How to set sendAsEmail via Google's Gmail api - php

Question

I'm updating a PHP application to create new email accounts in Google (using the Google Directory Service). I have no problem creating the account, but so far I've been unable to use the Google Gmail Service to set the sendAsEmail attribute (so that the alias will show up in the "From"). Also, var_dump($createSendAsResult) in the snippet below does not produce any output. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Here's my code:
//Create account in Google
function createGoogleAccount($server_name, $acc_user, $acc_password)
{
$clientDir = getClientDir($server_name);
$dirService = new Google_Service_Directory($clientDir);
$userInstance = new Google_Service_Directory_User();
$nameInstance = new Google_Service_Directory_UserName();
$nameInstance -> setGivenName('Generic');
$nameInstance -> setFamilyName($acc_user);
$userInstance -> setOrgUnitPath("/generic_email");
$userInstance -> setName($nameInstance);
$userInstance -> setHashFunction("MD5");
$domain = getDomain($server_name);
$primary_email = $acc_user . '#' . $domain;
$userInstance -> setPrimaryEmail($primary_email);
$userInstance -> setPassword(hash("md5", $acc_password));
$optParams = array( );
$error_msg = null;
try
{
$createUserResult = $dirService->users->insert($userInstance, $optParams);
var_dump($createUserResult);
}
catch (Google_IO_Exception $gioe)
{
$error_msg = "Error in connection: ".$gioe->getMessage();
}
catch (Google_Service_Exception $gse)
{
$error_msg = "Service Exception: ".$gse->getMessage();
}
addSendAs($server_name, $acc_user, $domain); return $error_msg;
}
function addSendAs($server_name, $acc_user, $domain)
{
$clientGmail = getClientGmail($server_name);
$gmailService = new Google_Service_Gmail($clientGmail);
$primary_email = $acc_user . '#' . $domain;
$sendAsEmail = new Google_Service_Gmail_SendAs();
$alias = '';
if (($server_name == null) || (strpos($server_name, "dev") != false))
{
$alias = '#g.';
}
else
{
$alias = '#mail.';
}
$sendAsEmail -> setSendAsEmail($acc_user . $alias . $domain);
$sendAsEmail -> setIsDefault(TRUE);
$sendAsEmail -> setIsPrimary(TRUE);
$error_msg = null;
try
{
$createSendAsResult = $gmailService->users_settings_sendAs -> create($primary_email, $sendAsEmail);
var_dump($createSendAsResult);
}
catch (Google_IO_Exception $gioe)
{
$error_msg = "Error in connection: ".$gioe->getMessage();
}
catch (Google_Service_Exception $gse)
{
$error_msg = "Service Exception: ".$gse->getMessage();
}
}

Answer 1

Finally, after much experimentation with the code and some help from a couple of colleagues, I figured out what the problem is and how to solve it.
Apparently, Google needs time to set up a new user's account with email. When I added a 10-second delay - sleep(10) in php - that was sufficient for the account to be ready for calls to the Gmail API, including the creation of a SendAs alias.