Create a named space in Google Chat

This guide explains how to create a named space using the create() method on the Space resource of the Google Chat API.

A named space (where the spaceType is SPACE) is a place where people send messages, share files, and collaborate. Named spaces can include Chat apps. Named spaces have space managers who can apply administrative settings, descriptions, and add or remove people and apps.

To create different types of Chat spaces (including direct messages or group messages), use the setUp() method on the Space resource to create the space and add members at the same time. For details, Set up a space.

After creating a named space, the only member of the space is the authenticated user. To add members to the space, call the create() method on the Membership resource for each person or app that you want to add. Or, you can use the setUp() method to create a named space and add members to it at the same time.

Prerequisites

Node.js

A Business or Enterprise Google Workspace account with access to Google Chat.

Set up your environment:
- Create a Google Cloud project.
- Configure the OAuth consent screen.
- Enable and configure the Google Chat API with a name, icon, and description for your Chat app.
- Install the Node.js Cloud Client Library.
- Create access credentials based on how you want to authenticate in your Google Chat API request:
  - To authenticate as a Chat user, create OAuth client ID credentials and save the credentials as a JSON file named client_secrets.json to your local directory.
  - To authenticate as the Chat app, create service account credentials and save the credentials as a JSON file named credentials.json.
Choose an authorization scope based on whether you want to authenticate as a user or the Chat app.

Python

A Business or Enterprise Google Workspace account with access to Google Chat.

Set up your environment:
- Create a Google Cloud project.
- Configure the OAuth consent screen.
- Enable and configure the Google Chat API with a name, icon, and description for your Chat app.
- Install the Python Cloud Client Library.
- Create access credentials based on how you want to authenticate in your Google Chat API request:
  - To authenticate as a Chat user, create OAuth client ID credentials and save the credentials as a JSON file named client_secrets.json to your local directory.
  - To authenticate as the Chat app, create service account credentials and save the credentials as a JSON file named credentials.json.
Choose an authorization scope based on whether you want to authenticate as a user or the Chat app.

Java

A Business or Enterprise Google Workspace account with access to Google Chat.

Set up your environment:
- Create a Google Cloud project.
- Configure the OAuth consent screen.
- Enable and configure the Google Chat API with a name, icon, and description for your Chat app.
- Install the Java Cloud Client Library.
- Create access credentials based on how you want to authenticate in your Google Chat API request:
  - To authenticate as a Chat user, create OAuth client ID credentials and save the credentials as a JSON file named client_secrets.json to your local directory.
  - To authenticate as the Chat app, create service account credentials and save the credentials as a JSON file named credentials.json.
Choose an authorization scope based on whether you want to authenticate as a user or the Chat app.

Apps Script

A Business or Enterprise Google Workspace account with access to Google Chat.

Set up your environment:
- Create a Google Cloud project.
- Configure the OAuth consent screen.
- Enable and configure the Google Chat API with a name, icon, and description for your Chat app.
- Create a standalone Apps Script project, and turn on the Advanced Chat Service.
- In this guide, you must use either user or app authentication. To authenticate as the Chat app, create service account credentials. For steps, see Authenticate and authorize as a Google Chat app.
Choose an authorization scope based on whether you want to authenticate as a user or the Chat app.

Create a named space as a user

To create a named space with user authentication, pass the following in your request:

Specify the chat.spaces.create or chat.spaces authorization scope.
Call the CreateSpace() method, passing space as an instance of Space with the following fields:
- spaceType set to SPACE.
- displayName set to the user-visible name of the space.
- Optionally, set other attributes, like the following:
  - spaceDetails- a user-visible description and set of guidelines for the space.
  - predefinedPermissionSettings- predefined permissions for the space. For example, you can configure it so that all members or only space managers can post messages.

Here's how to create a named space:

Node.js

chat/client-libraries/cloud/create-space-user-cred.js

View on GitHub

import {createClientWithUserCredentials} from './authentication-utils.js';

const USER_AUTH_OAUTH_SCOPES = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/chat.spaces.create'];

// This sample shows how to create a named space with user credential
async function main() {
  // Create a client
  const chatClient = await createClientWithUserCredentials(USER_AUTH_OAUTH_SCOPES);

  // Initialize request argument(s)
  const request = {
    space: {
      spaceType: 'SPACE',
      // Replace DISPLAY_NAME here.
      displayName: 'DISPLAY_NAME'
    }
  };

  // Make the request
  const response = await chatClient.createSpace(request);

  // Handle the response
  console.log(response);
}

main().catch(console.error);

Python

chat/client-libraries/cloud/create_space_user_cred.py

View on GitHub

from authentication_utils import create_client_with_user_credentials
from google.apps import chat_v1 as google_chat

SCOPES = ["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/chat.spaces.create"]

def create_space_with_user_cred():
    # Create a client
    client = create_client_with_user_credentials(SCOPES)

    # Initialize request argument(s)
    request = google_chat.CreateSpaceRequest(
        space = {
            "space_type": 'SPACE',
            # Replace DISPLAY_NAME here.
            "display_name": 'DISPLAY_NAME'
        }
    )

    # Make the request
    response = client.create_space(request)

    # Handle the response
    print(response)

create_space_with_user_cred()

