Tag Archives: Admin SDK

Set user language programmatically with the Directory API

Quick launch summary 

With this launch, you can use Google Workspace Admin SDK Directory API to customize a per user language preference via the user create/update flow. 

Previously, the AdminSDK only allowed one customer level language setting that applied to all users, which could then be changed individually via the Admin console, or by the user. We hope this will make it easier to set up and manage your users at scale. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

Improving data regions with expanded coverage and group-based admin controls

What’s changing 

Data regions allows G Suite customers to choose a specific geographic location for their covered data. We’re enhancing data regions with three key updates:

  • Coverage of user indices for Gmail and Calendar 
  • Coverage of Google Keep primary data at rest and backups 
  • More granular group-based controls 

In addition to these new features, we’re also moving the location of the data region reporting dashboard from Admin Console > Dashboard to Admin Console > Reports > Data Regions.


Who’s impacted 

Admins

Why you’d use it 

G Suite’s globally distributed cloud infrastructure reduces latency and protects data with geo redundancy. Therefore, most organizations choose not to geo-restrict their data. However, some organizations have preferences around where their data is stored at rest.

To support those customers, we launched data region controls in 2018. Data regions lets customers designate the region in which covered data is stored when at rest—globally, in the US, or in Europe. Last year, we enhanced data regions with increased coverage of apps and data types.

By covering more apps, additional data types, and more granular admin controls, we hope to better support our customers’ data location preferences.


Additional details 


Coverage of user indices for Gmail and Calendar 
Gmail and Calendar construct user indices based on information in their accounts, similar to an index in a library, which lists information about all the books the library has available. This index is used to serve user search queries in Gmail and Calendar. These indices will now be covered by data regions. Once rolled out, index data for Gmail and Calendar will automatically be migrated to comply with existing data location policies. Use our Help Center to learn more about how to monitor data location move progress.


Gmail and Calendar user indices will now be supported 


Coverage of Google Keep primary data at rest and backups 
This addition extends data regions coverage to a total of 11 apps. Once rolled out, Keep’s primary data at rest and backups will automatically be migrated to comply with existing data location policies. Use our Help Center to learn more about how to track data location move progress.

More granular group-based controls 
You can now set data regions for specific groups of users in your organization. You could previously only enable them by organizational unit (OU). This additional flexibility and control helps you use the feature without changing your organizational structure.


You can now control data region settings using groups 


Getting started 



Admins: Data location is OFF by default and can be enabled at the group or OU level. However, when it’s rolled out to your domain, Keep data and indices data for Gmail and Calendar will automatically be migrated to comply with any existing data location policies you’ve set up. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to choose a geographic location for your data.
End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.


Rollout pace 


  • Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 5, 2020. 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on February 5, 2020. 


Availability 


  • Available to G Suite Business, G Suite Enterprise, and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers 
  • Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite for Education, and G Suite for Nonprofits customers 


Resources 


Consolidated Google Groups audit logs now available in G Suite and GCP

What’s changing 

Consolidated Google Groups audit logs are now available in the G Suite AdminSDK Reports API and GCP Cloud Audit Logs. Specifically you’ll notice:

  • Changes in the G Suite AdminSDK Reports API: We’re introducing a new consolidated log named groups_enterprise, which includes changes to groups and group memberships across all products and APIs. These were previously split across the groups and admin audit logs. 
  • Changes in GCP Cloud Audit Logging: We’re adding Google Groups information to Cloud Audit Logs (CAL) in Stackdriver. See our Cloud Blog post for more details on how this could help GCP customers. Note that this will not change visibility of these logs in the G Suite Admin console - it just adds them to Cloud Audit Logs (CAL) in Stackdriver as well. 


Who’s impacted 

G Suite and GCP Admins only

Why you’d use it 

These changes will help improve the security and usability of Groups as an IAM tool by streamlining administration, transparency, and access monitoring.

How to get started 


  • Admins: 
    • Changes in the G Suite AdminSDK Reports API: Get started with the AdminSDK Reports API. 
    • Changes in GCP Cloud Audit Logging: This is an opt-in feature that can be enabled at G Suite Admin console > Company profile > Legal & Compliance > Sharing options. 
  • End users: No action needed. 


