Postman and Google Cloud platform private keys

[Pushyamig (Pushyami Gundala)]

We have an API endpoint that is running on Google cloud platform and that endpoint writes stuff to Google BigQuery. So we have a never expiring Bearer token that we use to talk to the API endpoint.
I am writing some automated test using Postman to make API calls to the endpoint and BigQuery as well. So the problem that I am having is Google has something called service account (private key) in form of .json file. So right now I don’t see postman support this for Google cloud platform. So as a workaround using the Google service account I am generating a Bearer token and using that making a query to BigQuery but that token expires in 1 hour and I have to manual generate a token again(GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=~/<path-to-service-accout.json> gcloud auth application-default print-access-token) to run the automated test. My Question is

1. is there a way using postman app and Google service account( google private keys) I can have my tests run without user intervention?

[ankit_chauhan]

Hi Pushyamig,
I have the same use case. May I know whether you found any solution for this?

[ojacques (Olivier Jacques)]

@Pushyamig

GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=~/<path-to-service-accout.json> gcloud auth application-default print-access-token

I start my newman collection from a Jenkins pipeline / Jenkinsfile. So, generating the token at the beginning of the pipeline with the above is what works for me. A temporary access token just for the execution of the test suite.

[affanrashid]

could you give an example of how you configure your jenkins pipeline to set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS and run postman?

I can’t wrap my head around it and am hitting a wall.

[docking-module-ast23 (Nikhil Mahajan)]

Hi there, did anyone get a handle on this ? I am facing the same situation

[michaelderekjones (Mike Jones)]

@docking-module-ast23

Can you post a link to the Google documentation you are using for this.

I can’t see this on the main authentication pages.

Authentication methods at Google | Google Cloud

This also perhaps should have been its own topic. Can you confirm its the same issue as the original poster had?

[docking-module-ast23 (Nikhil Mahajan)]

Hi Michael, thanks for replying. Yes, the post does capture most of what i am trying to do i.e. there’s an external call being made through an application ( similar to a webhook ), to post messages to PubSub.

For testing purposes, we did it manually i.e.

1. created a Service Account(SA) in GCP, gave it required pubsub roles,

2. downloaded it’s key in GCP env, used CloudShell(GCP) to activate it ( gcloud auth activate-service-account) ,

3. then issued another command in CloudShell GCP ( gcloud auth print-access-token ).

4. Using that token, we did 2 things:
   a) Checked connectivity from Postman :
   curl -X GET
   ‘https://pubsub.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PRJNAME/topics/TOPICNAME’
   -H ‘Authorization: Bearer ’
   -H ‘Content-Type: application/json’

b) Published message through Postman :
curl -X POST
‘https://pubsub.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PRJNAME/topics/TOPICNAME:publish’
-H ‘Authorization: Bearer ’
-H ‘Content-Type: application/json’
-H ‘Accept: application/json’
-d ‘{ “messages”: [ { “data”: “SGVsbG8gV29ybGQhCg==” } ] }’
-H ‘Accept: application/json’

Both 4a and 4b succeeded manually from the POSTMAN command prompt, which is what is mentioned in the above forum’s first topic as well.
So, trying to figure out how :
steps 2 & 3 can be automated AND how step 4 can be parameterized