In Google Apps Script is the command “AdminDirectory.Groups.insert(group)” considered to be a post request?

Question

In Google Apps Script I am calling the G Suite Admin SDK Directory API using the command AdminDirectory.Groups.insert(group). Is this considered to be a POST request? I’m wondering because I know there are implicit ways of making POST requests where POST is not specified explicitly such as urlfetch(). In the project that I am working on, I am trying to avoid using HTTP requests for security reasons.

I did some research online, but I am having some difficulty finding the answer to this question. I'm thinking that since a JavaScript object rather than a JSON object was passed into insert(), it would not be considered a POST request since JSON notation is typically used when sending data to a server or retrieving data from a server. Because group is a JavaScript object and not a JSON object, I am thinking the command AdminDirectory.Groups.insert(group) would not be a POST request. Am I on the right track here?

For some context, here is the function I wrote to create a group:

function createAGroup() {
    var group = {
        email: "test-group@test.com",
        name: "Test Group",
        description: "This is a test group."
    };
    group = AdminDirectory.Groups.insert(group);
    Logger.log('Group %s created.', group);
}

The function createAGroup() created a group successfully. However, was the command AdminDirectory.Groups.insert(group) using a POST request to create the group or not?

Answer 1

If you are not sure which kind of request you are looking at - you can find it out in the Google Developers Reference.

In your case:

If you go to the Apps Script Reference for the admin directory: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/advanced/admin-sdk-directory

It will link you to the reference documentation for the specific methods for the Admin SDK Directory API where you can find the reference for the specific method Groups:insert

https://developers.google.com/admin-sdk/directory/v1/reference/groups/insert

It tells you:

HTTP request

POST https://www.googleapis.com/admin/directory/v1/groups

This syntax is translated one to one into Apps Script, which you can prove as following:

If you test the method in “Try this API” with your request body, the outcome will be:

200
{
"kind": "admin#directory#group",
"id": "03oy7u293zlw6l7m",
"etag": "\"zPBZh0mDALCYqI567HUiXii8qQjpg/VckrVGnV8Hs56iDrqRt7j4XT5eRyM\"",
"email": "test-group@test.com",
"name": "Test Group",
"description": "This is a test group",
"adminCreated": true
}

Now if you run it in Apps Script your Looger.lo output will be:

Group {kind=admin#directory#group, name=Test Group, description=This is a test group., etag="zPBZh0mDALCYqI7HMkUiXii8qQjpg/gIcr9tsZMDRRrDJECvLtNT66KBc", id=00ha3apch11zp6hh, adminCreated=true, email=test-group@test.com} created.

You can see that in both cases the response retrieves the data in the same way and gives you an equivalent feedback. Thus, it is safe to say that the method used in App Script, uses indeed the POST request.

As a general rule:

Anything that is creating a new object at the backend (like inserting users or groups) is a POST request, anything that is updating existing objects (e.g. change personal data of a user) is a PUT request, anything that retrieves data (e.g. listing users) is a GET request and DELETE is pretty self-explaining.

App Script is a “tool” that takes away the need to implement the request manually. But always check the reference how to implement a specific method.

If you do want to make an explicit JSON request - you can convert the JavaScript notation into a JSON string with JSON.stringify() as explained here:

https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/services/external#work_with_json