CMSC436 Google Sheets Common API

This is an Android Library that will allow you to write to the centralized Google spreadsheet. It will create an Android Archive, or aar file (aar files are the Android equivalent of jar files) which you can include as a dependency in your own Android project. Alternatively, you can just copy over the source code as its own module, though this is not recommended since it will be harder to pull in centralized changes.

Useful Readings

1. Read the Android Quickstart for Google Sheets. Reread it. Pay attention to the parts where you'll need to get an API token and a fingerprint.

2. Read about how to sign your app. This part is optional, but if you choose to create a release build, you'll have to sign the hash of your release key.

3. Read the tutorial on creating an Android Library. This will tell you how to properly import the Sheets code.

4. Check out the Google Developer Console. This is where you'll register any API keys. Depending on how many apps you'll write you may see this page only once or several times.

Setting up Authentication

This section goes over the quickstart. You'll need to have the Google API Console to accept your app's release or debug key.

Getting the Hash of your Signing Key

You'll first get the SHA1 hash of your app's signing key. For your debug key, you can simply get the hash from the command line.

keytool -exportcert -alias androiddebugkey -keystore ~/.android/debug.keystore -list -v

It should generate an output like this. In this case, the hash you want is D5:24:6A:96:37:A3:D7:A7:76:20:99:88:02:81:22:2D:1F:AF:F5:02.

Alias name: androiddebugkey
Creation date: Feb 2, 2017
Entry type: PrivateKeyEntry
Certificate chain length: 1
Certificate[1]:
Owner: C=US, O=Android, CN=Android Debug
Issuer: C=US, O=Android, CN=Android Debug
Serial number: 1
Valid from: Thu Feb 02 21:01:23 EST 2017 until: Sat Jan 26 21:01:23 EST 2047
Certificate fingerprints:
   MD5:  0A:A0:F7:A3:18:47:B6:99:26:A2:E7:3E:EF:8F:FB:DB
   SHA1: D5:24:6A:96:37:A3:D7:A7:76:20:99:88:02:81:22:2D:1F:AF:F5:02
   SHA256: 52:43:FA:66:D1:0F:8F:E8:D4:B0:4C:FD:BD:63:94:81:80:D0:C7:AF:D4:69:2E:5C:AF:CD:D1:5F:DA:76:1C:2D
   Signature algorithm name: SHA1withRSA
   Version: 1

If you have multiple signing keys (such as a release key), you can get all the hashes from the signing from via Android Studio.

In the Gradle tab, navigate :app -> Tasks -> android -> signingReport. Then select to run the signing report.

To see the results of the signing report, open up the Gradle Console, and you should see the results of all your signing keys.

Note that you'll probably want to just use keytool unless you have multiple signing keys, or unless you're on Windows.

Putting the Hash on the Google Developers Console

Go to the Google Sheets API Registration Page to register your new API key. Select the appropriate fields (this part should be mostly straightforward).

After specifying the type of credentials you need, you'll be prompted to create an OAuth client ID. The fields you'll need to include are the signing certificate fingerprint (the hash we checked earlier) and the package name. The package name should be package in which your app resides. For example, the package name of the sample app included as part of this repository is edu.umd.sheets436.

After entering the fingerprint and package, the remaining steps should be straightforward, like with the early sections of the Google Console. Note that you will not need to download any credentials; when your apps write to Sheets, Google will automatically check that your hash and package match the credentials you entered.

Enabling the Google Drive API

By now, the Sheets API should be available. To be able to upload files to Google drive, you will also need to enable the Google Drive API, fortunately, you do not have to reenter the signing key and package name. Go to the Google Drive section of the API Manager and click "ENABLE" to enable the Drive API.

Setting up the Build

You'll need to include some Google libraries in your gradle build. The library adds some additional dependencies, so you'll want to modify your main app's build.gradle to stop the build from breaking. Under the dependencies section of app/build.gradle, add the following code.

compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:10.2.1'
compile('com.google.api-client:google-api-client-android:1.22.0') {
    exclude group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents'
    exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs'
}
compile('com.google.apis:google-api-services-sheets:v4-rev466-1.22.0') {
    exclude group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents'
    exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs'
}
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-drive:10.2.1'
compile('com.google.apis:google-api-services-drive:v3-rev69-1.22.0') {
    exclude group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents'
    exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs'
}

Now it should look something like this.

dependencies {
    ...

    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:10.2.1'
    compile('com.google.api-client:google-api-client-android:1.22.0') {
        exclude group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents'
        exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs'
    }
    compile('com.google.apis:google-api-services-sheets:v4-rev466-1.22.0') {
        exclude group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents'
        exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs'
    }
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-drive:10.2.1'
    compile('com.google.apis:google-api-services-drive:v3-rev69-1.22.0') {
        exclude group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents'
        exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs'
    }

    ...
}

Importing the Library

1. Download the aar from the releases or clone this repository. Downloading the binary is probably easier, though using the source directly as a library works too (and might work better if you get confused and end up directly pulling the code into your own java file).

2. Import the library as a module. I'll go over importing it as an aar, though importing the source code isn't terribly difficult either. You'll want to go to File -> New -> New Module... and choose import .JAR/.AAR Package. This should make the library part of your app.

