Creating HTTP Target tasks

With this release of HTTP Targets, Cloud Tasks handlers can now be run on any HTTP endpoint with a public IP address, such as Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, GKE, Compute Engine, or even an on-prem web server. Your tasks can be executed on any of these services in a reliable, configurable fashion.

This page demonstrates how to programmatically create HTTP Target tasks and place them in Cloud Tasks queues. When you want to process a task, you must create a new task object and place it on a queue. You specify the service and handler that process the task, and optionally pass task-specific data along to the handler. You can also fine-tune the configuration for the task, like scheduling a time in the future when it should be executed or limiting the number of times you want the task to be retried if it fails. If you chose to specify a name for the task, Cloud Tasks can use that name to ensure task deduplication, although the processing necessary for this can add increased latency.

In general, you create tasks in the form of an HTTP request. Using the Google Cloud Client Libraries and a service account, as the following samples do, can help you manage communication details with the Cloud Tasks server, and make creating tasks easier.

Creating HTTP Target tasks

The following examples create HTTP Target task requests that construct the task, including the URL of the task handler.

C#

cloudtasks/api/TasksSample/CreateHttpTask.cs 

using Google.Cloud.Tasks.V2;
using Google.Protobuf;
using Google.Protobuf.WellKnownTypes;
using System;

class CreateHttpTask
{
    public string CreateTask(
        string projectId = "YOUR-PROJECT-ID",
        string location = "us-central1",
        string queue = "my-queue",
        string url = "http://example.com/taskhandler",
        string payload = "Hello World!",
        int inSeconds = 0)
    {
        CloudTasksClient client = CloudTasksClient.Create();
        QueueName parent = new QueueName(projectId, location, queue);

        var response = client.CreateTask(new CreateTaskRequest
        {
            Parent = parent.ToString(),
            Task = new Task
            {
                HttpRequest = new HttpRequest
                {
                    HttpMethod = HttpMethod.Post,
                    Url = url,
                    Body = ByteString.CopyFromUtf8(payload)
                },
                ScheduleTime = Timestamp.FromDateTime(
                    DateTime.UtcNow.AddSeconds(inSeconds))
            }
        });

        Console.WriteLine($"Created Task {response.Name}");
        return response.Name;
    }
}

Python

samples/snippets/create_http_task.py 
"""Create a task for a given queue with an arbitrary payload."""

from google.cloud import tasks_v2
from google.protobuf import timestamp_pb2
import datetime
import json

# Create a client.
client = tasks_v2.CloudTasksClient()

# TODO(developer): Uncomment these lines and replace with your values.
# project = 'my-project-id'
# queue = 'my-queue'
# location = 'us-central1'
# url = 'https://example.com/task_handler'
# payload = 'hello' or {'param': 'value'} for application/json
# in_seconds = 180
# task_name = 'my-unique-task'

# Construct the fully qualified queue name.
parent = client.queue_path(project, location, queue)

# Construct the request body.
task = {
    "http_request": {  # Specify the type of request.
        "http_method": tasks_v2.HttpMethod.POST,
        "url": url,  # The full url path that the task will be sent to.
    }
}
if payload is not None:
    if isinstance(payload, dict):
        # Convert dict to JSON string
        payload = json.dumps(payload)
        # specify http content-type to application/json
        task["http_request"]["headers"] = {"Content-type": "application/json"}

    # The API expects a payload of type bytes.
    converted_payload = payload.encode()

    # Add the payload to the request.
    task["http_request"]["body"] = converted_payload

if in_seconds is not None:
    # Convert "seconds from now" into an rfc3339 datetime string.
    d = datetime.datetime.utcnow() + datetime.timedelta(seconds=in_seconds)

    # Create Timestamp protobuf.
    timestamp = timestamp_pb2.Timestamp()
    timestamp.FromDatetime(d)

    # Add the timestamp to the tasks.
    task["schedule_time"] = timestamp

if task_name is not None:
    # Add the name to tasks.
    task["name"] = task_name

# Use the client to build and send the task.
response = client.create_task(request={"parent": parent, "task": task})

print("Created task {}".format(response.name))

