Datastore mode client libraries

This page shows how to get started with the Cloud Client Libraries for the Datastore API. Read more about the client libraries for Cloud APIs, including the older Google API Client Libraries, in Client Libraries Explained.

Installing the client library

C#

For more information, see Setting Up a C# Development Environment.

Install-Package Google.Cloud.Datastore.V1

Go

For more information, see Setting Up a Go Development Environment.

go get cloud.google.com/go/datastore

Java

For more information, see Setting Up a Java Development Environment.

If you are using Maven, add the following to your pom.xml file. For more information about BOMs, see The Google Cloud Platform Libraries BOM.

<dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
      <artifactId>libraries-bom</artifactId>
      <version>25.4.0</version>
      <type>pom</type>
      <scope>import</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>google-cloud-datastore</artifactId>
  </dependency>

If you are using Gradle, add the following to your dependencies:

implementation platform('com.google.cloud:libraries-bom:25.4.0')

implementation 'com.google.cloud:google-cloud-datastore'

If you are using sbt, add the following to your dependencies:

libraryDependencies += "com.google.cloud" % "google-cloud-datastore" % "2.9.1"

If you're using Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, or Eclipse, you can add client libraries to your project using the following IDE plugins:

• Cloud Code for VS Code
• Cloud Code for IntelliJ
• Cloud Tools for Eclipse

The plugins provide additional functionality, such as key management for service accounts. Refer to each plugin's documentation for details.

Note: Cloud Java client libraries do not currently support Android.

Node.js

For more information, see Setting Up a Node.js Development Environment.

npm install --save @google-cloud/datastore

PHP

For more information, see Using PHP on Google Cloud.

composer require google/cloud-datastore

Python

For more information, see Setting Up a Python Development Environment.

pip install --upgrade google-cloud-datastore

Ruby

For more information, see Setting Up a Ruby Development Environment.

gem install google-cloud-datastore

Setting up authentication

To run the client library, you must first set up authentication. One way to do that is to create a service account and set an environment variable, as shown in the following steps. For other ways to authenticate, see Authenticating as a service account.

Console

Create a service account:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Create service account page.

   Go to Create service account
2. Select your project.

3. In the Service account name field, enter a name. The Google Cloud console fills in the Service account ID field based on this name.

   In the Service account description field, enter a description. For example, Service account for quickstart.

4. Click Create and continue.

5. To provide access to your project, grant the following role(s) to your service account: Project > Owner.

   In the Select a role list, select a role.

   For additional roles, click Add another role and add each additional role.

   Note: The Role field affects which resources your service account can access in your project. You can revoke these roles or grant additional roles later. In production environments, do not grant the Owner, Editor, or Viewer roles. Instead, grant a predefined role or custom role that meets your needs.
6. Click Continue.

7. Click Done to finish creating the service account.

   Do not close your browser window. You will use it in the next step.

Create a service account key:

1. In the Google Cloud console, click the email address for the service account that you created.
2. Click Keys.
3. Click Add key, and then click Create new key.
4. Click Create. A JSON key file is downloaded to your computer.
5. Click Close.

gcloud

Set up authentication:

1. Create the service account:

   gcloud iam service-accounts create NAME

   Replace NAME with a name for the service account.

2. Grant roles to the service account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles: roles/owner:

   gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member="serviceAccount:SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com" --role=ROLE

   Replace the following:

   • SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME: the name of the service account
   • PROJECT_ID: the project ID where you created the service account
   • ROLE: the role to grant
   Note: The --role flag affects which resources your service account can access in your project. You can revoke these roles or grant additional roles later. In production environments, do not grant the Owner, Editor, or Viewer roles. Instead, grant a predefined role or custom role that meets your needs.

3. Generate the key file:

   gcloud iam service-accounts keys create FILE_NAME.json --iam-account=SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com

   Replace the following:

   • FILE_NAME: a name for the key file
   • SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME: the name of the service account
   • PROJECT_ID: the project ID where you created the service account

Provide authentication credentials to your application code by setting the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS. This variable applies only to your current shell session. If you want the variable to apply to future shell sessions, set the variable in your shell startup file, for example in the ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile file.

