PHP integration with Google Sheets API - authentication issues

Other Questions Google drive
1

I’m trying to access a Google Sheet from my PHP application but running into authentication problems. I’ve followed the setup steps but keep getting errors when trying to fetch the spreadsheet data.

My setup process:

  1. Created a project in Google Cloud Console
  2. Enabled the necessary APIs
  3. Generated OAuth credentials
  4. Downloaded the PHP client library
  5. Got the spreadsheet ID from the sharing settings

Here’s my code:

<?php
session_start();
require_once 'vendor/google/Google_APIClient.php';
require_once 'vendor/google/service/Google_SheetsService.php';

define('SHEETS_APP_ID', 'your-client-id-here');
define('SHEETS_APP_SECRET', 'your-client-secret-here');
define('SHEETS_CALLBACK_URL', 'your-redirect-url-here');

define('API_SCOPE_SHEETS', 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets');
define('API_SCOPE_READONLY', 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets.readonly');
define('SPREADSHEET_ID', 'your-sheet-id-from-url');

$apiClient = new Google_APIClient();
$apiClient->setAppId(SHEETS_APP_ID);
$apiClient->setAppSecret(SHEETS_APP_SECRET);
$apiClient->setCallbackUri(SHEETS_CALLBACK_URL);
$apiClient->setPermissions(array(API_SCOPE_SHEETS, API_SCOPE_READONLY));

try {
    $document = $sheetsService->spreadsheets->get(SPREADSHEET_ID);
    echo "Name: " . $document->getTitle();
    echo "Type: " . $document->getMimeType();
} catch (Exception $error) {
    echo "Request failed: " . $error->getMessage();
}
?>

The error I’m getting:

Request failed: Error calling GET https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v2/files: (403) Daily Limit for Unauthenticated Use Exceeded. Continued use requires signup.

The authentication part seems to be missing but I’m not sure how to implement it properly. Any ideas what I’m missing here?

2

Looking at your code, you’re missing the OAuth authentication step. That daily limit error screams unauthenticated requests. Here’s what you need to fix: Check if there’s an access token in the session first. No token? Redirect users to Google’s auth URL. When they authorize, Google sends back an authorization code to your callback URL - exchange that for an access token. Don’t forget to create your $sheetsService by passing the authenticated client to Google_SheetsService. One more thing - access tokens die after an hour, so you’ll need a refresh mechanism to keep things running.

3

make sure your redirect is set up right n stuff. you gotta get that auth token from Google when users log in or else they wont be authenticated at all. also, double check your scopes!

4

Your error message shows you’ve set up the API client but you’re missing the OAuth flow to get an access token. You can’t just fetch spreadsheet data without proper authentication. First, check if you have an access token stored. If not, redirect the user to Google’s auth URL using $apiClient->createAuthUrl(). When they authorize and come back to your callback URL, you’ll get a code that you exchange for an access token with $apiClient->authenticate(). Also, I don’t see $sheetsService initialized anywhere in your code - you’ll need to define that after you get authentication working.