Before you begin

This page shows you how to set up a Google Cloud project and configure service accounts to access the project.

Set up a Google Cloud project

Following these steps to set up a Google Cloud project. Note that if you do not plan on using a CDN to distribute content, then you only need to grant the Video Stitcher User role (and not the Video Stitcher Admin role) to the service account.

1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project. Learn how to check if billing is enabled on a project.

4. Enable the Video Stitcher API.

   Enable the API

5. 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 Video Stitcher Admin role to your service account.

      To grant the role, find the Select a role list, then select Video Stitcher Admin.

      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.

6. 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.

7. Set the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key. This variable only applies to your current shell session, so if you open a new session, set the variable again.

   Example: 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"

   Example: 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.

8. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

9. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project. Learn how to check if billing is enabled on a project.

10. Enable the Video Stitcher API.

    Enable the API

11. 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 Video Stitcher Admin role to your service account.

       To grant the role, find the Select a role list, then select Video Stitcher Admin.

       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.

12. 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.

13. Set the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key. This variable only applies to your current shell session, so if you open a new session, set the variable again.

    Example: 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"

    Example: 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.

14. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

15. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

    gcloud init

    Note: You can run the gcloud CLI in the Google Cloud console without installing the Google Cloud CLI. To run the gcloud CLI in the Google Cloud console, use Cloud Shell.
16. Use the gcloud tool to test your authentication environment. Check that the following command outputs a text string without errors:

    gcloud auth application-default print-access-token

Activate the service account

1. In your terminal, set the active project for gcloud commands. Replace YOUR_PROJECT_ID with your project ID.

   gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID
   

2. Activate the service account. Replace PATH_TO_YOUR_SERVICE_KEY with the path to the JSON file you downloaded to your local machine.

   gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file PATH_TO_YOUR_SERVICE_KEY
   

You will use this service account to authorize access and call the Video Stitcher API.

Note: Alternatively, you can give your Google Cloud user account the Service Account Token Creator role, so you can create OAuth tokens for the service account.

Create a service account with only permissions to create sessions

Since an OAuth token will be passed to a client application, you may want to create a separate service account with only permissions to create a session; thus a leaked OAuth token cannot compromise your resources, such as CDN keys.

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 Video Stitcher User role to your service account.

   To grant the role, find the Select a role list, then select Video Stitcher User.

   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.