Additional details 

Changes in the G Suite AdminSDK Reports API 
Changes to groups have historically been logged in either the groups or admin audit logs. Changes made in the Google Groups product are logged in the groups log while changes made through admin tools like the Admin console, AdminSDK, and GCDS are logged in the admin log. As part of our efforts to streamline administration and increase transparency, we’re introducing a new consolidated log named groups_enterprise, which includes changes to groups and group memberships across all products and APIs. This new log is now available through the AdminSDK Reports API and will be available in the Admin console in the future.

Changes in GCP Cloud Audit Logging 
Google Groups are the recommended way to grant access to GCP resources when using IAM policies. GCP customers have told us that having group audit logs available in Google Cloud Audit Logs would help streamline security and access monitoring. With that in mind, we’re adding Google Groups information to Cloud Audit Logs (CAL) in Stackdriver. See our Cloud Blog post for more details on how this can help GCP customers.

Helpful links 

Cloud Blog: Integrated Google Groups Audit Transparency from G Suite to GCP Cloud Audit Logs 
Get started with the G Suite AdminSDK Reports API 

Availability 

Rollout details 


G Suite editions 
  • Google Groups are available to all G Suite editions. 

On/off by default? 
  • G Suite AdminSDK Reporting API for consolidate group events will be ON by default. 
  • GCP Cloud Audit Logging for groups will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the domain level.


Stay up to date with G Suite launches

An update on the GData Admin Settings API shutdown

Last year, we announced that we’re shutting down the GData Admin Settings API on October 31, 2018. As previously communicated, the following features will be shut down or replaced on that date:

Admin Settings API
Endpoint
Replacement (if any)
/defaultLanguage
Directory API: Customers
/organizationName
Directory API: Customers
/currentNumberOfUsers
no replacement / discontinued
/maximumNumberOfUsers
no replacement / discontinued
/accountInformation/supportPIN
no replacement / discontinued
/accountInformation/customerPIN
no replacement / discontinued
/accountInformation/adminSecondaryEmail
Directory API: Customers
/accountInformation/edition
no replacement / discontinued
/accountInformation/creationTime
Directory API: Customers
/accountInformation/countryCode
Directory API: Customers
All endpoints
no replacement / discontinued
All endpoints
no replacement from Google / any publicly available domain verification APIs can be used


Single Sign-on (SSO) settings and Gateway and routing settings features not yet shutting down

We’re still working on replacements for the following features:

Monitor the G Suite Updates blog to learn about these replacements when they launch. Note that we’ll continue to support these features for at least 12 months after their replacements become available.


Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Shutdown of GData Admin Settings API now planned for October 31st, 2018

In August 2016, we announced the deprecation and future shutdown of the GData Admin Settings API. Based on customer feedback, we’ve decided to delay that shutdown until October 31st, 2018. 

Some GData Admin Settings API functionality will be replaced with an Admin SDK counterpart, while other features will be discontinued. The following table summarizes which features will be retained (and where to access replacement functionality), and which won’t:


Admin Settings API
Endpoint
Post-deprecation replacement (if any)
General settings
/defaultLanguage
Directory API: Customers
/organizationName
Directory API: Customers
/currentNumberOfUsers
no replacement / discontinued
/maximumNumberOfUsers
no replacement / discontinued
Account settings
/accountInformation/supportPIN
no replacement / discontinued
/accountInformation/customerPIN
no replacement / discontinued
/accountInformation/adminSecondaryEmail
Directory API: Customers
/accountInformation/edition
no replacement / discontinued
/accountInformation/creationTime
Directory API: Customers
/accountInformation/countryCode
Directory API: Customers
Appearance settings
All endpoints
no replacement / discontinued
Verification settings
All endpoints
no replacement from Google / any publicly available domain verification APIs can be used
Single Sign-on (SSO) settings
All endpoints
replacement API coming by October 31st, 2018
Gateway and routing settings
All endpoints
no replacement / discontinued


To summarize, the GData Admin Settings API has been deprecated but will remain operational until October 31st, 2018, to give developers time to migrate. On October 31st, 2018, this deprecated API will be shut down. At that time, all calls to the API and any features in your applications that depend on it will no longer work. Please migrate as soon as possible.