Your main module will still need to list the library as a dependency, so right click on the app in the Android view and select Open Module Settings. From there, add a Module Dependency to the app.

Usage

The library abstracts the logic to write to Google Sheets. You need to provide the spreadsheet's ID, your user ID, the appropriate test, and the data you'd like to write. To use the Sheets class, you'll need to have your calling activity implement the Sheets.Host interface. In addition, you'll want to forward the onRequestPermissionsResult and onActivityResult callbacks.

For example, here is a snippet to post data to the left hand tapping test.

import edu.umd.cmsc436.sheets.Sheets;

...

private void sendToSheets() {
  String spreadsheetId = "1ASIF7kZHFFaUNiBndhPKTGYaQgTEbqPNfYO5DVb1Y9Y";
  String privateSpreadsheetId = "1MU87u75_qx35qb6TdtizRBeOH1fkO76ufzR47bfZaRQ";
  String userId = "t99p99";
  float[] trials = {1.23f, 4.56f, 7.89f};
  float average = 0.0f;
  
  for (trial : trials) {
    average += trial;
  }
  average /= trials.length;

  Sheets sheet = new Sheets(this, this, getString(R.string.app_name), spreadsheetId, privateSpreadsheetId);
  sheet.writeData(Sheets.TestType.LH_TAP, userId, average);
  sheet.writeTrials(Sheets.TestType.LH_TAP, userId, trials);
}

The Sheets.TestType parameter is an enum that will represent the type of test. If there are more apps to be implemented in the future, we'll add to this enum.

public enum TestType {
  LH_TAP("'Tapping Test (LH)'"),
  RH_TAP("'Tapping Test (RH)'"),
  LH_SPIRAL("'Spiral Test (LH)'"),
  RH_SPIRAL("'Spiral Test (RH)'"),
  LH_LEVEL("'Level Test (LH)'"),
  RH_LEVEL("'Level Test (RH)'"),
  LH_POP("'Balloon Test (LH)'"),
  RH_POP("'Balloon Test (RH)'"),
  LH_CURL("'Curling Test (LH)'"),
  RH_CURL("'Curling Test (RH)'"),

  ...
  
  HEAD_SWAY("'Swaying Test'");
}

Here is a snippet that uploads an image to Google Drive. The method takes in the image as a bitmap, and you specify the folder and image name for the upload.

import edu.umd.cmsc436.sheets.Sheets;

...

private void sendToSheets() {
  String spreadsheetId = "1ASIF7kZHFFaUNiBndhPKTGYaQgTEbqPNfYO5DVb1Y9Y";
  String privateSpreadsheetId = "1MU87u75_qx35qb6TdtizRBeOH1fkO76ufzR47bfZaRQ";
  Sheets sheet = new Sheets(this, this, getString(R.string.app_name), spreadsheetId, privateSpreadsheetId);

  String folderId = "0B3RViSRC0aoYVDN6MWZUb1RDSVU";
  String uploadName = "This is the name of the upload as seen on Drive."
  Bitmap imageToUpload = null;
  
  /* Code to set up the bitmap goes here. */
  
  sheet.uploadToDrive(folderId, uploadName, imageToUpload);
}

Callbacks

Your activity must implement the Sheets.Host interface, which requires you to implement getRequestCode and notifyFinished.

public interface Host {

  int getRequestCode(Action action);

  void notifyFinished(Exception e);
}

The getRequestCode method requires you to define unique request codes for the five different request actions.

public enum Action {
  REQUEST_PERMISSIONS,
  REQUEST_ACCOUNT_NAME,
  REQUEST_PLAY_SERVICES,
  REQUEST_AUTHORIZATION,
  REQUEST_CONNECTION_RESOLUTION
}

The notifyFinished method is a callback that triggers upon the write finishing. You may use this for your own convenience.

Additional Overrides

You'll want to override onRequestPermissionsResult and onActivityResult to forward the implementation onto the Sheets class. Your code should be simple.

@Override
public void onRequestPermissionsResult (int requestCode, @NonNull String permissions[], @NonNull int[] grantResults) {
  this.sheet.onRequestPermissionsResult(requestCode, permissions, grantResults);
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
  super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
  this.sheet.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
}

Example Project

This repository contains an example project that demonstrates basic usage of this library. It is a single activity that writes data for the left hand tapping test to a centralized test spreadsheet.

Updating the Library

The recommended way of importing this library is as an aar file. Therefore, whenever there are new major changes, we'll release a new version of the arr in the releases section of this repository. Just download the new aar and follow the same instructions again from the importing section. From now on, we'll try to make non-breaking changes such that the changes you'll have to make to your legacy code will either be minimal or nonexistent.

If you choose to import the direct source code of this library as a module, you will want to keep the source code as a git repo. As a result, you can run git pull to pull in any new changes that happen.

Contributing

If there are any bugs or unimplemented features that you notice, instead of being upset, consider pitching in! If you notice anything, you can submit an issue describing the bug/feature. It'll help everybody if it is well documented.

You can also feel free to contribute code by forking this repository and making a pull request. If you want direct write access, that's an option too. Just talk to me and I'll add you to this organization.