This is the thirdwalkthrough in the Classroom add-ons walkthrough series.
In this walkthrough, you handle repeat visits to our add-on by automatically retrieving a user's previously granted credentials. You then route users to pages from which they can immediately issue API requests. This is a required behavior for Classroom add-ons.
In the course of this walkthrough, you complete the following:
- Implement persistent storage for our user credentials.
- Retrieve and evaluate the
login_hint
add-on query parameter. This is a unique Google ID number of the signed-in user.
Once finished, you can fully authorize users in your web app and issue calls to Google APIs.
Understand iframe query parameters
Classroom loads your add-on's Attachment Setup URIupon
opening. Classroom
appends several GET
query parameters to the URI; these contain useful
contextual information. If, for example, your Attachment Discovery URI is https://example.com/addon
, Classroom creates the iframe with
the source URL set to https://example.com/addon?courseId=XXX&itemId=YYY&itemType=courseWork&addOnToken=ZZZ
,
where XXX
, YYY
, and ZZZ
are string IDs. See the iframes guide
for a
detailed description of this scenario.
There are five possible query parameters for the discovery URL:
-
courseId
: The ID of the current Classroom course. -
itemId
: The ID of the stream item that the user is editing or creating. -
itemType
: The kind of stream item the user is creating or editing, one ofcourseWork
,courseWorkMaterial
, orannouncement
. -
addOnToken
: A token used to authorize certain Classroom add-on actions. -
login_hint
: The Google ID of the current user.
This walkthrough addresses login_hint
. Users are routed based on whether this
query parameter is provided, either to the authorization flow if missing, or to
the add-on discovery page if present.
Access the query parameters
The query parameters are passed to your web application in the URI string. Store these values in your session; they're used in the authorization flow and to store and retrieve information about the user. These query parameters are only passed when the add-on is first opened.
Python
Navigate to the definitions of your Flask routes ( routes.py
if you're
following our provided example). At the top of your add-on landing route
( /classroom-addon
in our provided example), retrieve and store the login_hint
query parameter:
# If the login_hint query parameter is available, we'll store it in the session.
if
flask
.
request
.
args
.
get
(
"login_hint"
):
flask
.
session
[
"login_hint"
]
=
flask
.
request
.
args
.
get
(
"login_hint"
)
Ensure that login_hint
(if present) is stored in the session. This is an
appropriate place to store these values; they're ephemeral and you receive
new values when the add-on is opened.
# It's possible that we might return to this route later, in which case the
# parameters will not be passed in. Instead, use the values cached in the
# session.
login_hint
=
flask
.
session
.
get
(
"login_hint"
)
# If there's still no login_hint query parameter, this must be their first
# time signing in, so send the user to the sign in page.
if
login_hint
is
None
:
return
start_auth_flow
()
Java
Navigate to the add-on landing route in your controller class
( /addon-discovery
in AuthController.java
in the provided example). At
the beginning of this route, retrieve and store the login_hint
query
parameter.
/** Retrieve the login_hint query parameter from the request URL if present. */
String
login_hint
=
request
.
getParameter
(
"login_hint"
);
Ensure that login_hint
(if present) is stored in the session. This is an
appropriate place to store these values; they're ephemeral and you receive
new values when the add-on is opened.
/** If login_hint wasn't sent, use the values in the session. */
if
(
login_hint
==
null
)
{
login_hint
=
(
String
)
session
.
getAttribute
(
"login_hint"
);
}
/** If the there is still no login_hint, route the user to the authorization
* page. */
if
(
login_hint
==
null
)
{
return
startAuthFlow
(
model
);
}
/** If the login_hint query parameter is provided, add it to the session. */
else
if
(
login_hint
!=
null
)
{
session
.
setAttribute
(
"login_hint"
,
login_hint
);
}
Add the query parameters to the authorization flow
The login_hint
parameter should be passed to Google's authentication servers
as well. This facilitates the authentication process; if your application knows
which user is trying to authenticate, the server uses the hint to simplify the
login flow by prefilling the email field in the sign-in form.