Note the requirements.txt file:

samples/snippets/requirements.txt 
google-cloud-tasks==2.1.0

Java

samples/snippets/src/main/java/com/example/task/CreateHttpTask.java 
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.CloudTasksClient;
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.HttpMethod;
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.HttpRequest;
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.QueueName;
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.Task;
import com.google.protobuf.ByteString;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.charset.Charset;

public class CreateHttpTask {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String projectId = "my-project-id";
    String locationId = "us-central1";
    String queueId = "my-queue";
    createTask(projectId, locationId, queueId);
  }

  // Create a task with a HTTP target using the Cloud Tasks client.
  public static void createTask(String projectId, String locationId, String queueId)
      throws IOException {

    // Instantiates a client.
    try (CloudTasksClient client = CloudTasksClient.create()) {
      String url = "https://example.com/taskhandler";
      String payload = "Hello, World!";

      // Construct the fully qualified queue name.
      String queuePath = QueueName.of(projectId, locationId, queueId).toString();

      // Construct the task body.
      Task.Builder taskBuilder =
          Task.newBuilder()
              .setHttpRequest(
                  HttpRequest.newBuilder()
                      .setBody(ByteString.copyFrom(payload, Charset.defaultCharset()))
                      .setUrl(url)
                      .setHttpMethod(HttpMethod.POST)
                      .build());

      // Send create task request.
      Task task = client.createTask(queuePath, taskBuilder.build());
      System.out.println("Task created: " + task.getName());
    }
  }
}

Note the pom.xml file:

samples/snippets/pom.xml 
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
  <artifactId>cloudtasks-snippets</artifactId>
  <packaging>jar</packaging>
  <name>Google Cloud Tasks Snippets</name>
  <url>https://github.com/googleapis/java-tasks</url>

  <!--
    The parent pom defines common style checks and testing strategies for our samples.
    Removing or replacing it should not affect the execution of the samples in anyway.
  -->
  <parent>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud.samples</groupId>
    <artifactId>shared-configuration</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.21</version>
  </parent>

  <properties>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
  </properties>


  <dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
        <artifactId>libraries-bom</artifactId>
        <version>16.2.1</version>
        <type>pom</type>
        <scope>import</scope>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>
  </dependencyManagement>

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

    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>4.13.1</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.google.truth</groupId>
      <artifactId>truth</artifactId>
      <version>1.1</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>

PHP

tasks/src/create_http_task.php 
use Google\Cloud\Tasks\V2\CloudTasksClient;
use Google\Cloud\Tasks\V2\HttpMethod;
use Google\Cloud\Tasks\V2\HttpRequest;
use Google\Cloud\Tasks\V2\Task;

/** Uncomment and populate these variables in your code */
// $projectId = 'The Google project ID';
// $locationId = 'The Location ID';
// $queueId = 'The Cloud Tasks Queue ID';
// $url = 'The full url path that the task request will be sent to.'
// $payload = 'The payload your task should carry to the task handler. Optional';

// Instantiate the client and queue name.
$client = new CloudTasksClient();
$queueName = $client->queueName($projectId, $locationId, $queueId);

// Create an Http Request Object.
$httpRequest = new HttpRequest();
// The full url path that the task request will be sent to.
$httpRequest->setUrl($url);
// POST is the default HTTP method, but any HTTP method can be used.
$httpRequest->setHttpMethod(HttpMethod::POST);
// Setting a body value is only compatible with HTTP POST and PUT requests.
if (isset($payload)) {
    $httpRequest->setBody($payload);
}

// Create a Cloud Task object.
$task = new Task();
$task->setHttpRequest($httpRequest);

// Send request and print the task name.
$response = $client->createTask($queueName, $task);
printf('Created task %s' . PHP_EOL, $response->getName());

Note the composer.json file:

tasks/composer.json 
{
    "require": {
        "google/cloud-tasks": "^1.4.0"
    }
}

Go

tasks/create_http_task.go 

// Command createHTTPtask constructs and adds a task to a Cloud Tasks Queue.
package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"

	cloudtasks "cloud.google.com/go/cloudtasks/apiv2"
	taskspb "google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/cloud/tasks/v2"
)

// createHTTPTask creates a new task with a HTTP target then adds it to a Queue.
func createHTTPTask(projectID, locationID, queueID, url, message string) (*taskspb.Task, error) {

	// Create a new Cloud Tasks client instance.
	// See https://godoc.org/cloud.google.com/go/cloudtasks/apiv2
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := cloudtasks.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("NewClient: %v", err)
	}

	// Build the Task queue path.
	queuePath := fmt.Sprintf("projects/%s/locations/%s/queues/%s", projectID, locationID, queueID)

