Google SheetsAPI: ValueError: Client secrets must be for a web or installed app

Question

Very similar to this question: ValueError: Client secrets must be for a web or installed app but with a twist: I'm trying to do this through a Google Cloud Virtual Machine.

Recently, the Out-Of-Band (OOB) flow stopped working for me (it seems the reason may lie here: oob-migration. Until then, I was able to easily run the Google Sheets API on the Virtual Machine to both read/write on Google Sheet files

Now, I'm trying to follow this Python quickstart for google sheets which is almost identical to the code I already had, under the "Configure the sample" section.

My code on Python right now is:

        scopes = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets']
        creds = None       
        # The file token.json 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.json'):
            creds = Credentials.from_authorized_user_file('token.json', scopes)
        # 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_path, scopes)
                creds = flow.run_local_server(port=0)
            # Save the credentials for the next run
            with open('token.json', 'w') as token:
                token.write(creds.to_json())
        #Store creds in object
        my_creds = creds
        #Create service
        build('sheets', 'v4', credentials=my_creds)

But every time Ì get this error:

ValueError: Client secrets must be for a web or installed app.

For the record, I did create the credentials under "OAuth 2.0 Client IDs" on Google Cloud, and the application type is "Web application". If that's not the type, I don't know which one it should be.

Thank you so much for your help, really appreciated.

Linda Lawton - DaImTo · Answer 1 · 2022-12-03T10:43:43.133

The code you are are using was designed for an installed. Which is exactly what your error message is saying. The QuickStart clearly states Click Application type > Desktop app.

While i agree the error message states installed or web, i am not sure that code can be used for a web application.

Client secrets must be for a web or installed app.

Open the file denoted by credentials_path the file should have the following format.

credentials.json

{
  "installed": {
    "client_id": "[redacted]",
    "project_id": "daimto-tutorials-101",
    "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
    "token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
    "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
    "client_secret": "[redacted]",
    "redirect_uris": [
      "http://localhost"
    ]
  }
}

Points to check.

it must say "installed"
redirect_uris must not include anything like urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob

Here is a of video which will show you how to create the proper credentials file for use with that code. This should be done though Google cloud console

How to create Google Oauth2 installed application credentials.json

Note: I highly doubt that this issue is due to oob, you would have a different error message if it was.

update Web app works.

I was able to test this with using a web app credentials. the only change i had to make was to denote the port i wanted the code to run on in order to get a static port I needed to add a redirect uri to the developer console project.

I made no other changes to the standard quickstart.

flow = InstalledAppFlow.from_client_secrets_file(
            CREDENTIALS_FILE_PATH, SCOPES)
        creds = flow.run_local_server(port=53911)

Google SheetsAPI: ValueError: Client secrets must be for a web or installed app

1 Answers1

update Web app works.