Recently, we have had to work with some of the new Google API's, which means setting up projects in their development environment and including keys so that Google can provide a more secure way of communicating with other apps, but probably more importantly to them, keep track on apps that are being used a lot and charge for extra usage.

Anyway, it took me a little searching to find the API keys, as most of the instructions I found referenced the old Console interface that Google provided, and some things have been moved around since their update.

Create a Project

If you haven't already, you'll need to create a project, and you'll need to be logged into Google to access this page. I'm not going to show you how to create a Google account, most of you have one. If not, its easy enough.

Go to https://console.developers.google.com, you can create a project easy enough. It doesn't ask too many taxing questions, that part comes next.

Enabling APIs

Next you'll need to enable the APIs required for your project. Depending on what you plan on developing, this may be the Google Map API, Analytics API or the YouTube API. The list is vast, view the full API list here, and you might need to enable more than one for a particular project. You'll have to check the development code for the particular system that your querying.

To enable one, click on your project to edit, under the left hand menu, click on APIs & auth to display a sub menu. The click on APIs, this will allow you to search available APIs or view your current ones.

Getting API or OAuth Keys

Under the APIs & auth menu, the second sub menu is Credentials. Under this page, you can create a Client ID for OAuth details, this will ask you what sort of project you are using. Depending on your answer, you may have to fill in further details and come back to this.

API keys are a little easier. Again it'll ask you what the key is for. Select a browser key if you are creating an app that appears on a website, which is what we created. This will then display the API key, along with activation details.

Form this page, you can delete keys, or regenerate new ones.

Getting the keys is one thing, using them in a project is something else.

In the next few weeks, I'll detail how I used these keys to get a Channels latest YouTube video and display it on the page.