How to use IBM App Connect with Google Chat

Google Chat is a secure messaging application meant to facilitate communications within the Google Workspace environment. It enables you to quickly and efficiently work with your team by collaborating via text, creating collaborative chat rooms, sharing documents, delivering presentations, and setting up web conferences.

Availability:
  • A connector in IBM App Connect Enterprise as a ServiceApp Connect Enterprise as a Service connector
  • A local connector in a Designer instance of IBM App Connect in containers (Continuous Delivery release)Local connector in containers (Continuous Delivery release) 12.0.10.0-r2 or later

Connecting to Google Chat

Complete the connection fields that you see in the App Connect Designer Catalog page or flow editor. If necessary, work with your Google Chat administrator to obtain these values.

Google Chat connection fields:

Authorization type Connection fields Applicability
Use the application's website to sign in (OAUTH 2.0 AUTH CODE) Application client ID App Connect Enterprise as a Service
Application client secret
Provide credentials for App Connect to use (BASIC OAUTH) Application client ID App Connect Enterprise as a Service and App Connect in containers
Application client secret
Access token
Refresh token
The following table contains descriptions of the connection fields.
Tip: To generate the values for Application client ID, Application client secret, Access token, and Refresh token see Getting OAuth client ID, client secret, access token, and refresh token for Google applications.
Connection field Description
Application client ID The unique identifier that is generated from the Google API Console that maps to specific project requests.
Application client secret The application client secret for the unique application client ID created for a specific project.
Access token The access token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret.
Refresh token The refresh token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret.

To connect to a Google Chat endpoint from the App Connect Designer Catalog page for the first time, expand Google Chat, then click Connect.

Tip:

Before you use the account that is created in App Connect in a flow, rename the account to something meaningful that helps you to identify it. To rename the account on the Catalog page, select the account, open its options menu (⋮), then click Rename Account.

General considerations

Before you use App Connect Designer with Google Chat, take note of the following considerations

  • (General consideration) You can see lists of the trigger events and actions that are available on the Catalog page of the App Connect Designer.

    For some applications, the events and actions in the catalog depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.

  • (General consideration) If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Events and actions

Google Chat events

These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.

Note: Events are not available for changes in this application. You can trigger a flow in other ways, such as at a scheduled interval or at specific dates and times.

Google Chat actions

Your flow completes these actions on this application.

Object Action Description
Members Retrieve members Retrieves the members from Google Chat
Add member to space Adds a member to space in Google Chat
Restriction: Adding members in 'Direct Message' is not supported.
Remove member from space Removes the member from a Google Chat space
Retrieve member by ID Retrieves the member by ID from Google Chat
Messages Retrieve messages Retrieves the messages from Google Chat
Delete message Deletes a message in Google Chat
Restriction: Deletion of external user (users who are not in the same workspace domain) messages are not supported.
Retrieve message by ID Retrieves a message by ID from Google Chat
Send message Sends a message in the Google Chat space
Update message Updates a message in Google Chat
Spaces Retrieve spaces Retrieves the spaces from Google Chat
Create space Creates a space in Google Chat
Restriction: This operation only supports creating the default space type 'SPACE'. Other space types are not supported.
Delete space Deletes the space from Google Chat
Restriction: Deletion of 'Group Chat' or 'Direct Message' is not supported.
Retrieve space by ID Retrieves the space by ID in Google Chat
Search direct message space Searches the direct message space in Google Chat
Update space Updates the space in Google Chat
Restriction:
  • Updating from Space type 'Space' to 'Group Chat' or 'Direct Message' is not supported.
  • Do not specify any other properties while updating the Space history state field.

Examples

Dashboard tile for a template that uses Google Chat

Use templates to quickly create flows for Google Chat

Learn how to use App Connect templates to quickly create flows that complete actions on Google Chat. For example, open the Templates gallery, then search for Google Chat.

Dashboard tile for a template that uses Google Chat
Google Chat flow in detailed view

Use IBM® App Connect to build flows that integrate with Google Chat.

Read the blog in the IBM Community to learn how to send a Google Chat welcome message with a Dropbox link to all the attendees of a Google Calendar event. Click Read the blog to go to the blog.