	// Build the Task payload.
	// https://godoc.org/google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/cloud/tasks/v2#CreateTaskRequest
	req := &taskspb.CreateTaskRequest{
		Parent: queuePath,
		Task: &taskspb.Task{
			// https://godoc.org/google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/cloud/tasks/v2#HttpRequest
			MessageType: &taskspb.Task_HttpRequest{
				HttpRequest: &taskspb.HttpRequest{
					HttpMethod: taskspb.HttpMethod_POST,
					Url:        url,
				},
			},
		},
	}

	// Add a payload message if one is present.
	req.Task.GetHttpRequest().Body = []byte(message)

	createdTask, err := client.CreateTask(ctx, req)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cloudtasks.CreateTask: %v", err)
	}

	return createdTask, nil
}

Node.js

samples/createHttpTask.js 
// Imports the Google Cloud Tasks library.
const {CloudTasksClient} = require('@google-cloud/tasks');

// Instantiates a client.
const client = new CloudTasksClient();

async function createHttpTask() {
  // TODO(developer): Uncomment these lines and replace with your values.
  // const project = 'my-project-id';
  // const queue = 'my-queue';
  // const location = 'us-central1';
  // const url = 'https://example.com/taskhandler';
  // const payload = 'Hello, World!';
  // const inSeconds = 180;

  // Construct the fully qualified queue name.
  const parent = client.queuePath(project, location, queue);

  const task = {
    httpRequest: {
      httpMethod: 'POST',
      url,
    },
  };

  if (payload) {
    task.httpRequest.body = Buffer.from(payload).toString('base64');
  }

  if (inSeconds) {
    // The time when the task is scheduled to be attempted.
    task.scheduleTime = {
      seconds: inSeconds + Date.now() / 1000,
    };
  }

  // Send create task request.
  console.log('Sending task:');
  console.log(task);
  const request = {parent, task};
  const [response] = await client.createTask(request);
  console.log(`Created task ${response.name}`);
}
createHttpTask();

Note the package.json file:

samples/package.json 
{
  "name": "appengine-cloudtasks",
  "description": "Google App Engine Cloud Tasks example.",
  "license": "Apache-2.0",
  "author": "Google Inc.",
  "private": true,
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=10"
  },
  "files": [
    "*.js"
  ],
  "scripts": {
    "test": "mocha",
    "start": "node server.js"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@google-cloud/tasks": "^2.2.0",
    "body-parser": "^1.18.3",
    "express": "^4.16.3"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "chai": "^4.2.0",
    "mocha": "^8.0.0",
    "uuid": "^8.0.0"
  }
}

Ruby

google-cloud-tasks/samples/create_http_task.rb 
require "google/cloud/tasks"

# Create a Task with an HTTP Target
#
# @param [String] project_id Your Google Cloud Project ID.
# @param [String] location_id Your Google Cloud Project Location ID.
# @param [String] queue_id Your Google Cloud Tasks Queue ID.
# @param [String] url The full path to sent the task request to.
# @param [String] payload The request body of your task.
# @param [Integer] seconds The delay, in seconds, to process your task.
def create_http_task project_id, location_id, queue_id, url, payload: nil, seconds: nil
  # Instantiates a client.
  client = Google::Cloud::Tasks.cloud_tasks

  # Construct the fully qualified queue name.
  parent = client.queue_path project: project_id, location: location_id, queue: queue_id

  # Construct task.
  task = {
    http_request: {
      http_method: "POST",
      url:         url
    }
  }

  # Add payload to task body.
  task[:http_request][:body] = payload if payload

  # Add scheduled time to task.
  if seconds
    timestamp = Google::Protobuf::Timestamp.new
    timestamp.seconds = Time.now.to_i + seconds.to_i
    task[:schedule_time] = timestamp
  end

  # Send create task request.
  puts "Sending task #{task}"

  response = client.create_task parent: parent, task: task

  puts "Created task #{response.name}" if response.name
end

Setting up service accounts for HTTP Target handler authentication

Cloud Tasks can call HTTP Target handlers that require authentication if you have a service account with the appropriate credentials to access the handler.

If you have a current service account you wish to use, you can. Just grant it the appropriate roles. These instructions cover creating a new service account specifically for this function.

