Azure Function - Call Google API from within Azure Function (C#) - azure

Question

I am attempting to create an Azure Function using .NET Core to call to the YouTube API to retrieve some metrics on my videos.
Before calling the API I need to Authenticate with Google in a server to server method since this function will run daily with NO user interaction.
I've followed a number of examples (https://developers.google.com/api-client-library/dotnet/guide/aaa_oauth) and I'm having no luck getting properly authenticated when running from Azure.
Is this possible? And can anyone point me to an example of this working?

Answer 1

For server-to-server interactions you need a service account, which is an account that belongs to your application instead of to an individual end-user. Your application calls Google APIs on behalf of the service account, and user consent is not required.
public class Program
{
// A known public activity.
private static String ACTIVITY_ID = "z12gtjhq3qn2xxl2o224exwiqruvtda0i";
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Plus API - Service Account");
Console.WriteLine("==========================");
String serviceAccountEmail = "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL_HERE";
var certificate = new X509Certificate2(#"key.p12", "notasecret", X509KeyStorageFlags.Exportable);
ServiceAccountCredential credential = new ServiceAccountCredential(new ServiceAccountCredential.Initializer(serviceAccountEmail)
{
Scopes = new[] { PlusService.Scope.PlusMe }
}.FromCertificate(certificate));
// Create the service.
var service = new PlusService(new BaseClientService.Initializer()
{
HttpClientInitializer = credential,
ApplicationName = "Plus API Sample",
});
Activity activity = service.Activities.Get(ACTIVITY_ID).Execute();
Console.WriteLine(" Activity: " + activity.Object.Content);
Console.WriteLine(" Video: " + activity.Object.Attachments[0].Url);
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue...");
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
The above sample code creates a ServiceAccountCredential. The required scopes are set and there is a call to FromCertificate, which loads the private key from the given X509Certificate2. As in all other samples code, the credential is set as HttpClientInitializer.
For more details about service account flow you could refer to this article.