gmail API for sending users messages in nodejs javascript failes - gmail-api

Question

My nodejs program fails to send messages using the Gmail api.
The solution from Gmail API for sending mails in Node.js does not work for me.
I encode an email with
var {google} = require('googleapis');
// to and from = "some name <blaw.blaw.com"
function makeBody(to, from, subject, message) {
var str = ["Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"UTF-8\"\r\n",
"MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n",
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\r\n",
"to: ", to, "\r\n",
"from: ", from, "\r\n",
"subject: ", subject, "\r\n\r\n",
message
].join('');
encodedMail = new Buffer(str).toString("base64").replace(/\+/g, '-').replace(/\//g, '_');
return encodedMail;
}
Then go to the Google API explorer
https://developers.google.com/apis-explorer/#p/
enter gmail.users.messages.send and the string generated from the above make_body.
An email will be successfully sent. So I know the above encoding is
ok.
When my program tried to send using the following, it fails with error
Error: 'raw' RFC822 payload message string or uploading message via
/upload/* URL required
function sendMessage(auth) {
var gmail = google.gmail('v1');
var raw = makeBody('john g <asdfasdf#hotmail.com>', 'john g<asfasdgf#gmail.com>', 'test subject', 'test message #2');
gmail.users.messages.send({
auth: auth,
userId: 'me',
resource: {
raw: raw
}
}, function(err, response) {
console.log(err || response)
});
}
The auth token is good since I can call gmail.users.labels.list and I use the same authorization when using the API explorer.
Q1: Does anyone know why the above does not work?
Q2: Gmail API for sending mails in Node.js does not explain why the raw email message is wrapped inside a resource field. I tried simply raw and it did not help.
This fails.
gmail.users.messages.send({
auth: auth,
userId: 'me',
resource: {
raw: raw
}
}, function(err, response) {
console.log(err || response)
});
and so does
gmail.users.messages.send({
auth: auth,
userId: 'me',
raw: raw
}, function(err, response) {
console.log(err || response)
});
and so does this GMAIL API for sending Email with attachment
gmail.users.messages.send({
auth: auth,
userId: 'me',
data: raw
}, function(err, response) {
console.log(err || response)
});
Does anyone know where its documented how to pass the "requested body" the api explorer is asking for?
Q3: Why does the google api need substitutions in the base64 encoding?
I tried encoding using
const Base64 = require("js-base64").Base64
var encodedMail = Base64.encode(str);
When I feed this into the API explorer, I get the error
"message": "Invalid value for ByteString:

Answer 1

Ohai! For others that stumble here, a few things. First - we have a complete end to end sample of sending mail now here:
https://github.com/google/google-api-nodejs-client/blob/master/samples/gmail/send.js
Second, the answer above is mostly right :) Instead of installing the latest version of google-auth-library... just remove it from your package.json all together. The getting started guide was very, very wrong (it has since been fixed). googelapis brings in it's own compatible version of google-auth-library, so you really don't want to mess with that by installing your own version :)

Answer 2

The quickstart specifies:
npm install google-auth-library#0.* --save
When I changed this to
npm install google-auth-library -- save
it pulled in version 1.3.1 vs 0.12.0. Everything started working once I changed the code to account for the breaking changes. The latest version of googleapis also has breaking changes. Here is my tweaks to the quickstart:
package.json
....
"dependencies": {
"google-auth-library": "^1.3.1",
"googleapis": "^26.0.1"
}
quickstart.js
var fs = require('fs');
var readline = require('readline');
var {google} = require('googleapis');
const {GoogleAuth, JWT, OAuth2Client} = require('google-auth-library');
var SCOPES = [
'https://mail.google.com/',
'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.modify',
'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.compose',
'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.send'
];
var TOKEN_DIR = (process.env.HOME || process.env.HOMEPATH ||
process.env.USERPROFILE) + '/.credentials/';
var TOKEN_PATH = TOKEN_DIR + 'gmail-nodejs-quickstart.json';
function authorize(credentials, callback) {
var clientSecret = credentials.installed.client_secret;
var clientId = credentials.installed.client_id;
var redirectUrl = credentials.installed.redirect_uris[0];
var auth = new GoogleAuth();
var oauth2Client = new OAuth2Client(clientId, clientSecret, redirectUrl);
// Check if we have previously stored a token.
fs.readFile(TOKEN_PATH, function (err, token) {
if (err) {
getNewToken(oauth2Client, callback);
} else {
oauth2Client.credentials = JSON.parse(token);
callback(oauth2Client);
}
});
}
function getNewToken(oauth2Client, callback) {
var authUrl = oauth2Client.generateAuthUrl({
access_type: 'offline',
scope: SCOPES
});
console.log('Authorize this app by visiting this url: ', authUrl);
var rl = readline.createInterface({
input: process.stdin,
output: process.stdout
});
rl.question('Enter the code from that page here: ', function (code) {
rl.close();
oauth2Client.getToken(code, function (err, token) {
if (err) {
console.log('Error while trying to retrieve access token', err);
return;
}
oauth2Client.credentials = token;
storeToken(token);
callback(oauth2Client);
});
});
}
function makeBody(to, from, subject, message) {
var str = ["Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"UTF-8\"\n",
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n",
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n",
"to: ", to, "\n",
"from: ", from, "\n",
"subject: ", subject, "\n\n",
message
].join('');
var encodedMail = new Buffer(str).toString("base64").replace(/\+/g, '-').replace(/\//g, '_');
return encodedMail;
}
function sendMessage(auth) {
var gmail = google.gmail('v1');
var raw = makeBody('xxxxxxxx#hotmail.com', 'xxxxxxx#gmail.com', 'test subject', 'test message');
gmail.users.messages.send({
auth: auth,
userId: 'me',
resource: {
raw: raw
}
}, function(err, response) {
console.log(err || response)
});
}
const secretlocation = 'client_secret.json'
fs.readFile(secretlocation, function processClientSecrets(err, content) {
if (err) {
console.log('Error loading client secret file: ' + err);
return;
}
// Authorize a client with the loaded credentials, then call the
// Gmail API.
authorize(JSON.parse(content), sendMessage);
});
Now when I run, I get the response
Object {status: 200, statusText: "OK", headers: Object, config: Object, request: ClientRequest, …}