  1. Visit the Service accounts console page.

    Go to the Service accounts page

  2. If necessary, select the appropriate project.

  3. Click + Create service account.

  4. Give the account a display name. The console creates a related email account name for the account. This is how you reference the account. You can also add a description of what the account is for, if you like.

  5. Click Create. You move to the Service account permissions screen.

  6. Click the Select a role dropdown.

  7. Scroll to Cloud Tasks in the left column, and select Cloud Tasks Enqueuer in the right. This gives the service account permission to add tasks to the queue.

  8. Click + Add another role.

  9. Click the new Select a role dropdown.

  10. Scroll to Service Accounts in the left column, and select Service Account User in the right. This role allows the service account to authorize the queue to create tokens on its behalf using the service account's credentials.

  11. If your handler is part of Google Cloud, grant the service account the role associated with accessing the service where your handler is running. Each service within Google Cloud requires a different role. For example, to access a handler on Cloud Run requires the Cloud Run Invoker role, and so on. You can use the service account you just created or any other service account in your project.

  12. Cloud Tasks itself must have a service account of its own that has the Cloud Tasks Service Agent role granted. This is so it can generate header tokens based on the credentials associated with the Cloud Tasks service account to authenticate with your handler target. The Cloud Tasks service account with this role granted is automatically created when you enable the Cloud Tasks API, unless you enabled it prior to March 19, 2019, in which case you must add the role manually.

Using HTTP Target tasks with authentication tokens

To authenticate between Cloud Tasks and an HTTP Target handler, Cloud Tasks creates a header token. This token is based on the credentials in the Cloud Tasks Enqueuer service account, identified by its email address. The request, with the token, is sent, via HTTPS, from the queue to the handler. You can use either an OIDC token or an OAuth token. OIDC tokens are signed JSON Web Tokens (JWT) and are used primarily to assert identity and not to provide any implicit authorization against a resource, unlike OAuth tokens, which do provide access. OIDC tokens should generally be used for any handler running on Google Cloud, for example, on Cloud Functions or Cloud Run. The main exception is for Google APIs hosted on *.googleapis.com: these APIs expect an OAuth token. You specify either OIDC or OAuth in the request itself.

The following examples create task requests that also include the creation of a header token. OIDC tokens are used in the examples. To use an OAuth token, replace the OIDC parameter with the language appropriate OAuth parameter in constructing the request.

Python

samples/snippets/create_http_task_with_token.py 
"""Create a task for a given queue with an arbitrary payload."""

from google.cloud import tasks_v2

# Create a client.
client = tasks_v2.CloudTasksClient()

# TODO(developer): Uncomment these lines and replace with your values.
# project = 'my-project-id'
# queue = 'my-queue'
# location = 'us-central1'
# url = 'https://example.com/task_handler'
# service_account_email = 'service-account@my-project-id.iam.gserviceaccount.com';
# payload = 'hello'

# Construct the fully qualified queue name.
parent = client.queue_path(project, location, queue)

# Construct the request body.
task = {
    "http_request": {  # Specify the type of request.
        "http_method": tasks_v2.HttpMethod.POST,
        "url": url,  # The full url path that the task will be sent to.
        "oidc_token": {"service_account_email": service_account_email},
    }
}

if payload is not None:
    # The API expects a payload of type bytes.
    converted_payload = payload.encode()

    # Add the payload to the request.
    task["http_request"]["body"] = converted_payload

# Use the client to build and send the task.
response = client.create_task(request={"parent": parent, "task": task})

print("Created task {}".format(response.name))
return response

Note the requirements.txt file:

samples/snippets/requirements.txt 
google-cloud-tasks==2.1.0

Java

samples/snippets/src/main/java/com/example/task/CreateHttpTaskWithToken.java 
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.CloudTasksClient;
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.HttpMethod;
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.HttpRequest;
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.OidcToken;
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.QueueName;
import com.google.cloud.tasks.v2.Task;
import com.google.protobuf.ByteString;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.charset.Charset;

public class CreateHttpTaskWithToken {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String projectId = "my-project-id";
    String locationId = "us-central1";
    String queueId = "my-queue";
    String serviceAccountEmail = 
        "java-docs-samples-testing@java-docs-samples-testing.iam.gserviceaccount.com";
    createTask(projectId, locationId, queueId, serviceAccountEmail);
  }

  // Create a task with a HTTP target and authorization token using the Cloud Tasks client.
  public static void createTask(
      String projectId, String locationId, String queueId, String serviceAccountEmail)
      throws IOException {

