How to delete Users using the Java Google Admin SDK API

Question

I went the Java Quickstart and got a working application that just shows the full list of all the users connected to the account logged into. I have gone over the Java docs and the only thing I have found that pertains to the deletion of a user is the "setDeletionTime" in the User class, but I have tried that with a dummy account and set the time to "null" and tried to create a time that was set to today and neither worked for deleting the user. I have no clue what I am missing here.

Code I am using, most of it copied from the google quickstart

import com.google.api.client.auth.oauth2.Credential;

import com.google.api.client.extensions.java6.auth.oauth2.AuthorizationCodeInstalledAp;

import com.google.api.client.extensions.jetty.auth.oauth2.LocalServerReceiver;

import com.google.api.client.googleapis.auth.oauth2.GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow;

import com.google.api.client.googleapis.auth.oauth2.GoogleClientSecrets;

import com.google.api.client.googleapis.javanet.GoogleNetHttpTransport;

import com.google.api.client.http.HttpTransport;
import com.google.api.client.json.jackson2.JacksonFactory;
import com.google.api.client.json.JsonFactory;
import com.google.api.client.util.store.FileDataStoreFactory;
import com.google.api.services.admin.directory.DirectoryScopes;
import com.google.api.services.admin.directory.model.*;
import com.google.api.services.admin.directory.Directory;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;


public class Quickstart {
/** Application name. */
private static final String APPLICATION_NAME =
    "Directory API Java Quickstart";

/** Directory to store user credentials for this application. */
private static final java.io.File DATA_STORE_DIR = new java.io.File(
    System.getProperty("user.home"), ".credentials/admin-directory_v1-java-quickstart");

/** Global instance of the {@link FileDataStoreFactory}. */
private static FileDataStoreFactory DATA_STORE_FACTORY;

/** Global instance of the JSON factory. */
private static final JsonFactory JSON_FACTORY =
    JacksonFactory.getDefaultInstance();

/** Global instance of the HTTP transport. */
private static HttpTransport HTTP_TRANSPORT;

/** Global instance of the scopes required by this quickstart.
 *
 * If modifying these scopes, delete your previously saved credentials
 * at ~/.credentials/admin-directory_v1-java-quickstart
 */
private static final List<String> SCOPES =
    Arrays.asList(DirectoryScopes.ADMIN_DIRECTORY_USER_READONLY);

static {
    try {
        HTTP_TRANSPORT = GoogleNetHttpTransport.newTrustedTransport();
        DATA_STORE_FACTORY = new FileDataStoreFactory(DATA_STORE_DIR);
    } catch (Throwable t) {
        t.printStackTrace();
        System.exit(1);
    }
}

/**
 * Creates an authorized Credential object.
 * @return an authorized Credential object.
 * @throws IOException
 */
public static Credential authorize() throws IOException {
    // Load client secrets.
    /* This does not work as of now
    InputStream in = Quickstart.class.getResourceAsStream("src/resources/client_secret.json");
    */
    InputStream in = new FileInputStream("src/resources/client_secret.json");
    GoogleClientSecrets clientSecrets =
        GoogleClientSecrets.load(JSON_FACTORY, new InputStreamReader(in));

    // Build flow and trigger user authorization request.
    GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow flow =
            new GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow.Builder(
                    HTTP_TRANSPORT, JSON_FACTORY, clientSecrets, SCOPES)
            .setDataStoreFactory(DATA_STORE_FACTORY)
            .setAccessType("offline")
            .build();
    Credential credential = new AuthorizationCodeInstalledApp(
        flow, new LocalServerReceiver()).authorize("user");
    System.out.println(
            "Credentials saved to " + DATA_STORE_DIR.getAbsolutePath());
    return credential;
}

/**
 * Build and return an authorized Admin SDK Directory client service.
 * @return an authorized Directory client service
 * @throws IOException
 */
public static Directory getDirectoryService() throws IOException {
    Credential credential = authorize();
    return new Directory.Builder(
            HTTP_TRANSPORT, JSON_FACTORY, credential)
            .setApplicationName(APPLICATION_NAME)
            .build();
}

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {


    // Build a new authorized API client service.
    Directory service = getDirectoryService();

    // Print the first 10 users in the domain.
    Users result = service.users().list().setCustomer("my_customer").setOrderBy("email").execute();
    List<User> users = result.getUsers();


    if (users == null || users.size() == 0) {
        System.out.println("No users found.");
    } else {
        for (User user : users) {
            //This is where I tried to delete the users
            //I have also tried using a normal for loop and nothing changes 
            that
            System.out.println();
        }
    }

}

Answer 1

After reading everything I could find on this that google had to offer I finally figure it out.... I think. I am going to explain it here and have this as the answer because it worked; however, if I am doing something wrong then please tell me. Anyway, here is what I did:

So first thing's first. Every action (as far as I could tell) goes through http as a URL coupled with a command. This means in order for anything to happen you have to have a transport (given by the HttpTransport class) and a factory (given by the HttpRequestFactory class) to create the HttpRequest object that holds the action/command.

