code. However, this python script is utilized via a webpage used by users who know nothing about code - therefore there is no room to get/submit authorization codes, as the user simply uses the webpage and python script by clicking a few buttons. Is there any way to get the authorization code and submit it behind the scenes, or to query a private table without an authorization code altogether (best option)? Thanks so much!
You can use a service account:
Client libraries can use Application Default Credentials to easily
authenticate with Google APIs and send requests to those APIs. With
Application Default Credentials, you can test your application locally
and deploy it without changing the underlying code
https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/authentication#bigquery-authentication-python

Authenticating google cloud behind corporate firewall

I am trying to use Google cloud's natural language API at work, and I believe my corporate firewall is blocking communication between python and google cloud.
After entering the following in the terminal:
gcloud auth application-default login
My browser opens up to log into my google account successfully. After I log in, however, I get
ERROR: There was a problem with web authentication. Try running a
gain with --no-launch-browser.
ERROR: (gcloud.auth.application-default.login) Could not reach th
e login server. A potential cause of this could be because you ar
e behind a proxy. Please set the environment variables HTTPS_PROX
Y and HTTP_PROXY to the address of the proxy in the format "proto
col://address:port" (without quotes) and try again.
Example: HTTPS_PROXY=https://192.168.0.1:8080
I believe I need to contact my IT department to add an exception to our firewall. Does anyone know what the address / port for google cloud's natural language processing API is?
I can't directly answer your question but I can provide some general guidance that might workaround your issue.
The command
gcloud auth application-default login
Is a convenience helper for running sample code locally but it's really not the best auth strategy for a variety of reasons. It uses a special client ID that won't always have all your quota.
The way I would recommend using the API is Service Accounts. You can create a Service Account in the Cloud Console under API credentials, and then download a JSON key. Then you set the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to point to your file, and it will automatically work assuming you are using Application Default Credentials (which most samples and client libraries use).
On App Engine, and Compute Engine (assuming you created the VM with the correct scopes) Service Accounts exist by default so you don't even need to download the JSON and set the environment variable.
The other way you can use the API is just creating an API Key, then hit the HTTP endpoints with ?key=api-key at the end of the URL. API Keys are also less than ideal (no idea who client is, no scopes), but are a simple option.
In your case, I'd recommend using JSON service account keys and the environment variable, but it's worth reading the official authentication guide.

How to test a website for performance testing having google oauth login?

I have a website and I need to test it with 250 users. However, I am using google login via OAuth2. The website is hosted on Google App Engine.
I am stuck at this login part. After we log in we get and access token from Google that is passed to Google APIs via the Authorization: Bearer header. We use the access token in the application to get user details and access other google apps for that user. I don't know how to get that access token using my external script.
One option is to mock / stub this part of your application out during testing. For instance, you can provide a certain header that tells your application that you're in test mode and instead of calling the real google APIs, it calls a mock API instead. If your application is setup for dependency injection this could be trivial, otherwise, it may involve monkey-patching or similar.
Another option is to use an OAuth2 Service Account and acquire access tokens for a bunch of users in a test Google Apps domain. Your test script can do this and then just pass the access tokens just as a client normally would.

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