How To Get Set Up For Google API Integration And Obtain Your API Key

As you are developing features in our system or are having our team develop features for you, certain functionality in those features requires you to have Google API integration. In this article, we’ll go over how to get set up for Google API integration so that these functionalities can be enabled in your feature(s).

What are some functionalities that would require a Google API integration?

Some functionalities that would require a Google API integration are:

The ability to autofill in addresses from Google Maps

The ability to see your current location in Google Maps

The ability to display pinned locations in Google Maps

What are the steps required to set up your Google API integration?

Next, let’s go over how to get set up for Google API integration and how to generate the API key required to use that integration into your feature.

Step 1: Log in to the Google Cloud Console

The URL for the Google Cloud Console is:

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

Follow the link above and log in to your Google account, if you’re not already logged in. This is what it will look like upon your first log-in:

Once you’ve logged in to the Google Cloud Console, click on the drop-down menu next to “Google Cloud Platform”.

Then click on “New Project”.

Step 3: Give the Project a Name and click “Create”

Note: The project name needs to be between 4 and 30 characters and cannot be changed at a later time.

It may take a little while for the Google Cloud Console to create the new project, so please be patient while Google completes its process.

Step 4: Make sure that the Correct Project is Selected

While this may be the first project that you’ve created in the Google Cloud Console, it’s best to double-check that the project you just created is selected (in case your account has multiple projects). You can do this by clicking the drop-down menu next to “Google Cloud Platform” and verifying that there’s a checkmark next to your project’s name.

Once again, it is vital to ensure that you have the correct project selected. Making any changes while in the incorrect project can produce unintentional issues and/or cause the project to break.

Step 5: Set Up Your Billing Account

Once you have verified that you’re working on the correct project, you will need to set up your billing account. To do this, click on the “Billing” option in the navigation menu to the left.

Then click “Manage Billing Accounts”.

Then click “Create Account”.

This will take you through the process of adding a billing account. Go through these steps to add a card on file with Google.

Step 6: Link the Billing Account to Your Project

After you have created a billing account in Google, you will need to link it to your project. To do this click on the “Billing” option in the side menu once more, then click “Link A Billing Account”.

Select the billing account you created in the drop-down menu and click "Set Account"

NOTE: you will need to make sure you create the billing account and link it to this project. You can have multiple billing accounts tied to your Google Cloud Console account, and if you ever need to change the billing account that is being used for your project, you can do so here.

Google gives you a monthly credit of $200 that can go towards the API usage in this project, but if the APIs tied to this project get enough use, Google needs a card on file so that they can charge for the overage amount once the initial credit is depleted. This charge will change from month to month depending on how many times the APIs tied to this project are used each month. You can see Google Map’s rates for API usage here:

https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/pricing/sheet/

But if you don’t go over those limits each month, then Google’s monthly credit should cover the API usage. This is especially helpful during development.

Google has many different APIs available, but the most common ones that are used in our system are for Google Maps. In order to access Google Map’s APIs, open up the Navigation Menu and scroll to the very bottom where you’ll see “Google Maps”. Go ahead and click on it:

This will bring you to all of the APIs related to Google Maps. The most commonly used Google Maps APIs that we use are “Maps JavaScript API” and “Places API”. Each feature is different and may require different or additional APIs to be enabled in them. We will let you know which specific APIs you will need to enable in your project.

You can enable multiple APIs in one project, but you will need to add them one at a time.

The APIs you will need to enable are Maps Javascript API, Places API, and Geocoding API.

Step 8: Select the First API that you want to add to the Project

Clicking on the name of the API that you want to add will bring you to its details page. This will tell you more about what it is and what it can do. To add it to your project all you have to do is click “Enable”.

This API has now been enabled in your project and you can manage all of the APIs added to your project by selecting “APIs” from the side menu.

You will also need to add the "Geocoding" and "Places" APIs, which you can do so from this page by scrolling down to the “Additional APIs” section and clicking on those APIs.

Just like with the first API, click “Enable” to add those APIs to your project. As we previously mentioned, you can manage all of the APIs enabled in this project from the “API” tab. You can also see the project’s overall usage in the “Overview” tab.

Step 9: Generate Credentials for Your Project

Next, you will need to generate Credentials for this project in the form of an API key. To do this, click on the "Credentials" on the left. If you have multiple APIs enabled in a project you can generate one API key for the entire project and all of those APIs will be included in the API key.

Once you are in the Credentials section, click on "+ Create Credentials" and select "API key"

This will generate an API Key for your project.

You’ll see the option to restrict the key, but make sure that you leave the key unrestricted so that it can work properly in our system. Click on "Close"

Step 10: Copy the API Key and Send It To Us

Once you have generated the API key, copy it and send it to your Account Manager or Representative via email. If you are developing your own feature, insert the API key in your feature where needed.

If you ever need to grab the API key again, you can find it by logging back into the Google Cloud Console and selecting APIs & Services > Dashboard from the side menu: