Google Sign-In for Rails

This gem allows you to add Google sign-in to your Rails app. You can let users sign up for and sign in to your service with their Google accounts.

Installation

Add google_sign_in to your Rails app’s Gemfile and run bundle install:

gem 'google_sign_in'

Google Sign-In for Rails requires Rails 5.2 or newer.

Configuration

First, set up an OAuth 2.0 Client ID in the Google API Console:

1. Go to the API Console.

2. In the projects menu at the top of the page, ensure the correct project is selected or create a new one.

3. In the left-side navigation menu, choose APIs & Services → Credentials.

4. Click the button labeled “Create credentials.” In the menu that appears, choose to create an OAuth client ID.

5. When prompted to select an application type, select Web application.

6. Enter your application’s name.

7. This gem adds a single OAuth callback to your app at /google_sign_in/callback. Under Authorized redirect URIs, add that callback for your application’s domain: for example, https://example.com/google_sign_in/callback.

   To use Google sign-in in development, you’ll need to add another redirect URI for your local environment, like http://localhost:3000/google_sign_in/callback. For security reasons, we recommend using a separate client ID for local development. Repeat these instructions to set up a new client ID for development.

8. Click the button labeled “Create.” You’ll be presented with a client ID and client secret. Save these.

With your client ID set up, configure your Rails application to use it. Run bin/rails credentials:edit to edit your app’s encrypted credentials and add the following:

google_sign_in:
  client_id: [Your client ID here]
  client_secret: [Your client secret here]

You’re all set to use Google sign-in now. The gem automatically uses the client ID and client secret in your credentials.

Alternatively, you can provide the client ID and client secret using ENV variables. Add a new initializer that sets config.google_sign_in.client_id and config.google_sign_in.client_secret:

# config/initializers/google_sign_in.rb
Rails.application.configure do
  config.google_sign_in.client_id     = ENV['google_sign_in_client_id']
  config.google_sign_in.client_secret = ENV['google_sign_in_client_secret']
end

⚠️ Important: Take care to protect your client secret from disclosure to third parties.

9. (Optional) The callback route can be configured using:

# config/initializers/google_sign_in.rb
Rails.application.configure do
  config.google_sign_in.root = "my_own/google_sign_in_route"
end

Which would make the callback /my_own/google_sign_in_route/callback.

Usage

This gem provides a google_sign_in_button helper. It generates a button which initiates Google sign-in:

<%= google_sign_in_button 'Sign in with my Google account', proceed_to: create_login_url %>

<%= google_sign_in_button image_tag('google_logo.png', alt: 'Google'), proceed_to: create_login_url %>

<%= google_sign_in_button proceed_to: create_login_url do %>
  Sign in with my <%= image_tag('google_logo.png', alt: 'Google') %> account
<% end %>

The proceed_to argument is required. After authenticating with Google, the gem redirects to proceed_to, providing a Google ID token in flash[:google_sign_in][:id_token] or an OAuth authorizaton code grant error in flash[:google_sign_in][:error]. Your application decides what to do with it:

# config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  # ...
  get 'login', to: 'logins#new'
  get 'login/create', to: 'logins#create', as: :create_login
end

# app/controllers/logins_controller.rb
class LoginsController < ApplicationController
  def new
  end

  def create
    if user = authenticate_with_google
      cookies.signed[:user_id] = user.id
      redirect_to user
    else
      redirect_to new_session_url, alert: 'authentication_failed'
    end
  end

  private
    def authenticate_with_google
      if id_token = flash[:google_sign_in][:id_token]
        User.find_by google_id: GoogleSignIn::Identity.new(id_token).user_id
      elsif error = flash[:google_sign_in][:error]
        logger.error "Google authentication error: #{error}"
        nil
      end
    end
end

(The above example assumes the user has already signed up for your service and that you’re storing their Google user ID in the User#google_id attribute.)

For security reasons, the proceed_to URL you provide to google_sign_in_button is required to reside on the same origin as your application. This means it must have the same protocol, host, and port as the page where google_sign_in_button is used. We enforce this before redirecting to the proceed_to URL to guard against open redirects.

GoogleSignIn::Identity

The GoogleSignIn::Identity class decodes and verifies the integrity of a Google ID token. It exposes the profile information contained in the token via the following instance methods:

• name

• email_address

• user_id: A string that uniquely identifies a single Google user. Use this, not email_address, to associate a Google user with an application user. A Google user’s email address may change, but their user_id will remain constant.

• email_verified?

• avatar_url

• locale

• hosted_domain: The user’s hosted G Suite domain, provided only if they belong to a G Suite.

• given_name: The user's given name.

• family_name: The user's last name.

Security

For information on our security response procedure, see SECURITY.md.

Maintenance

Short of patching critical security issues, this gem is now considered done, and will not see any further feature development or minor bug fixes. Feel free to fork this work under the MIT license and continue the feature development under a different name.

License

Google Sign-In for Rails is released under the MIT License.

Google is a registered trademark of Google LLC. This project is not operated by or in any way affiliated with Google LLC.