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Identifying app usage in your Google Drive audit logs

Posted by Rio Akasaka, Product Manager, Google Drive and Wesley Chun (@wescpy), Developer Advocate, G Suite

If you’re a G Suite admin (or a developer creating apps for admins), it’s important to understand the various applications your company’s employees are using and how they’re accessing them. Today, we’re making that easier by introducing app identification (i.e. originating_app_id) in the Google Drive audit logs within the Admin SDK Reports API.

Now, your apps will be able to determine whether an activity logged was performed by a user in the Drive Android app, Drive iOS app, Google Chrome, or through a variety of other third-party apps that leverage, modify or create files within Google Drive, like Smartsheet or Asana. This will give you a better sense of the apps being used in your organization, as well as the extent and context of that usage.

Note that App IDs that show up in the logs will be numeric. Should you want to retrieve app names, a separate request using the Google Drive REST API is needed. If you already retrieve information through the Drive activity request, you should start seeing the originating_app_ids show up in your logs. Here are a pair of HTTP requests you can use to query this information:

GET 
https://www.googleapis.com/admin/reports/v1/activity/users/userKey

Or
GET 
https://www.googleapis.com/admin/reports/v1/activity/users/all/applications/drive

To learn more about this new feature, take a look at the documentation, then integrate into your code so you and other G Suite admins can gain a better understanding of app usage in your domain(s). We look forward to seeing what you build!

New Google Drive metrics now accessible from Reports API

Posted by Rio Akasaka, Product Manager, Google Drive and Wesley Chun (@wescpy), G Suite Developer Advocate

You might have read that we launched new metrics in the Admin SDK Reports API to help you gain reliable, easily-validated perspectives about users within your domain. Today, we're building on these features by giving administrators and developers even greater visibility into how files are shared both inside and outside of domain. These changes include:
  1. New metrics to supplement the set of metrics we launched last year 
  2. New visibility information for audit events 
  3. Deprecation of existing metrics from the Reports API

New Metrics

We’ve created a new set of metrics to complete the set we launched last year. With these new metrics you can:
  • Gain insight into the visibility of files and their sharing state, which is useful for security and reporting. This will replace these older metrics:
    num_docs_internally_visible, num_docs_externally_visible, num_docs_shared_outside_domain.
  • Report on product adoption within your domain with summary statistics about groups of users (collaborators, viewers, creators and sharers). Take advantage of key adoption metrics such as 1-, 7-, and 30-day active users for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings and more. 
  • Simplify your calculation of “what has changed” in your domain using delta metrics which pre-calculate changes in visibility and items owned.

New Visibility Information 

Now, new visibility information is attached to every audit event which helps you quickly identify the permission change events that lead to files being shared differently both within and outside your domain. Learn more.

Deprecating Existing Metrics 

While we’re aware of the need to have reliable and timely data about your domain’s users and files on Google Drive, Drive’s data and infrastructure has grown considerably, requiring us to make some difficult technical tradeoffs regarding metrics. As a result, today marks the beginning of a 12-month deprecation timeline that will retire these existing metrics from the Reports API and eventually the Admin Console. These metrics will no longer be available starting May 14, 2018.

To get started using the Reports API and see all the different types of metrics you can report on for your domain, check out the official documentation. We hope you find these features useful in your reporting.

A new issue tracker for G Suite developers

Posted by Ryan Roth, Developer Programs Engineer and Wesley Chun, Developer Advocate, G Suite
You may have read recently that the Google Cloud Platform team upgraded to Issue Tracker, the same system that Google uses internally. This allows for improved collaboration between all of us and all of you. Issues you file will have better exposure internally, and you get improved transparency in terms of seeing the issues we’re actively working on. Starting today, G Suite developers will also have a new issue tracker to which we’ve already migrated existing issues from previous systems. Whether it’s a bug that you’ve found, or if you wish to submit a favorite feature request, the new issue tracker is here for you. Heads up, you need to be logged in with your Google credentials to view or update issues in the tracker.
The new issue tracker for G Suite developers. 

