Google API Static links to user profile images - php

Question

A user is logged in to my website and I have all the details I need to retrieve information on their account. I know how to retrieve the users profile image url, but I am not sure if this is a 'static' link. If it is not a static link, I have to fetch the URL each time which seams like a bad idea. I would really be hammering google with all my requests. (I'm not worried about googles servers, I am more worried about my api quota.)
So is there a way to get a static link to a users profile image. If not, what is the best option?

Answer 1

The developer policies at https://developers.google.com/+/policies state, in section B1c:
Don’t use stale data. You can cache or store data you’ve obtained through the Google+ API, but to the extent reasonably possible within the context of your application, use fresh data recently fetched from the API. If the fresh data reveals that content is gone (for instance, because a user deleted it), delete it and don’t use your stale copy. For clarity, if you comply with these requirements, you may cache data longer than specified by the cache header.
The guideline is vague, clearly, but it does say that you shouldn't need to re-fetch the profile info/photo every time... but you should re-fetch it periodically and store it, at least during a session.
Since you're talking photo, consider that people may change their photo somewhat frequently. I would say that it makes sense to cache the image during a user session, but might be reasonable to refresh it when they sign in for a new session.

Answer 2

I'm using this to get users info (and image info, and save that to db for later usage)
$google_client_id = "MY GOOGLE CLIENT ID";
$google_client_secret = "MY GOOGLE CLIENT SECRET";
$redirect_URL = "http://url.to.redirect";
$gClient = new Google_Client ();
$gClient->setApprovalPrompt ("auto");
$gClient->setApplicationName ("My Application Name");
$gClient->setClientId ($google_client_id);
$gClient->setClientSecret ($google_client_secret);
$gClient->setRedirectUri ($redirect_URL);
$google_oauthV2 = new Google_Oauth2Service ($gClient);
//If user wish to log out, we just unset Session variable
if (isset ($_REQUEST["reset"]))
{
unset ($_SESSION["google"]["token"]);
$gClient->revokeToken ();
header ("Location: ".filter_var ($redirect_URL, FILTER_SANITIZE_URL));
}
if (isset ($_GET["code"]))
{
$gClient->authenticate ($_GET["code"]);
$_SESSION["google"]["token"] = $gClient->getAccessToken ();
header ("Location: ".filter_var ($redirect_URL, FILTER_SANITIZE_URL));
return;
}
if (isset ($_SESSION["google"]["token"]))
{
$gClient->setAccessToken ($_SESSION["google"]["token"]);
}
if ($gClient->getAccessToken ())
{
//Get user details if user is logged in
$google_data = $google_oauthV2->userinfo->get ();
$google_user = array (
"id" => $google_data["id"],
"email" => filter_var ($google_data["email"], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL),
"profil_url" => filter_var ($google_data["link"], FILTER_VALIDATE_URL),
"picture" => filter_var ($google_data["picture"], FILTER_VALIDATE_URL)."?sz=200"
);
$_SESSION["google"]["token"] = $gClient->getAccessToken ();
// we have users data now so we do with it what we want... save to db?
}
else
{
//get google login url and redirect user to it
$login_url = $gClient->createAuthUrl ();
header ("Location: $login_url");
exit;
}