Python
Navigate to the authorization route in your Flask server file ( /authorize
in our provided example). Add the login_hint
argument to the call to flow.authorization_url
.
authorization_url
,
state
=
flow
.
authorization_url
(
# Enable offline access so that you can refresh an access token without
# re-prompting the user for permission. Recommended for web server apps.
access_type
=
"offline"
,
# Enable incremental authorization. Recommended as a best practice.
include_granted_scopes
=
"true"
,
# The user will automatically be selected if we have the login_hint.
login_hint
=
flask
.
session
.
get
(
"login_hint"
),
Java
Navigate to the authorize()
method in the AuthService.java
class. Add login_hint
as a parameter to the method, and add the login_hint
and argument to the authorization URL builder.
String
authUrl
=
flow
.
newAuthorizationUrl
()
.
setState
(
state
)
.
set
(
"login_hint"
,
login_hint
)
.
setRedirectUri
(
REDIRECT_URI
)
.
build
();
Add persistent storage for user credentials
If you receive login_hint
as a query parameter when the add-on loads, it's an
indication that the user has already completed the authorization flow for our
application. You should retrieve their previous credentials instead of forcing
them to sign in again.
Recall that you received a refresh tokenupon the completion of the authorization flow. Save this token; it be reused to obtain an access token, which is short-lived and necessary to use Google APIs. You previously saved these credentials in the session, but you need to store the credentials to handle repeat visits.
Define the User schema and set up the database
Set up a database schema for a User
.
Python
Define the User schema
A User
contains the following attributes:
-
id
: The user's Google ID. This should match values provided in thelogin_hint
query parameter. -
display_name
: The user's first and last name, such as "Alex Smith". -
email
: The user's email address. -
portrait_url
: The URL of the user's profile picture. -
refresh_token
: The previously acquired refresh token.
This example implements storage using SQLite, which is natively supported by
Python. It uses the flask_sqlalchemy
module to facilitate our database
management.
Set up the database
First, specify a file location for our database. Navigate to your server
configuration file ( config.py
in our provided example) and add the
following.
import
os
# Point to a database file in the project root.
DATABASE_FILE_NAME
=
os
.
path
.
join
(
os
.
path
.
abspath
(
os
.
path
.
dirname
(
__file__
)),
'data.sqlite'
)
class
Config
(
object
):
SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI
=
f
"sqlite:///
{
DATABASE_FILE_NAME
}
"
SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS
=
False
This points Flask to the file data.sqlite
in the same directory as your main.py
file.
Next, navigate to your module directory and create a new models.py
file.
This is webapp/models.py
if you're following our provided example. Add
the following to the new file to define the User
table, substituting your
module name for webapp
if different.
from
webapp
import
db
# Database model to represent a user.
class
User
(
db
.
Model
):
# The user's identifying information:
id
=
db
.
Column
(
db
.
String
(
120
),
primary_key
=
True
)
display_name
=
db
.
Column
(
db
.
String
(
80
))
email
=
db
.
Column
(
db
.
String
(
120
),
unique
=
True
)
portrait_url
=
db
.
Column
(
db
.
Text
())
# The user's refresh token, which will be used to obtain an access token.
# Note that refresh tokens will become invalid if:
# - The refresh token has not been used for six months.
# - The user revokes your app's access permissions.
# - The user changes passwords.
# - The user belongs to a Google Cloud organization
# that has session control policies in effect.
refresh_token
=
db
.
Column
(
db
.
Text
())
Finally, in your module's __init__.py
file, add the following to import
the new models and create the database.
from
webapp
import
models
from
os
import
path
from
flask_sqlalchemy
import
SQLAlchemy
db
=
SQLAlchemy
(
app
)
# Initialize the database file if not created.
if
not
path
.
exists
(
config
.
DATABASE_FILE_NAME
):
db
.
create_all
()
Java
Define the User schema
A User
contains the following attributes:
-
id
: The user's Google ID. This should match value provided in thelogin_hint
query parameter. -
email
: The user's email address.
Create a schema.sql
file in the module's resources
directory. Spring
reads this file and generates a schema for the database accordingly.
Define the table with a table name, users
, and columns to represent
the User
attributes, id
and email
.
CREATE
TABLE
IF
NOT
EXISTS
users
(
id
VARCHAR
(
255
)
PRIMARY
KEY
,
-- user's unique Google ID
email
VARCHAR
(
255
),
-- user's email address
);
Create a Java class to define the User
model for the database. This is User.java
in the provided example.
