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googlesheets4 auth

Source: vignettes/articles/auth.Rmd
auth.Rmd

googlesheets4 will, by default, help you interact with Sheets as an authenticated Google user. The package facilitates this process upon first need.

gs4_deauth()

If you don’t need to access private Sheets, use gs4_deauth() to indicate there is no need for a token. This puts googlesheets4 into a de-authorized mode.

Here’s how an R script might look if all you plan to do is read Sheets that are world-readable or readable by “anyone with a link”:

library(googlesheets4)

gs4_deauth()

# imagine this is the URL or ID of a Sheet readable by anyone (with a link)
ss <- "?????"
dat <- read_sheet(ss)

Default auth behaviour and beyond

As soon as googlesheets4 needs a token, it tries to discover one. If it fails, it engages with you interactively to help you get a token. Once successful, that token is remembered for subsequent use in that R session.

Users can take control of auth proactively via the gs4_auth*() family of functions. Examples of what you can control or provide:

  • The email address of the Google identity you want to use.
  • Whether to cache tokens and where.
  • Whether to use out-of-band auth.
  • A service account token.
  • The OAuth app and/or API key.

Auth is actually handled by the gargle package (gargle.r-lib.org), similar to googledrive, bigrquery, and gmailr, and gargle’s documentation and articles are the definitive guide to more advanced topics.

Multi-package auth

It is common to use googlesheets4 together with the googledrive package (googledrive.tidyverse.org). See the article Using googlesheets4 with googledrive for advice on how to streamline auth in this case.