    // Instantiates a client.
    try (CloudTasksClient client = CloudTasksClient.create()) {
      String url =
          "https://example.com/taskhandler"; // The full url path that the request will be sent to
      String payload = "Hello, World!"; // The task HTTP request body

      // Construct the fully qualified queue name.
      String queuePath = QueueName.of(projectId, locationId, queueId).toString();

      // Add your service account email to construct the OIDC token.
      // in order to add an authentication header to the request.
      OidcToken.Builder oidcTokenBuilder =
          OidcToken.newBuilder().setServiceAccountEmail(serviceAccountEmail);

      // Construct the task body.
      Task.Builder taskBuilder =
          Task.newBuilder()
              .setHttpRequest(
                  HttpRequest.newBuilder()
                      .setBody(ByteString.copyFrom(payload, Charset.defaultCharset()))
                      .setHttpMethod(HttpMethod.POST)
                      .setUrl(url)
                      .setOidcToken(oidcTokenBuilder)
                      .build());

      // Send create task request.
      Task task = client.createTask(queuePath, taskBuilder.build());
      System.out.println("Task created: " + task.getName());
    }
  }
}

Note the pom.xml file:

samples/snippets/pom.xml 
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
  <artifactId>cloudtasks-snippets</artifactId>
  <packaging>jar</packaging>
  <name>Google Cloud Tasks Snippets</name>
  <url>https://github.com/googleapis/java-tasks</url>

  <!--
    The parent pom defines common style checks and testing strategies for our samples.
    Removing or replacing it should not affect the execution of the samples in anyway.
  -->
  <parent>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud.samples</groupId>
    <artifactId>shared-configuration</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.21</version>
  </parent>

  <properties>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
  </properties>


  <dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
        <artifactId>libraries-bom</artifactId>
        <version>16.2.1</version>
        <type>pom</type>
        <scope>import</scope>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>
  </dependencyManagement>

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

    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>4.13.1</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.google.truth</groupId>
      <artifactId>truth</artifactId>
      <version>1.1</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>

Go

tasks/token/create_http_task_with_token.go 
import (
	"context"
	"fmt"

	cloudtasks "cloud.google.com/go/cloudtasks/apiv2"
	taskspb "google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/cloud/tasks/v2"
)

// createHTTPTaskWithToken constructs a task with a authorization token
// and HTTP target then adds it to a Queue.
func createHTTPTaskWithToken(projectID, locationID, queueID, url, email, message string) (*taskspb.Task, error) {
	// Create a new Cloud Tasks client instance.
	// See https://godoc.org/cloud.google.com/go/cloudtasks/apiv2
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := cloudtasks.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("NewClient: %v", err)
	}

	// Build the Task queue path.
	queuePath := fmt.Sprintf("projects/%s/locations/%s/queues/%s", projectID, locationID, queueID)

	// Build the Task payload.
	// https://godoc.org/google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/cloud/tasks/v2#CreateTaskRequest
	req := &taskspb.CreateTaskRequest{
		Parent: queuePath,
		Task: &taskspb.Task{
			// https://godoc.org/google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/cloud/tasks/v2#HttpRequest
			MessageType: &taskspb.Task_HttpRequest{
				HttpRequest: &taskspb.HttpRequest{
					HttpMethod: taskspb.HttpMethod_POST,
					Url:        url,
					AuthorizationHeader: &taskspb.HttpRequest_OidcToken{
						OidcToken: &taskspb.OidcToken{
							ServiceAccountEmail: email,
						},
					},
				},
			},
		},
	}

	// Add a payload message if one is present.
	req.Task.GetHttpRequest().Body = []byte(message)

	createdTask, err := client.CreateTask(ctx, req)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cloudtasks.CreateTask: %v", err)
	}

	return createdTask, nil
}

Node.js

samples/createHttpTaskWithToken.js 
// Imports the Google Cloud Tasks library.
const {CloudTasksClient} = require('@google-cloud/tasks');

// Instantiates a client.
const client = new CloudTasksClient();

async function createHttpTaskWithToken() {
  // TODO(developer): Uncomment these lines and replace with your values.
  // const project = 'my-project-id';
  // const queue = 'my-queue';
  // const location = 'us-central1';
  // const url = 'https://example.com/taskhandler';
  // const serviceAccountEmail = 'client@<project-id>.iam.gserviceaccount.com';
  // const payload = 'Hello, World!';