The request we will be making is the DELETE request shown here under "Delete a user account"

This can all be done by doing something like this:

HttpTransport HTTP_TRANSPORT = GoogleNetHttpTransport.newTrustedTransport();
HttpRequestFactory HTTP_REQUEST_FACTORY = HTTP_TRANSPORT.createRequestFactory();
HttpRequest deleteRequest = HTTP_REQUEST_FACTORY.buildDeleteRequest(new GenericUrl("https://www.googleapis.com/admin/directory/v1/users/userkey"));

BUT WAIT! We are missing a very important key element here. We have to supply the Factory with the correct credentials to mark the header. Basically it is to tell google that we are able to delete the user. So how do we do that?

First we must set the scope, what we want access to. Our scope is ADMIN_DIRECTORY_USER. Set the scope like this: (MAKE SURE YOU DELETE THE FILE IN THE .credentials DIRECTORY IF YOU HAVE ALREADY RAN THIS PROGRAM!!!!)

List<String> SCOPES = Arrays.asList(DirectoryScopes.ADMIN_DIRECTORY_USER);

Next we need to have a credentials object. This can be done by using the method google gives us in their quickstart (the authorize method). To give the credentials to our factory we simply edit the line above by passing it the credentials object:

HttpRequestFactory HTTP_REQUEST_FACTORY = HTTP_TRANSPORT.createRequestFactory(credentials);

Note: do not pass it a HttpRequestInitializer from the credentials.getRequestInitializer() method as this is null (At least for me, this could be with just the way I am doing it but I rather not try it).

Here I will attach my code to show you a completed version of this:

import com.google.api.client.auth.oauth2.Credential;
import com.google.api.client.extensions.java6.auth.oauth2.AuthorizationCodeInstalledApp;
import com.google.api.client.extensions.jetty.auth.oauth2.LocalServerReceiver;
import com.google.api.client.googleapis.auth.oauth2.GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow;
import com.google.api.client.googleapis.auth.oauth2.GoogleClientSecrets;
import com.google.api.client.googleapis.javanet.GoogleNetHttpTransport;
import com.google.api.client.http.GenericUrl;
import com.google.api.client.http.HttpRequest;
import com.google.api.client.http.HttpRequestFactory;
import com.google.api.client.http.HttpTransport;
import com.google.api.client.json.jackson2.JacksonFactory;
import com.google.api.client.json.JsonFactory;
import com.google.api.client.util.store.FileDataStoreFactory;

import com.google.api.services.admin.directory.DirectoryScopes;

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

public class Quickstart {
    /** Application name. */
    private static final String APPLICATION_NAME = "Deleting user example";

    /** Directory to store user credentials for this application. */
    private static final java.io.File DATA_STORE_DIR = new java.io.File(System.getProperty("user.home"), ".credentials/admin-directory_v1-java-quickstart");

    /** Global instance of the {@link FileDataStoreFactory}. */
    private static FileDataStoreFactory DATA_STORE_FACTORY;

    /** Global instance of the JSON factory. */
    private static final JsonFactory JSON_FACTORY = JacksonFactory.getDefaultInstance();

    /** Global instance of the HTTP transport. */
    private static HttpTransport HTTP_TRANSPORT;

    //This creates the factory that is used for the user made requests
    private static HttpRequestFactory HTTP_REQUEST_FACTORY;

    //This is the credentials for the entire application
    private static Credential credential;

    /** Global instance of the scopes required by this quickstart.
     *
     * If modifying these scopes, delete your previously saved credentials
     * at ~/.credentials/admin-directory_v1-java-quickstart
     */
    private static final List<String> SCOPES = Arrays.asList(DirectoryScopes.ADMIN_DIRECTORY_USER);

    static {
        try {
            HTTP_TRANSPORT = GoogleNetHttpTransport.newTrustedTransport();
            DATA_STORE_FACTORY = new FileDataStoreFactory(DATA_STORE_DIR);
        } catch (Throwable t) {
            t.printStackTrace();
            System.exit(1);
        }
    }


    /**
     * Creates an authorized Credential object.
     * @return an authorized Credential object.
     * @throws IOException
     */
    public static Credential authorize() throws IOException {
        // Load client secrets.
        /* This does not work as of now
        InputStream in = Quickstart.class.getResourceAsStream("src/resources/client_secret.json");
        */
        InputStream in = new FileInputStream("src/resources/client_secret.json");
        GoogleClientSecrets clientSecrets = GoogleClientSecrets.load(JSON_FACTORY, new InputStreamReader(in));

        // Build flow and trigger user authorization request.
        GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow flow = new GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow.Builder(HTTP_TRANSPORT, JSON_FACTORY, clientSecrets, SCOPES).setDataStoreFactory(DATA_STORE_FACTORY).setAccessType("offline").build();
        Credential credential = new AuthorizationCodeInstalledApp(flow, new LocalServerReceiver()).authorize("user");
        System.out.println("Credentials saved to " + DATA_STORE_DIR.getAbsolutePath());
        return credential;
    }


    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {



        System.out.println("Deleting user with email");
        credential = authorize();
        HTTP_REQUEST_FACTORY = HTTP_TRANSPORT.createRequestFactory(credential);
        HttpRequest deleteRequest = HTTP_REQUEST_FACTORY.buildDeleteRequest(new GenericUrl("https://www.googleapis.com/admin/directory/v1/users/REPLACEMEWITHEMAILORUSERKEY"));
        deleteRequest.execute();

    }

}