Add the @Entity
annotation to indicate that this is a POJO that can be
saved to the database. Add the @Table
annotation with the
corresponding table name that you configured in schema.sql
.
Note that the code example includes constructors and setters for the two
attributes. The constructor and setters are used in AuthController.java
to create or update a user in the database. You
may also include getters and a toString
method as you see fit, but for
this particular walkthrough, these methods are not used and are omitted from
the code example on this page for brevity.
/** An entity class that provides a model to store user information. */
@Entity
@Table
(
name
=
"users"
)
public
class
User
{
/** The user's unique Google ID. The @Id annotation specifies that this
* is the primary key. */
@Id
@Column
private
String
id
;
/** The user's email address. */
@Column
private
String
email
;
/** Required User class no args constructor. */
public
User
()
{
}
/** The User class constructor that creates a User object with the
* specified parameters.
* @param id the user's unique Google ID
* @param email the user's email address
*/
public
User
(
String
id
,
String
email
)
{
this
.
id
=
id
;
this
.
email
=
email
;
}
public
void
setId
(
String
id
)
{
this
.
id
=
id
;
}
public
void
setEmail
(
String
email
)
{
this
.
email
=
email
;
}
}
Create an interface called UserRepository.java
to handle CRUD operations
to the database. This interface extends the CrudRepository
interface.
/** Provides CRUD operations for the User class by extending the
* CrudRepository interface. */
@Repository
public
interface
UserRepository
extends
CrudRepository<User
,
String
>
{
}
The controller class facilitates communication between the client and the
repository. Therefore, update the controller class constructor to inject
the UserRepository
class.
/** Declare UserRepository to be used in the Controller class constructor. */
private
final
UserRepository
userRepository
;
/**
* ...
* @param userRepository the class that interacts with User objects stored in
* persistent storage.
*/
public
AuthController
(
AuthService
authService
,
UserRepository
userRepository
)
{
this
.
authService
=
authService
;
this
.
userRepository
=
userRepository
;
}
Set up the database
To store User-related information, use an H2 database that's intrinsically
supported in Spring Boot. This database is also used in subsequent
walkthroughs to store other Classroom-related
information. Setting up the H2 database requires adding the following
configuration to application.properties
.
# Enable configuration for persistent storage using an H2 database
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=org.h2.Driver
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:h2:file:./h2/userdb
spring.datasource.username=<USERNAME>
spring.datasource.password=<PASSWORD>
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
spring.jpa.open-in-view=false
The spring.datasource.url
config creates a directory, called h2
, with
the file userdb
stored inside it. Add the path to the H2 database to
the .gitignore
. You must update the spring.datasource.username
and spring.datasource.password
before you run the application to set the
database with a username and password of your choice. To update the
username and password for the database after running the application,
delete the generated h2
directory, update the configuration, and
re-run the application.
Setting the spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto
config to update
ensures that
data stored in the database is preserved when the application is restarted.
To clear the database every time the application is restarted, set this
config to create
.
Set the spring.jpa.open-in-view
config to false
. This config is enabled
by default and can be known to result in performance issues that are
difficult to diagnose in production.
As described previously, you must be able to retrieve the credentials of a
repeat user. This is facilitated by the built-in credential store
support offered by the GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow
.
In the AuthService.java
class, define a path to the file where the
credential class is stored. In this example, the file is created in the /credentialStore
directory. Add the path to the credential store to the .gitignore
. This directory is generated once the user begins the
authorization flow.
private
static
final
File
dataDirectory
=
new
File
(
"credentialStore"
);
Next, create a method in the AuthService.java
file that creates and
returns a FileDataStoreFactory
object. This is the datastore that
stores credentials.
/** Creates and returns FileDataStoreFactory object to store credentials.
* @return FileDataStoreFactory dataStore used to save and obtain users ids
* mapped to Credentials.
* @throws IOException if creating the dataStore is unsuccessful.
