Create Google Contact through API in Ruby On Rails - ruby-on-rails

Question

I need some help with Google integration.
I need to create google contacts through the Google Contacts API but all the gems I can find only gets the contents and it also seems like the Google Contacts API doesn't support JSON posts, only xml/atom.
This is what I have
Gemfile
gem 'google-api-client'
google_contacts_controller.rb
require 'google/apis/people_v1'
require 'google/api_client/client_secrets'
class GoogleContactsController < ApplicationController
def auth
client_secrets = Google::APIClient::ClientSecrets.load('app/controllers/google_contacts/client_secret.json')
auth_client = client_secrets.to_authorization
auth_client.update!(
:scope => 'https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/',
:redirect_uri => 'http://localhost:3000/google_contacts/auth')[]
if request['code'] == nil
auth_uri = auth_client.authorization_uri.to_s
redirect_to auth_uri
else
auth_client.code = request['code']
auth_client.fetch_access_token!
auth_client.client_secret = nil
_auth_client(auth_client)
redirect_to action: 'sync_contacts'
end
end
def sync_contacts
unless session.has_key?(:credentials)
_auth_client
unless session.has_key?(:credentials)
redirect action: 'auth'
end
end
client_opts = JSON.parse(session[:credentials])
auth_client = Signet::OAuth2::Client.new(client_opts)
people_service = Google::Apis::PeopleV1::PeopleServiceService.new
people_service.authorization = auth_client
response = people_service.list_person_connections('people/me', request_mask_include_field: %w'person.names', page_size: 10,)
remote_name_arry = response.connections.map{|person| person.names[0].display_name}
redirect_to action: 'done', message: 'Synced Contacts'
end
def done
#message = params[:message]
end
private
def _auth_client(auth_client=nil)
if auth_client
credentials = GoogleContactCredential.new
credentials.authorization_uri = auth_client.authorization_uri
credentials.token_credential_uri = auth_client.token_credential_uri
credentials.client_id = auth_client.client_id
credentials.scope = "[#{auth_client.scope.join(', ')}]"
credentials.redirect_uri = auth_client.redirect_uri
credentials.expiry = auth_client.expiry
credentials.expires_at = auth_client.expires_at
credentials.access_token = auth_client.access_token
if credentials.save
session[:credentials] = credentials.to_json
end
else
credentials = GoogleContactCredential.first
if credentials.present?
session[:credentials] = credentials.to_json
end
end
credentials
end
end
This all works fine and I am able to get all of my contacts but I can not find a way with this gem or another gem or JSON to create contacts.
Is there anybody that has had this issue and can please point me in the right direction.
UPDATE
I have also tried using the google_contacts_api gem to no success.
Here is what I have
Gemfile
gem 'google_contacts_api'
google_contacts_controller.rb
def sync_contacts
unless session.has_key?(:credentials)
_auth_client
unless session.has_key?(:credentials)
redirect action: 'auth'
end
end
client_opts = JSON.parse(session[:credentials])
auth = OAuth2::Client.new(client_opts['client_id'], client_opts['client_secret'], client_opts)
token = OAuth2::AccessToken.new(auth, client_opts['access_token'])
google_contacts_user = GoogleContactsApi::User.new(token)
contacts = google_contacts_user.contacts
contact = contacts.first
logger.info contact.title
new_group = google_contacts_user.create_group('New group')
redirect_to action: 'done', message: 'Synced Contacts'
end
Everything works fine until this line (which I got out of the example supplied for the gem):
new_group = google_contacts_user.create_group('New group')
Then I get this line exception:
undefined method `create_group' for #<GoogleContactsApi::User:0x007ff2da2291b8>
Can someone spot my mistake I made?
Also, how would I proceed to create contacts as I can not seem to find documentation or posts on actually creating and updating contacts, I thought maybe I would have to create a group and then I can add contacts to the group but as I can not manage to create a group I can not test that theory.
Please point me in the right direction

Answer 1

The Google People API is read-only and can't be used to update or add new contacts. For that, you need to use the Google Contacts API which is, unfortunately, not supported by the google-api-client gem.
To access the Google Client API, you can try using this gem:
google_contacts_api
If you run into trouble setting it up, check out this stackoverflow question:
access google contacts api
It has a helpful answer written by the same person who wrote the gem.
EDIT
It looks like development on the google_contacts_api gem stopped before functionality for creating contacts was added. I'm looking through the various gems on Github and they're all in states of disrepair / death.
As much as it pains me to say it, your best bet might be to access Google Contacts directly via their web API.
Best of luck and sorry for the disheartening answer.