Using your own Google Developer Credentials with White Label – mypresences

If you are white labelling myPresences the most branded experience is to use your own Google Developer Credentials . This is used for all connections to:

Google Business Profile
Google Analytics
Google Search Console

The advantage of using your own credentials are:

The user sees your logo when connecting.
The user sees your name when connecting.
The user sees your own description when connecting.
Any posting attribution will use your name.

This provides the best experience for your users as they can see a trusted name when connecting to their Google accounts.

Google Developer Account

To have your own google application credentials you need to have a google developer account.

If you have an account you can login here:

https://console.cloud.google.com/

If you don't have an account use the create account link to create a new developer account.

API Dashboard

The API's for your account are available in the API dashboard.

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/dashboard

Click on the button Enable APIS and Services to add API's.

Setting up billing

Some API's require billing to be enabled before they can be added.

This doesn't mean you will be charged. Google just needs to have billing enabled for some API's.

https://console.cloud.google.com/billing

Google Developer accounts come with $200 per month of free credits and all the API's required by myPresences are free.

Pricing

Google Business Profile APIs are free.

https://developers.google.com/my-business/content/pricing

Google Analytics API and Google Search Console API's are also free for standard use which should give about 50,000 requests per day. More than enough unless you have 1000's of locations under your account.

Once you have a developer account you can add the API's you need access to to work with myPresences. We recommend add all three.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics allows us to show analytics for your clients website's in dashboards and reports.

To add Google Analytics to your developer account:

Go to your API's dashboard. https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/dashboard.
Click Enable API's and Services at the top.
Search for Google Analytics.
Click the card for Google Analytics API.
Click the Enable button.
Also enable Google Analytics Admin API using steps 3 through 5.

Google Analytics API will be added to your API list.

Google Search Console

Google Search console allows us to show search information for your client's websites in dashboards and reports.

To add Google Search Console to your developer account:

Go to your API's dashboard. https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/dashboard.
Click Enable API's and Services at the top.
Search for Google Search Console.
Click the card for Google Search Console API.
Click the Enable button.

GoogleSearch Console API will be added to your API list.

Google Business Profile

Connecting Google Business Profile allows the platform to manage your client's Google Business Profiles and do things like update data, create posts, access all reviews, reply to reviews and more.

Google Business Profile (GBP) used to be called Google My Business (GMB).

The Google My Business API is currently a private API. This means you must apply for access before it can be added to your account.

Apply for access here

Once you have access the Google My Business API will be in your API list. Google will notify you via email when you application has been approved.

Once this has been approved you can add the remaining API's that are required to fully manage Google Business Profiles.

To add the remaining API's:

Go to your API's dashboard. https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/dashboard.
Click Enable API's and Services at the top.
Repeat the next steps for each API.
1. Search for My Business.
2. Click the card for the API.
3. Click the Enable button.

Add the following API's in the above step:

My Business Business Information API
My Business Notifications API
My Business Q&A API
My Business Account Management API
My Business Verifications API
My Business Place Actions API
Business Profile Performance API

Quotas

For some My Business API's google creates them with a zero quota. We are not sure if this happens all the time but it appears to happen most of the time.

This means the API can't be used and will fail.

For these API's google asks you to apply for a quota increase.

Increase Quotas

To increase a quote:

Click on the API in your API list.
Click on Quotas and System Limits.
Scroll down to the quota list and if one or more has a 0 quote it will need to be increased to use the API.
In the 3 dot menu at the end choose Edit Quota.
A pop-out will appear on the right. Click the link for apply for higher quota.
Complete the form to apply for a quota increase. This may need to be done for each API. But could be increased on all business profile API's.
Quota increases should be processed in a few days but can take up to 2 weeks.

Once all your My Business API's have quote they are read to be used with myPresences.

API Credentials

Before using the API's you should a set of credentials that are used to access the API's.

Credentials can be accessed under the Credentials section of your API console.

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials

API Key

You need to create an API key to use with some the Google Business Profile API.

To create an API Key:

Go to your credentials page in your API console. https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
Click on the button at the top Create Credentials.
Choose the option API Key.
An API Key will be created and a popup will be displayed with your API key.
You can edit you API key and add things like web server restrictions so it can only be used on your domain.

OAUTH 2.0

For these API's we use OAUTH 2.0 authentication. This means each user will explicitly give your developer account access to their google accounts.

To create OAUTH 2.0 credentials for your account:

Go to your credentials page in your API console. https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
Click on the button at the top Create Credentials.
Choose the option OAuth Client ID.
for Application Type choose Web Application.
Set a name like myPresences or the name of your own application.
Under Authorized redirecect URI's click Add URI.

Add each of the bellow urls for the services you want to work with.

Google My Business	https://<your whitelabel domain>/auth/complete/1437/
Google Analytics	https://<your whitelabel domain>/auth/complete/572/
Google Search Console	https://<your whitelabel domain>/auth/complete/573/

Click the Create button to create your OAUTH 2.0 credentials.

After creating your OAUTH credentials a popup will appear with your credentials. These can also be accessed by clicking the pencil icon to the right of your OAUTH 2.0 ID.

Copy your Client ID and Client Secret. These will need to be entered into myPresences in the Services section of white label setup.

Download the JSON and save your keys somewhere safe if you need them again later.

Google OAuth Consent Screen Verification

Google let's you use your OAUTH credentials 100 times for basic access and requires a verification of your OAUTH screen past that.

If you add Sensitve or Restricted scopes then the application needs to be verified by Google.

Only Google Analytics adds sensitive scopes so adding this API will automatically require that your account needs verification.

You can access the verification process in OAuth Consent Screen section or https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials/consent

Setup your Consent Screen

Once you are in your OAuth consent page. It should say Needs Verification.

Click the button that says Prepare for Verification.
Set you application name. This will be the same name you are using for your White Label application in myPresences.
Add the email you will use for user support.
Upload your logo.
Add your Home page.
Add your Privacy Policy from your website.
Add your Terms of Service link from your website.
Under authorised domains add the domain you are using for white label.
Add the email address you will use for administration with google. You will be mailed here for status updates.
Click Save and Continue.
The scopes are set automatically based on the API's added. You can add additional scopes if needed but this should not be required. Scopes are used to indicate to the user what data the application can access. The user must agree to grant access to this data for myPresences to work.
Click Save and Continue.
Add any optional information requested.
Click Save and Continue.
Review your information before submitting.
Click the tick box to indicate usage of these scopes is compliant.
Click the button to Submit for Verification.

Update myPresences

Add each service you want add in the Services section of White label setup.

Go to your Account and then White label and Services.

Google My Business requires 3 keys to be entered, these are available from your Google Cloud Platform dashboard under Credentials on the left menu.

1. Your OAUTH Client Id that you created in the last step.

2. Your OAUTH Client Secret that you created in the last step.

Your OAUTH Key and Secret are available under the OAuth 2.0 Client IDs section in credentials.

3. An API Key for the credentials that have access to the Google My Business API.

This is available under the Api Keys heading, copy the value from the Key column for the Api Key that has access to the Google My Business api.

Enter these into the 3 credentials positions in order.