*/
public
FileDataStoreFactory
getCredentialDataStore
()
throws
IOException
{
FileDataStoreFactory
dataStore
=
new
FileDataStoreFactory
(
dataDirectory
);
return
dataStore
;
}
Update the getFlow()
method in AuthService.java
to include setDataStoreFactory
in the GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow Builder()
method and call getCredentialDataStore()
to set the datastore.
GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow
authorizationCodeFlow
=
new
GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow
.
Builder
(
HTTP_TRANSPORT
,
JSON_FACTORY
,
getClientSecrets
(),
getScopes
())
.
setAccessType
(
"offline"
)
.
setDataStoreFactory
(
getCredentialDataStore
())
.
build
();
Next, update the getAndSaveCredentials(String authorizationCode)
method.
Previously, this method obtained credentials without storing them
anywhere. Update the method to store the credentials in the datastore
indexed by the user ID.
The user ID can be obtained from the TokenResponse
object using the id_token
, but it must
be verified first. Otherwise, client
applications may be able to impersonate users by sending modified user
ids to the server. it's recommended that you use the Google API Client
libraries to validate the id_token
. See the [Google Identity page on
verifying the Google ID token] for more information.
// Obtaining the id_token will help determine which user signed in to the application.
String
idTokenString
=
tokenResponse
.
get
(
"id_token"
).
toString
();
// Validate the id_token using the GoogleIdTokenVerifier object.
GoogleIdTokenVerifier
googleIdTokenVerifier
=
new
GoogleIdTokenVerifier
.
Builder
(
HTTP_TRANSPORT
,
JSON_FACTORY
)
.
setAudience
(
Collections
.
singletonList
(
googleClientSecrets
.
getWeb
().
getClientId
()))
.
build
();
GoogleIdToken
idToken
=
googleIdTokenVerifier
.
verify
(
idTokenString
);
if
(
idToken
==
null
)
{
throw
new
Exception
(
"Invalid ID token."
);
}
Once the id_token
has been verified, obtain the userId
to store along
with the obtained credentials.
// Obtain the user id from the id_token.
Payload
payload
=
idToken
.
getPayload
();
String
userId
=
payload
.
getSubject
();
Update the call to flow.createAndStoreCredential
to include the userId
.
// Save the user id and credentials to the configured FileDataStoreFactory.
Credential
credential
=
flow
.
createAndStoreCredential
(
tokenResponse
,
userId
);
Add a method to the AuthService.java
class that returns the credentials
for a specific user if it exists in the datastore.
/** Find credentials in the datastore based on a specific user id.
* @param userId key to find in the file datastore.
* @return Credential object to be returned if a matching key is found in the datastore. Null if
* the key doesn't exist.
* @throws Exception if building flow object or checking for userId key is unsuccessful. */
public
Credential
loadFromCredentialDataStore
(
String
userId
)
throws
Exception
{
try
{
GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow
flow
=
getFlow
();
Credential
credential
=
flow
.
loadCredential
(
userId
);
return
credential
;
}
catch
(
Exception
e
)
{
e
.
printStackTrace
();
throw
e
;
}
}
Retrieve credentials
Define a method for fetching Users
. You're provided an id
in the login_hint
query parameter, which you can use to retrieve a specific user
record.
Python
def
get_credentials_from_storage
(
id
):
"""
Retrieves credentials from the storage and returns them as a dictionary.
"""
return
User
.
query
.
get
(
id
)
Java
In the AuthController.java
class, define a method to retrieve a user from
the database based on their user ID.
/** Retrieves stored credentials based on the user id.
* @param id the id of the current user
* @return User the database entry corresponding to the current user or null
* if the user doesn't exist in the database.
*/
public
User
getUser
(
String
id
)
{
if
(
id
!=
null
)
{
Optional<User>
user
=
userRepository
.
findById
(
id
);
if
(
user
.
isPresent
())
{
return
user
.
get
();
}
}
return
null
;
}
Store credentials
There are two scenarios when storing credentials. If the user's id
is already
in the database, then update the existing record with any new values. Otherwise,
create a new User
record and add it to the database.
Python
First define a utility method that implements the storage or update behavior.
def
save_user_credentials
(
credentials
=
None
,
user_info
=
None
):
"""
Updates or adds a User to the database. A new user is added only if both
credentials and user_info are provided.