Linux or macOS

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="KEY_PATH"

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

For example:

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/home/user/Downloads/service-account-file.json"

Windows

For PowerShell:

$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="KEY_PATH"

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

For example:

$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="C:\Users\username\Downloads\service-account-file.json"

For command prompt:

set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=KEY_PATH

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

Using the client library

The following example shows how to use the client library.

C#

Before trying this sample, follow the C# setup instructions in Setting up a C# development environment. For more information, see the Datastore mode C# API reference documentation.

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using Google.Cloud.Datastore.V1;

namespace GoogleCloudSamples
{
    public class QuickStart
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Your Google Cloud Platform project ID
            string projectId = "YOUR-PROJECT-ID";

            // Instantiates a client
            DatastoreDb db = DatastoreDb.Create(projectId);

            // The kind for the new entity
            string kind = "Task";
            // The name/ID for the new entity
            string name = "sampletask1";
            KeyFactory keyFactory = db.CreateKeyFactory(kind);
            // The Cloud Datastore key for the new entity
            Key key = keyFactory.CreateKey(name);

            var task = new Entity
            {
                Key = key,
                ["description"] = "Buy milk"
            };
            using (DatastoreTransaction transaction = db.BeginTransaction())
            {
                // Saves the task
                transaction.Upsert(task);
                transaction.Commit();

                Console.WriteLine($"Saved {task.Key.Path[0].Name}: {(string)task["description"]}");
            }
        }
    }
}

Go

To use this sample, prepare your machine for Go development, and complete the Datastore mode quickstart. For more information, see the Datastore mode Go API reference documentation.

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// Sample datastore-quickstart fetches an entity from Google Cloud Datastore.
package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"cloud.google.com/go/datastore"
)

type Task struct {
	Description string
}

func main() {
	ctx := context.Background()

	// Set your Google Cloud Platform project ID.
	projectID := "YOUR_PROJECT_ID"

	// Creates a client.
	client, err := datastore.NewClient(ctx, projectID)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Failed to create client: %v", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	// Sets the kind for the new entity.
	kind := "Task"
	// Sets the name/ID for the new entity.
	name := "sampletask1"
	// Creates a Key instance.
	taskKey := datastore.NameKey(kind, name, nil)

	// Creates a Task instance.
	task := Task{
		Description: "Buy milk",
	}

	// Saves the new entity.
	if _, err := client.Put(ctx, taskKey, &task); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Failed to save task: %v", err)
	}

	fmt.Printf("Saved %v: %v\n", taskKey, task.Description)
}

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in Setting up a Java development environment. For more information, see the Datastore mode Java API reference documentation.

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// Imports the Google Cloud client library
import com.google.cloud.datastore.Datastore;
import com.google.cloud.datastore.DatastoreOptions;
import com.google.cloud.datastore.Entity;
import com.google.cloud.datastore.Key;

public class QuickstartSample {
  public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
    // Instantiates a client
    Datastore datastore = DatastoreOptions.getDefaultInstance().getService();

    // The kind for the new entity
    String kind = "Task";
    // The name/ID for the new entity
    String name = "sampletask1";
    // The Cloud Datastore key for the new entity
    Key taskKey = datastore.newKeyFactory().setKind(kind).newKey(name);

    // Prepares the new entity
    Entity task = Entity.newBuilder(taskKey).set("description", "Buy milk").build();

    // Saves the entity
    datastore.put(task);

    System.out.printf("Saved %s: %s%n", task.getKey().getName(), task.getString("description"));

    // Retrieve entity
    Entity retrieved = datastore.get(taskKey);

    System.out.printf("Retrieved %s: %s%n", taskKey.getName(), retrieved.getString("description"));
  }
}

Node.js

Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in Setting up a Node.js development environment. For more information, see the Datastore mode Node.js API reference documentation.

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// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {Datastore} = require('@google-cloud/datastore');

// Creates a client
const datastore = new Datastore();

async function quickstart() {
  // The kind for the new entity
  const kind = 'Task';

  // The name/ID for the new entity
  const name = 'sampletask1';

  // The Cloud Datastore key for the new entity
  const taskKey = datastore.key([kind, name]);

  // Prepares the new entity
  const task = {
    key: taskKey,
    data: {
      description: 'Buy milk',
    },
  };

  // Saves the entity
  await datastore.save(task);
  console.log(`Saved ${task.key.name}: ${task.data.description}`);
}
quickstart();

PHP

To use this sample, prepare your machine for PHP development, and complete the Datastore mode quickstart. For more information, see the Datastore mode PHP API reference documentation.