Each G Suite API and developer tool has its own “component” number that you can search. For your convenience, below is the entire list. You may browse for issues relevant to the Google APIs that you’re using, or click on the convenience links to report an issue or request a new/missing feature:
To get started, take a look at the documentation pages, as well as the FAQ. For more details, be sure to check out the Google Cloud Platform announcement, too. We look forward to working more closely with all of you soon!

Saying Goodbye to the GData Admin Settings API

(Cross posted from the Google Apps Developer blog) 

Posted by Shashank Gupta, Product Manager, Google Apps for Work and Wesley Chun, Developer Advocate, Google Apps 

 Back in 2013, we launched the Google Apps Admin SDK, and later announced as a result that several outdated Apps Admin APIs would be deprecated and shut down in April 2015. Today, we are continuing this effort of removing older, less-used functionality by announcing the deprecation of the GData Admin Settings API. Some GData API functionality will find a replacement from an Admin SDK counterpart, while other features will be discontinued. The following table summarizes which features will be retained (and where to access replacement functionality) and which won’t:

Admin Settings API
Endpoint
Post-Deprecation Replacement (if any)
General Settings
/defaultLanguage
Customer API
/organizationName
Customer API
/currentNumberOfUsers
no replacement / discontinued
/maximumNumberOfUsers
no replacement / discontinued
Account Settings
/accountInformation/supportPIN
no replacement / discontinued
/accountInformation/customerPIN
no replacement / discontinued
/accountInformation/adminSecondaryEmail
Customer API
/accountInformation/edition
no replacement / discontinued
/accountInformation/creationTime
Customer API
/accountInformation/countryCode
Customer API
Appearance Settings
All endpoints
no replacement / discontinued
Verification Settings
All endpoints
no replacement / discontinued
Single Sign-on (SSO) Settings
All endpoints
replacement API coming soon
Gateway and Routing Settings
All endpoints
no replacement / discontinued

To summarize, the GData Admin Settings API is being deprecated today and will remain operational for one year to give developers time to migrate. This means that on August 16, 2017, this deprecated API will be shut down. At that time, all calls to the API and any features in your applications that depend on it will no longer work. Please migrate as soon as possible.

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Saying Goodbye to the GData Admin Settings API

Posted by Shashank Gupta, Product Manager, Google Apps for Work and Wesley Chun, Developer Advocate, Google Apps

Back in 2013, we launchedthe Google Apps Admin SDK, and later announced as a result that several outdated Apps Admin APIs would be deprecated and shut down in April 2015. Today, we are continuing this effort of removing older, less-used functionality by announcing the deprecation of the GData Admin Settings API. Some GData API functionality will find a replacement from an Admin SDK counterpart, while other features will be discontinued. The following table summarizes which features will be retained (and where to access replacement functionality) and which won’t:

Admin Settings API

Endpoint

Post-Deprecation Replacement (if any)

General Settings

/defaultLanguage

Customer API

/organizationName

Customer API

/currentNumberOfUsers

no replacement / discontinued

/maximumNumberOfUsers

no replacement / discontinued

Account Settings

/accountInformation/supportPIN

no replacement / discontinued

/accountInformation/customerPIN

no replacement / discontinued

/accountInformation/adminSecondaryEmail

Customer API

/accountInformation/edition

no replacement / discontinued

/accountInformation/creationTime

Customer API

/accountInformation/countryCode

Customer API

Appearance Settings

All endpoints

no replacement / discontinued

Verification Settings

All endpoints

no replacement / discontinued

Single Sign-on (SSO) Settings

All endpoints

replacement API coming soon

Gateway and Routing Settings

All endpoints

no replacement / discontinued

To summarize, the GData Admin Settings API is being deprecated today and will remain operational for one year to give developers time to migrate. This means that on August 16, 2017, this deprecated API will be shut down. At that time, all calls to the API and any features in your applications that depend on it will no longer work. Please migrate as soon as possible.