Args:
credentials: An optional Credentials object.
user_info: An optional dict containing user info returned by the
OAuth 2.0 API.
"""
existing_user
=
get_credentials_from_storage
(
flask
.
session
.
get
(
"login_hint"
))
if
existing_user
:
if
user_info
:
existing_user
.
id
=
user_info
.
get
(
"id"
)
existing_user
.
display_name
=
user_info
.
get
(
"name"
)
existing_user
.
email
=
user_info
.
get
(
"email"
)
existing_user
.
portrait_url
=
user_info
.
get
(
"picture"
)
if
credentials
and
credentials
.
refresh_token
is
not
None
:
existing_user
.
refresh_token
=
credentials
.
refresh_token
elif
credentials
and
user_info
:
new_user
=
User
(
id
=
user_info
.
get
(
"id"
),
display_name
=
user_info
.
get
(
"name"
),
email
=
user_info
.
get
(
"email"
),
portrait_url
=
user_info
.
get
(
"picture"
),
refresh_token
=
credentials
.
refresh_token
)
db
.
session
.
add
(
new_user
)
db
.
session
.
commit
()
There are two instances in which you might save credentials to your
database: when the user returns to your application at the end of the
authorization flow and when issuing an API call. These are where we
previously set the session credentials
key.
Call save_user_credentials
at the end of your callback
route. Keep the user_info
object instead of just extracting the user's name.
# The flow is complete! We'll use the credentials to fetch the user's info.
user_info_service
=
googleapiclient
.
discovery
.
build
(
serviceName
=
"oauth2"
,
version
=
"v2"
,
credentials
=
credentials
)
user_info
=
user_info_service
.
userinfo
()
.
get
()
.
execute
()
flask
.
session
[
"username"
]
=
user_info
.
get
(
"name"
)
save_user_credentials
(
credentials
,
user_info
)
You should also update the credentials following calls to the API. In this
case you can provide the updated credentials as arguments to the save_user_credentials
method.
# Save credentials in case access token was refreshed.
flask
.
session
[
"credentials"
]
=
credentials_to_dict
(
credentials
)
save_user_credentials
(
credentials
)
Java
First define a method that stores or updates a User
object in the H2
database.
/** Adds or updates a user in the database.
* @param credential the credentials object to save or update in the database.
* @param userinfo the userinfo object to save or update in the database.
* @param session the current session.
*/
public
void
saveUser
(
Credential
credential
,
Userinfo
userinfo
,
HttpSession
session
)
{
User
storedUser
=
null
;
if
(
session
!=
null
&&
session
.
getAttribute
(
"login_hint"
)
!=
null
)
{
storedUser
=
getUser
(
session
.
getAttribute
(
"login_hint"
).
toString
());
}
if
(
storedUser
!=
null
)
{
if
(
userinfo
!=
null
)
{
storedUser
.
setId
(
userinfo
.
getId
());
storedUser
.
setEmail
(
userinfo
.
getEmail
());
}
userRepository
.
save
(
storedUser
);
}
else
if
(
credential
!=
null
&&
userinfo
!=
null
)
{
User
newUser
=
new
User
(
userinfo
.
getId
(),
userinfo
.
getEmail
(),
);
userRepository
.
save
(
newUser
);
}
}
There are two instances in which you might save credentials to your
database: when the user returns to your application at the end of the
authorization flow and when issuing an API call. These are where we
previously set the session credentials
key.
Call saveUser
at the end of the /callback
route. You should keep the user_info
object instead of just extracting the user's email.
/** This is the end of the auth flow. We should save user info to the database. */
Userinfo
userinfo
=
authService
.
getUserInfo
(
credentials
);
saveUser
(
credentials
,
userinfo
,
session
);
You should also update the credentials following calls to the API. In this
case, you can provide the updated credentials as arguments to the saveUser
method.
/** Save credentials in case access token was refreshed. */
saveUser
(
credentials
,
null
,
session
);
Expired credentials
Note that there are a few reasons that refresh tokens may become invalid. These include:
- The refresh token has not been used for six months.
- The user revokes your app's access permissions.
- The user changes passwords.
- The user belongs to a Google Cloud organization that has session control policies in effect.