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# Includes the autoloader for libraries installed with composer
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

# Imports the Google Cloud client library
use Google\Cloud\Datastore\DatastoreClient;

# Your Google Cloud Platform project ID
$projectId = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID';

# Instantiates a client
$datastore = new DatastoreClient([
    'projectId' => $projectId
]);

# The kind for the new entity
$kind = 'Task';

# The name/ID for the new entity
$name = 'sampletask1';

# The Cloud Datastore key for the new entity
$taskKey = $datastore->key($kind, $name);

# Prepares the new entity
$task = $datastore->entity($taskKey, ['description' => 'Buy milk']);

# Saves the entity
$datastore->upsert($task);

echo 'Saved ' . $task->key() . ': ' . $task['description'] . PHP_EOL;

Python

Before trying this sample, follow the Python setup instructions in Setting up a Python development environment. For more information, see the Datastore mode Python API reference documentation.

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# Imports the Google Cloud client library
from google.cloud import datastore

# Instantiates a client
datastore_client = datastore.Client()

# The kind for the new entity
kind = "Task"
# The name/ID for the new entity
name = "sampletask1"
# The Cloud Datastore key for the new entity
task_key = datastore_client.key(kind, name)

# Prepares the new entity
task = datastore.Entity(key=task_key)
task["description"] = "Buy milk"

# Saves the entity
datastore_client.put(task)

print(f"Saved {task.key.name}: {task['description']}")

Ruby

Before trying this sample, follow the Ruby setup instructions in Setting up a Ruby development environment. For more information, see the Datastore mode Ruby API reference documentation.

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# Imports the Google Cloud client library
require "google/cloud/datastore"

# Instantiate a client
datastore = Google::Cloud::Datastore.new

# The kind for the new entity
kind = "Task"
# The name/ID for the new entity
# task_name = "sampleTask"
# The Cloud Datastore key for the new entity
task_key = datastore.key kind, task_name

# Prepares the new entity
task = datastore.entity task_key do |t|
  t["description"] = "Buy milk"
end

# Saves the entity
datastore.save task

puts "Saved #{task.key.name}: #{task['description']}"
task_key = datastore.find task_key

Additional resources

C#

• API Reference Documentation
• Source Code
• GitHub Issue Tracker
• Stack Overflow

Go

• API Reference Documentation
• Source Code
• GitHub Issue Tracker
• Stack Overflow

Java

• API Reference Documentation
• Source Code
• GitHub Issue Tracker
• Stack Overflow

Node.js

• API Reference Documentation
• Source Code
• GitHub Issue Tracker
• Stack Overflow

PHP

• API Reference Documentation
• Source Code
• GitHub Issue Tracker
• Stack Overflow

Python

• API Reference Documentation
• Source Code
• GitHub Issue Tracker
• Stack Overflow

Ruby

• API Reference Documentation
• Source Code
• GitHub Issue Tracker
• Stack Overflow

Dependency on App Engine application

If you are using a Google Cloud library to access Datastore mode, your Cloud project requires an active App Engine application. Open the App Engine dashboard and confirm your Cloud project has an active App Engine app. Create an App Engine app if needed. The app must not be disabled.

Google App Engine Standard Environment Client Libraries

Integrate Firestore in Datastore mode with your App Engine Standard Environment applications by using the App Engine client libraries.

Language	Library
Go	Google App Engine SDK for Go
Java	Google App Engine SDK for Java
Python 2	Google Datastore NDB Client Library
Python 3	Google Cloud Datastore client library.

Note: For App Engine applications that are written in Python 2, the Google Datastore DB Client Library is no longer recommended; use the Google Datastore NDB Client Library instead.

Third-party Datastore API client libraries

In addition to the Google-supported client libraries listed in the tables above, a set of third-party libraries are available.

Language	Library
Java	Objectify
PHP	Datastore Library for PHP