  // Construct the fully qualified queue name.
  const parent = client.queuePath(project, location, queue);

  const task = {
    httpRequest: {
      httpMethod: 'POST',
      url,
      oidcToken: {
        serviceAccountEmail,
      },
    },
  };

  if (payload) {
    task.httpRequest.body = Buffer.from(payload).toString('base64');
  }

  console.log('Sending task:');
  console.log(task);
  // Send create task request.
  const request = {parent, task};
  const [response] = await client.createTask(request);
  const name = response.name;
  console.log(`Created task ${name}`);
}
createHttpTaskWithToken();

Note the package.json file:

samples/package.json 
{
  "name": "appengine-cloudtasks",
  "description": "Google App Engine Cloud Tasks example.",
  "license": "Apache-2.0",
  "author": "Google Inc.",
  "private": true,
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=10"
  },
  "files": [
    "*.js"
  ],
  "scripts": {
    "test": "mocha",
    "start": "node server.js"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@google-cloud/tasks": "^2.2.0",
    "body-parser": "^1.18.3",
    "express": "^4.16.3"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "chai": "^4.2.0",
    "mocha": "^8.0.0",
    "uuid": "^8.0.0"
  }
}

Providing your own HTTP Target task handlers

HTTP Target task handlers are very similar to App Engine task handlers, with the following exceptions:

  • Timeouts: for all HTTP Target task handlers the default timeout is 10 minutes, with a maximum of 30 minutes.
  • Authentication logic: if you are writing your own code in the targeted service to validate the token, you should use an OIDC token. For more information on what this entails, see OpenID Connect, particularly Validating an ID token.

  • Headers: an HTTP Target request has headers set by the queue, which contain task-specific information your handler can use. These are similar to, but not identical with, the headers set on App Engine task requests. These headers provide information only. They should not be used as sources of identity.

    If these headers were present in an external user request to your app, they are replaced by the internal ones. The sole exception is for requests from logged-in administrators of the application, who are allowed to set headers for testing purposes.

    HTTP Target requests always contain the following headers:

    Header Description
    X-CloudTasks-QueueName The name of the queue.
    X-CloudTasks-TaskName The "short" name of the task, or, if no name was specified at creation, a unique system-generated id. This is the my-task-id value in the complete task name, ie, task_name = projects/my-project-id/locations/my-location/queues/my-queue-id/tasks/my-task-id.
    X-CloudTasks-TaskRetryCount The number of times this task has been retried. For the first attempt, this value is 0. This number includes attempts where the task failed due to 5XX error codes and never reached the execution phase.
    X-CloudTasks-TaskExecutionCount The total number of times that the task has received a response from the handler. Since Cloud Tasks deletes the task once a successful response has been received, all previous handler responses were failures. This number does not include failures due to 5XX error codes.
    X-CloudTasks-TaskETA The schedule time of the task, specified in seconds since January 1st 1970.

    In addition, requests from Cloud Tasks might contain the following headers:

    Header Description
    X-CloudTasks-TaskPreviousResponse The HTTP response code from the previous retry.
    X-CloudTasks-TaskRetryReason The reason for retrying the task.

Adding the Cloud Tasks Service Agent role to your Cloud Tasks service account manually

This is necessary only if you enabled Cloud Tasks API prior to March 19, 2019.

Using the Console

  1. Find the project number for your project on the Google Cloud Project Settings Page.
  2. Copy down the number.
  3. Open the IAM Admin Console Page.
  4. Click Add. The Add members screen opens.

  5. In the New members dialog box, add an email address of the format:

    service-[project-number]@gcp-sa-cloudtasks.iam.gserviceaccount.com

    Replacing [project-number] with your project number from above.

  6. From the Select a role drop-down, choose Service Management -> Cloud Tasks Service Agent

  7. Click Save.

Using gcloud

  1. Find your project number:

    gcloud projects describe [project-id] --format='table(projectNumber)'

    Replacing [project-id] with your project ID.

  2. Copy down the number.

  3. Grant the Cloud Tasks service account the Cloud Tasks Service Agent role, using the project number you copied down:

    gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding [project-id] --member serviceAccount:service-[project-number]@gcp-sa-cloudtasks.iam.gserviceaccount.com --role roles/cloudtasks.serviceAgent

    Replacing [project-id] with your project ID and [project-number] with the project number from above.

What's next