Acquire new tokens by sending the user through the authorization flow again if their credentials happen to become invalid.
Automatically route the user
Modify the add-on landing route to detect if the user has previously authorized our application. If so, route them to our main add-on page. Otherwise, prompt them to sign in.
Python
Ensure that the database file has been created when the application
launches. Insert the following into a module initializer (such as webapp/__init__.py
in our provided example) or in the main method that
launches the server.
# Initialize the database file if not created.
if
not
os
.
path
.
exists
(
DATABASE_FILE_NAME
):
db
.
create_all
()
Your method should then handle the login_hint
query parameter as discussed above
. Then load the store credentials if this is a repeat
visitor
. You know it's a repeat visitor if you received login_hint
.
Retrieve any stored credentials for this user and load them into the
session.
stored_credentials
=
get_credentials_from_storage
(
login_hint
)
# If we have stored credentials, store them in the session.
if
stored_credentials
:
# Load the client secrets file contents.
client_secrets_dict
=
json
.
load
(
open
(
CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE
))
.
get
(
"web"
)
# Update the credentials in the session.
if
not
flask
.
session
.
get
(
"credentials"
):
flask
.
session
[
"credentials"
]
=
{}
flask
.
session
[
"credentials"
]
=
{
"token"
:
stored_credentials
.
access_token
,
"refresh_token"
:
stored_credentials
.
refresh_token
,
"token_uri"
:
client_secrets_dict
[
"token_uri"
],
"client_id"
:
client_secrets_dict
[
"client_id"
],
"client_secret"
:
client_secrets_dict
[
"client_secret"
],
"scopes"
:
SCOPES
}
# Set the username in the session.
flask
.
session
[
"username"
]
=
stored_credentials
.
display_name
Finally, route the user to the sign in page if we don't have their credentials. If we do, route them to the main add-on page.
if
"credentials"
not
in
flask
.
session
or
\ flask
.
session
[
"credentials"
][
"refresh_token"
]
is
None
:
return
flask
.
render_template
(
"authorization.html"
)
return
flask
.
render_template
(
"addon-discovery.html"
,
message
=
"You've reached the addon discovery page."
)
Java
Navigate to your add-on landing route ( /addon-discovery
in the provided
example). As discussed above
, this is where you handled the login_hint
query parameter.
First, check if credentials exist in the session. If they don't, route the
user through the auth flow by calling the startAuthFlow
method.
/** Check if the credentials exist in the session. The session could have
* been cleared when the user clicked the Sign-Out button, and the expected
* behavior after sign-out would be to display the sign-in page when the
* iframe is opened again. */
if
(
session
.
getAttribute
(
"credentials"
)
==
null
)
{
return
startAuthFlow
(
model
);
}
Then, load the user from the H2 database if this is a repeat visitor
. It's
a repeat visitor if you receive the login_hint
query parameter. If the
user exists in the H2 database, load the credentials from the credential
datastore set up previously
, and set the credentials in the session. If the
credentials were not obtained from the credential datastore, route the user
through the auth flow by calling startAuthFlow
.
/** At this point, we know that credentials exist in the session, but we
* should update the session credentials with the credentials in persistent
* storage in case they were refreshed. If the credentials in persistent
* storage are null, we should navigate the user to the authorization flow
* to obtain persisted credentials. */
User
storedUser
=
getUser
(
login_hint
);
if
(
storedUser
!=
null
)
{
Credential
credential
=
authService
.
loadFromCredentialDataStore
(
login_hint
);
if
(
credential
!=
null
)
{
session
.
setAttribute
(
"credentials"
,
credential
);
}
else
{
return
startAuthFlow
(
model
);
}
}
Finally, route the user to the add-on landing page.
/** Finally, if there are credentials in the session and in persistent
* storage, direct the user to the addon-discovery page. */
return
"addon-discovery"
;
Test the add-on
Sign in to Google Classroom as one of your Teacher test users. Navigate to the Classworktab and create a new Assignment. Click the Add-onsbutton below the text area, then select your add-on. The iframe opens and the add-on loads the Attachment Setup URIthat you specified in the Google Workspace Marketplace SDK's App Configuration page.
Congratulations! You're ready to proceed to the next step: creating attachments and identifying the user's role .