Java

chat/client-libraries/cloud/src/main/java/com/google/workspace/api/chat/samples/CreateSpaceUserCred.java

View on GitHub

import com.google.chat.v1.ChatServiceClient;
import com.google.chat.v1.CreateSpaceRequest;
import com.google.chat.v1.Space;

// This sample shows how to create space with user credential.
public class CreateSpaceUserCred {

  private static final String SCOPE =
    "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/chat.spaces.create";

  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    try (ChatServiceClient chatServiceClient =
        AuthenticationUtils.createClientWithUserCredentials(
          ImmutableList.of(SCOPE))) {
      CreateSpaceRequest.Builder request = CreateSpaceRequest.newBuilder()
        .setSpace(Space.newBuilder()
          .setSpaceType(Space.SpaceType.SPACE)
          // Replace DISPLAY_NAME here.
          .setDisplayName("DISPLAY_NAME"));
      Space response = chatServiceClient.createSpace(request.build());

      System.out.println(JsonFormat.printer().print(response));
    }
  }
}

Apps Script

chat/advanced-service/Main.gs

View on GitHub

/**
 * This sample shows how to create space with user credential
 * 
 * It relies on the OAuth2 scope 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/chat.spaces.create'
 * referenced in the manifest file (appsscript.json).
 */
function createSpaceUserCred() {
  // Initialize request argument(s)
  const space = {
    spaceType: 'SPACE',
    // TODO(developer): Replace DISPLAY_NAME here
    displayName: 'DISPLAY_NAME'
  };

  // Make the request
  const response = Chat.Spaces.create(space);

  // Handle the response
  console.log(response);
}

Create a named space as a Chat app

App authentication requires one-time administrator approval.

To invite or add a user to a space with app authentication, pass the following in your request:

Specify the chat.app.spaces.create or chat.app.spaces authorization scope.
Call the create method on the Space resource.
Set spaceType to SPACE.
Set displayName to the user-visible name of the space. In the following example, displayName is set to API-made.
Specify the customer ID of the Google Workspace domain using the customer field.
Optionally, set other space attributes, like spaceDetails (a user-visible description and set of guidelines for the space).

Create an API key

To call a Developer Preview API method, you must use a non-public developer preview version of the API discovery document. To authenticate the request, you must pass an API key.

To create the API Key, open your app's Google Cloud project and do the following:

In the Google Cloud console, go to Menu > APIs & Services > Credentials.
Go to Credentials
Click Create credentials > API key.
Your new API key is displayed.
- Click Copy to copy your API key for use in your app's code. The API key can also be found in the "API keys" section of your project's credentials.
- Click Restrict key to update advanced settings and limit use of your API key. For more details, see Applying API key restrictions.

Write a script that calls Chat API

Here's how to create a named space:

Python

In your working directory, create a file named chat_space_create_named_app.py.

Include the following code in chat_space_create_named_app.py:

from google.oauth2 import service_account
from apiclient.discovery import build

# Define your app's authorization scopes.
# When modifying these scopes, delete the file token.json, if it exists.
SCOPES = ["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/chat.app.spaces.create"]

def main():
    '''
    Authenticates with Chat API using app authentication,
    then creates a Chat space.
    '''

    # Specify service account details.
    creds = (
        service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file('credentials.json')
        .with_scopes(SCOPES)
    )

    # Build a service endpoint for Chat API.
    chat = build('chat', 'v1', credentials=creds, discoveryServiceUrl='https://chat.googleapis.com/$discovery/rest?version=v1&labels=DEVELOPER_PREVIEW&key=API_KEY')

    # Use the service endpoint to call Chat API.
    result = chat.spaces().create(

      # Details about the space to create.
      body = {

        # To create a named space, set spaceType to SPACE.
        'spaceType': 'SPACE',

        # The user-visible name of the space.
        'displayName': 'API-made',

        # The customer ID of the Workspace domain.
        'customer': 'CUSTOMER'
      }

      ).execute()

    # Prints details about the created space.
    print(result)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

In the code, replace the following:
- API_KEY: the API key you created to build the service endpoint for Chat API.
- CUSTOMER: the customer ID of the domain of the space in the format customer/{customer} where {customer} is the ID from the Admin SDK customer resource. To create a space in the same Google Workspace organization as the Chat app, use customers/my_customer.
In your working directory, build and run the sample:
```
python3 chat_space_create_named_app.py
```

Open the space in Google Chat

To navigate to the space, use the space's resource ID to build the space's URL. You can find the resource ID from the space name in the Google Chat response body. For example, if your space's name is spaces/1234567, you can navigate to the space using the following URL: https://mail.google.com/chat/u/0/#chat/space/1234567.

Add people and apps to the space by creating members.
Post a message in the space by creating a message.
Get details about a space.
List spaces.
Update a space.
Delete a space.
Set up a space.
Find a direct message space.
Make a space discoverable to specific users.

Create a named space in Google Chat

Prerequisites

Node.js

Python

Java

Apps Script

Create a named space as a user

Node.js

Python

Java

Apps Script

Create a named space as a Chat app

Create an API key

Write a script that calls Chat API

Python

Open the space in Google Chat

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