How to refresh token with Google API client?

Question

I've been playing around with the Google Analytics API (V3) and have run into som errors. Firstly, everything is set up correct and worked with my testing account. But when I want to grab data from another profile ID (Same Google Accont/GA Account) I get an 403 Error. The strange thing is that data from some GA accounts will return data whilst other generate this error.

I've revoked the token and authenticated one more time, and now it seems like I can grab data from all of my accounts. Problem solved? Not. As the access key will expire, I will run into the same issue again.

If I have understood things right, one could use the resfreshToken to get a new authenticationTooken.

The problem is, when I run:

$client->refreshToken(refresh_token_key) 

the following error is returned:

Error refreshing the OAuth2 token, message: '{ "error" : "invalid_grant" }'

I’ve checked the code behind the refreshToken method and tracked the request back to the “apiOAuth2.php” file. All parameters are sent correctly. The grant_type is hard coded to ‘refresh_token’ within the method, so it’s hard for me to understand what’s wrong. The parameter array looks like this:

Array ( [client_id] => *******-uqgau8uo1l96bd09eurdub26c9ftr2io.apps.googleusercontent.com [client_secret] => ******** [refresh_token] => 1\/lov250YQTMCC9LRQbE6yMv-FiX_Offo79UXimV8kvwY [grant_type] => refresh_token )

The procedure is as follows.

$client = new apiClient();
$client->setClientId($config['oauth2_client_id']);
$client->setClientSecret($config['oauth2_client_secret']);
$client->setRedirectUri($config['oauth2_redirect_uri']);
$client->setScopes('https://www.googleapis.com/auth/analytics.readonly');
$client->setState('offline');

$client->setAccessToken($config['token']); // The access JSON object.

$client->refreshToken($config['refreshToken']); // Will return error here

Is this a bug, or have I completely misunderstood something?

Answer 1

So i finally figured out how to do this. The basic idea is that you have the token you get the first time you ask for authentication. This first token has a refresh token. The first original token expires after an hour. After an hour you have to use the refresh token from the first token to get a new usable token. You use $client->refreshToken($refreshToken) to retrieve a new token. I will call this "temp token." You need to store this temp token as well because after an hour it expires as well and note it does not have a refresh token associated with it. In order to get a new temp token you need to use the method you used before and use the first token's refreshtoken. I have attached code below, which is ugly, but im new at this...

//pull token from database
$tokenquery="SELECT * FROM token WHERE type='original'";
$tokenresult = mysqli_query($cxn,$tokenquery);
if($tokenresult!=0)
{
    $tokenrow=mysqli_fetch_array($tokenresult);
    extract($tokenrow);
}
$time_created = json_decode($token)->created;
$t=time();
$timediff=$t-$time_created;
echo $timediff."<br>";
$refreshToken= json_decode($token)->refresh_token;


//start google client note:
$client = new Google_Client();
$client->setApplicationName('');
$client->setScopes(array());
$client->setClientId('');
$client->setClientSecret('');
$client->setRedirectUri('');
$client->setAccessType('offline');
$client->setDeveloperKey('');

//resets token if expired
if(($timediff>3600)&&($token!=''))
{
    echo $refreshToken."</br>";
    $refreshquery="SELECT * FROM token WHERE type='refresh'";
    $refreshresult = mysqli_query($cxn,$refreshquery);
    //if a refresh token is in there...
    if($refreshresult!=0)
    {
        $refreshrow=mysqli_fetch_array($refreshresult);
        extract($refreshrow);
        $refresh_created = json_decode($token)->created;
        $refreshtimediff=$t-$refresh_created;
        echo "Refresh Time Diff: ".$refreshtimediff."</br>";
        //if refresh token is expired
        if($refreshtimediff>3600)
        {
            $client->refreshToken($refreshToken);
        $newtoken=$client->getAccessToken();
        echo $newtoken."</br>";
        $tokenupdate="UPDATE token SET token='$newtoken' WHERE type='refresh'";
        mysqli_query($cxn,$tokenupdate);
        $token=$newtoken;
        echo "refreshed again";
        }
        //if the refresh token hasn't expired, set token as the refresh token
        else
        {
        $client->setAccessToken($token);
           echo "use refreshed token but not time yet";
        }
    }
    //if a refresh token isn't in there...
    else
    {
        $client->refreshToken($refreshToken);
        $newtoken=$client->getAccessToken();
        echo $newtoken."</br>";
        $tokenupdate="INSERT INTO token (type,token) VALUES ('refresh','$newtoken')";
        mysqli_query($cxn,$tokenupdate);
        $token=$newtoken;
        echo "refreshed for first time";
    }      
}

//if token is still good.
if(($timediff<3600)&&($token!=''))
{
    $client->setAccessToken($token);
}

$service = new Google_DfareportingService($client);