GAPI-Querier, AKA: Find out-of-album photos

I needed to get a list of all my photos (in Google Photos) that were NOT in an album, unfortunately Google didn't provide that feature. So I created this tool to get that listing via their API.

The gapi-querier tool itself is a shell that gets the Google user's auth and then runs the chosen script. The only existing scripts are those I wrote to find photos (in Google Photos) that are NOT in an album.

In order for the tool to access Google's APIs you will need to provide it with your (Google API credential's) "clientId". To get a "clientId" you will need to enable the appropriate API and create OAuth credentials (for JS) in Google Developer console. You will need to copy the "clientId" from your OAuth credentials and enter it into the gray box at the top of the tool's UI.

• Sign into Google Developer console: https://console.developers.google.com
• Create a project.
• Go to API library and enable the APIs you want: https://console.developers.google.com/apis/library
  • Eg (for Google Photos API): https://console.developers.google.com/apis/library/photoslibrary.googleapis.com
  • Click enable.
• Setup consent screen: https://console.developers.google.com/apis/credentials/consent
  • If you're using a Google Workspaces account then choose either Internal or External as your desire (I chose External so it could be used by non-workspace users). I assume if you're using a normal Google account this option will not be shown.
  • Click Create.
  • Give your 'app' a name/email/etc.
  • Add an authorised domain. If you are going to run the app from jonagh.github.io/gapi-querier then enter "jonagh.github.io", if you're using your own domain then enter that.
  • You can skip the "Scopes" screen as any scopes that are needed (eg photoslibrary.readonly) will be requested explicitly by the app code on Google authentication/signin. You could add the scopes to the app settings so that they are implictly included in the auth request, however this would require you to have your app verified by Google.
  • If you leave your app in "Testing" mode then you will also need to manually specify the users that are allowed access. Alternatively you can edit the app (after finishing the creation process) and change it to "Published" mode, this will allow any user access (though some limits apply to non-verified apps).
  • Finish the Consent Screen creation process. If you want any user to access the app (ie you didn't add test users) then you can "Publish" your app so it is not in "Testing" mode and it allows any user to use it. If you just want to specify certain test users then you can leave it in "Testing" mode, but make sure that the appropriate users have been added as "Test users".
• Create credentials (OAuth client ID): https://console.developers.google.com/apis/credentials/oauthclient
  • Application Type: "Web Application"
  • Add Authorised JavaScript origins, eg: "https://jonagh.github.io" or your own domain if you're using that instead.
  • An authorised redirect URI is not needed.
  • Click Create.
• Copy the client ID (from the credentials you just created) and paste it into the gray box at the top of the gapi-querier's UI.

You can host it on your own computer (or wherever you want).. or you can use it here: https://jonagh.github.io/gapi-querier

• I don't output the best errors (sorry), so make sure to check your credentials are correct.
• Some errors can be viewed in the browser's dev-tools/console.
• Note, unless you 'verify' your API project & domain, the Google signin popup will show a warning about the app not being verified, you'll need click 'Advanced' and 'Go to ... (unsafe)' to continue.

DISCLAIMER: This tool (as is) should be benign, it only reads your Google Photo index (id/url), it doesn't look at the images themselves, it doesn't send any data to any server (apart from the Google API requests themselves). There are no ads or tracking or anything (maybe Github or Google track hits/etc but that is out of my control). However I provide no guarantee or warranties or anything of the sort. You should use it at your own risk. You can view the source code and audit it or change it as you wish. The tool (as is) only requests permission for basic-profile data and read-only access to Google Photos, as already mentioned it does nothing with this data apart from outputing the desired results into the browser. Your Google API clientId, once entered, is stored in localStorage (in browser) for your convenience but can be cleared by you at any time.

Customizing

In theory other scripts can be written and plugged into the tool. See commands sub dir for examples, and commands.js is where they are imported into the tool/UI. If you create your own 'command' then I am expecting something like the following:

export default {
	name: 'Some display name that will show in the dropdown',
	scopes: 'SpaceSeparated GoogleAPI Scopes AkaPermissions',
	async run() { return 'Either an HTML string or a DocumentFragment which will be inserted into the DOM'; }
}

Your run() function will be executed when the user chooses your 'command' from the dropdown and clicks 'Run'.

Note: while coding this I was playing around (trying out Proxy objects, etc) so it is a bit fanciful in parts. I also haven't really gone through and tested or cleaned-up/improved/etc the code, sorry - and I don't plan to. You need a modern browser to run the code, but why would you run anything else.