How to update Google Shared Contacts (External contacts)

Question

I'm new to working with Google APIs, and I'm finding a lot of documentation that is out-of-date, and no longer seems to match the current G-Suite Admin portal.

Specifically, I need to work with the Shared Contacts API, as I need to be able to add and remove external contacts to our global directory (global address list). Much of the documentation I'm reading points to the "Shared Contacts API", but I cannot find that in the API Directory (even when logged in as the domain administrator in G-Suite).

Is this now handled by a newer API?

Can someone please point me in the right direction for getting started with this? The more detailed the better, including setting up API access (credentials), etc.

The goal is to have a program (Python for now, eventually replaced by Node.JS) that can be used internally by our staff to add/remove external contacts to our G-Suite contact directory.

Thanks very much,

Bill

Answer 1

Here is a Developer's Guide to help you started.

The Shared Contacts API allows client applications to retrieve and update external contacts that are shared to all users in a Google Apps domain. Shared contacts are visible to all users of an Apps domain and all Google services have access to the contact list. To retrieve and update Google Apps domain users contact information, use the Directory API instead.

Your client application can use the Shared Contacts API to create new shared contacts, edit or delete existing shared contacts, and query for shared contacts that match particular criteria.

In addition to providing some background on the capabilities of the Shared Contacts API, this document provides examples of how to manipulate contacts using XML and HTTP. After reading this document, you may wish to learn more about interacting with the API using our client libraries by reading the programming-language specific sections of this developer's guide.

From there, you will be able to understand how it works, since all the details was given, from set-up up to development.

Expectation from the reader/audience of this documentation:

This document is intended for programmers who want to write client applications that can manipulate Google's contact lists using HTTP and XML.

This document assumes that you understand the general ideas behind the Google Data APIs protocol.

If you're using a UNIX system and you want to try the examples in this document without writing any code, you may find the UNIX command-line utilities curl or wget useful, as well as detailed instructions on using cURL with Google Data services.