Getting 401 error when trying to delete gmail messages through API - gmail

Question

I have gotten inspiration from
https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/quickstart/python and https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/v1/reference/users/labels/list#examples to get to the following code
from __future__ import print_function
import pickle
import os.path
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from google_auth_oauthlib.flow import InstalledAppFlow
from google.auth.transport.requests import Request
from apiclient import errors
import requests as req
# If modifying these scopes, delete the file token.pickle.
SCOPES = ['https://mail.google.com/']
def chunks(l, n):
for i in range(0, len(l), n):
yield l[i:i + n]
def ListMessagesWithLabels(service, user_id, label_ids=[]):
"""List all Messages of the user's mailbox with label_ids applied.
Args:
service: Authorized Gmail API service instance.
user_id: User's email address. The special value "me"
can be used to indicate the authenticated user.
label_ids: Only return Messages with these labelIds applied.
Returns:
List of Messages that have all required Labels applied. Note that the
returned list contains Message IDs, you must use get with the
appropriate id to get the details of a Message.
"""
try:
response = service.users().messages().list(userId=user_id,
labelIds=label_ids).execute()
messages = []
if 'messages' in response:
messages.extend(response['messages'])
while 'nextPageToken' in response:
page_token = response['nextPageToken']
response = service.users().messages().list(userId=user_id,
labelIds=label_ids,
pageToken=page_token).execute()
messages.extend(response['messages'])
return messages
except errors.HttpError as error:
print
'An error occurred: %s' % error
def main():
"""Shows basic usage of the Gmail API.
Lists the user's Gmail labels.
"""
creds = None
# The file token.pickle stores the user's access and refresh tokens, and is
# created automatically when the authorization flow completes for the first
# time.
if os.path.exists('token.pickle'):
with open('token.pickle', 'rb') as token:
creds = pickle.load(token)
# If there are no (valid) credentials available, let the user log in.
if not creds or not creds.valid:
if creds and creds.expired and creds.refresh_token:
creds.refresh(Request())
else:
flow = InstalledAppFlow.from_client_secrets_file(
'credentials.json', SCOPES)
creds = flow.run_local_server(port=0)
# Save the credentials for the next run
with open('token.pickle', 'wb') as token:
pickle.dump(creds, token)
service = build('gmail', 'v1', credentials=creds)
# Call the Gmail API
results = service.users().labels().list(userId='me').execute()
labels = results.get('labels', [])
if not labels:
print('No labels found.')
else:
print('Labels:')
for label in labels:
print(label['name'])
if (label["id"].upper() != label["id"]):
messages = ListMessagesWithLabels(service, 'me', [label['id']])
if messages is not None:
usr_id = 'me'
ids = [message["id"] for message in messages]
for x in chunks(ids, 1000):
post_req = req.post(f"https://www.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/{usr_id}/messages/batchDelete", data={"ids":x})
if post_req.status_code == 200:
print("all good")
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
The objective is to go through each label and delete all the messages.
All my POST requests got denied because I am not 'authorized' even though when I start the program I go through the Athentication in the browser etc.
How am I supposed to construct my POSTs to be able to achieve what I want to do ?

Answer 1

When trying to delete the messages, you should be using the service you previously built. That's how you authenticated in the first place. When trying to use batchDelete here:
post_req = req.post(f"https://www.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/{usr_id}/messages/batchDelete", data={"ids":x})
You're just doing a basic request to the specified endpoint, you're not following the OAuth process. And because you're not accessing a public resource, you are getting an authorization error.
You should be using something along the following lines instead:
messagesToDelete = {
"ids": [
"messageID1",
"messageID2",
# ... rest of messages to delete
]
}
service.users().messages().batchDelete(userId="me", body=messagesToDelete).execute()
Reference:
Users.messages: batchDelete