Add basic user guide

docs/index.rst

@@ -1,22 +1,61 @@
-Welcome to ``google-auth``'s documentation!
-===========================================
-
-Contents:
+google-auth
+===========
 
 .. toctree::
+   :hidden:
    :maxdepth: 2
 
-   reference/modules
+   user-guide
+   Reference <reference/modules>
+
+``google-auth`` is the Google authentication library for Python. This library
+provides the ability to authenticate to Google APIs using various methods. It
+also provides integration with several HTTP libraries.
+
+- Support for Google :func:`Application Default Credentials <google.auth.default>`.
+- Support for signing and verifying :mod:`JWTs <google.auth.jwt>`.
+- Support for Google :mod:`Service Account credentials <google.oauth2.service_account>`.
+- Support for :mod:`Google Compute Engine credentials <google.auth.compute_engine>`.
+- Support for :mod:`Google App Engine standard credentials <google.auth.app_engine>`.
+- Support for various transports, including
+  :mod:`Requests <google.auth.transport.requests>`,
+  :mod:`urllib3 <google.auth.transport.urllib3>`, and
+  :mod:`gRPC <google.auth.transport.grpc>`.
+
+Installing
+----------
+
+google-auth can be installed with `pip <https://pip.pypa.io>`_::
+
+    $ pip install google-auth
+
+google-auth is open-source, so you can alternatively grab the source code from
+`GitHub`_ and install from source.
+
+.. _GitHub: https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/google-auth-library-python
+
+Usage
+-----
+
+The :doc:`user-guide` is the place to go to learn how to use the library and
+accomplish common tasks.
+
+The :doc:`Module Reference <reference/modules>` documentation provides API-level documentation.
+
+License
+-------
 
-Reference documentation
-=======================
+google-auth is made available under the Apache License, Version 2.0. For more
+details, see `LICENSE`_
 
-The :doc:`reference documentation <reference/modules>` details the complete API for :mod:`google.auth` and :mod:`google.oauth2`.
+.. _LICENSE:
+    https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/google-auth-library-python/LICENSE
 
-Indices and tables
-==================
+Contributing
+------------
 
-* :ref:`genindex`
-* :ref:`modindex`
-* :ref:`search`
+We happily welcome contributions, please see our `contributing`_ documentation
+for details.
 
+.. _contributing:
+    https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/google-auth-library-python/CONTRIBUTING.rst

docs/user-guide.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,267 @@
+User Guide
+==========
+
+.. currentmodule:: google.auth
+
+Credentials and account types
+-----------------------------
+
+:class:`~credentials.Credentials` are the means of identifying an application or
+user to a service or API. Credentials can be obtained with two different types
+of accounts: *service accounts* and *user accounts*. Credentials from service
+accounts identify a particular application. These types of credentials are used
+in server-to-server use cases, such as accessing a database. Credentials from
+user accounts are obtained by asking the user to authorize access to their data.
+These types of credentials are used in cases where your application needs access
+to a user's data in another service, such as accessing a user's documents in
+Google Drive.
+
+This library primarily focuses on service account credentials and provides
+some limited support for user credentials.
+
+Obtaining credentials
+---------------------
+
+.. _application-default:
+
+Application default credentials
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+`Google Application Default Credentials`_ abstracts authentication across the
+different Google Cloud Platform hosting environments. When running on any Google
+Cloud hosting environment or when running locally with the `Google Cloud SDK`_
+installed :func:`default` can automatically determine the credentials from the
+environment::
+
+    import google.auth
+
+    credentials, project = google.auth.default()
+
+If your application requires specific scopes::
+
+    credentials, project = google.auth.default(
+        scopes=['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform'])
+
+.. _Google Application Default Credentials:
+    https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/application-default-credentials
+.. _Google Cloud SDK: https://cloud.google.com/sdk
+
+
+Service account private key files
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+A service account private key file can be used to obtain credentials for a
+service account. You can create a private key using the `Credentials page of the
+Google Cloud Console`_. Once you have a private key you can either obtain
+credentials one of two ways:
+
+1. Set the ``GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS`` environment variable to the full
+   path to your service account private key file::
+
+        $ export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/key.json
+
+   Then, use :ref:`application default credentials <application-default>`.
+   :func:`default` checks for the ``GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS``
+   environment variable before all other checks, so this will always use the
+   credentials you explicitly specify.
+
+2. Use :meth:`service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file
+   <google.oauth2.service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file>`::
+
+        from google.oauth2 import service_account
+
+        credentials = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(
+            '/path/to/key.json')
+
+        scoped_credentials = credentials.with_scopes(
+            ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform'])
+
+.. warning:: Private keys must be kept secret. If you expose your private key it
+    is recommended to revoke it immediately from the Google Cloud Console.
+
+.. _Credentials page of the Google Cloud Console:
+    https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
+
+Compute Engine, Container Engine, and the App Engine flexible environment
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Applications running on `Compute Engine`_, `Container Engine`_, or the `App
+Engine flexible environment`_ can obtain credentials provided by `Compute
+Engine service accounts`_. When running on these platforms you can obtain
+credentials for the service account one of two ways:
+
+1. Use :ref:`application default credentials <application-default>`.
+   :func:`default` will automatically detect if these credentials are available.
+
+2. Use :class:`compute_engine.Credentials`::
+
+        from google.auth import compute_engine
+
+        credentials = compute_engine.Credentials()
+
+.. _Compute Engine: https://cloud.google.com/compute
+.. _Container Engine: https://cloud.google.com/container-engine
+.. _App Engine flexible environment:
+    https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/flexible/
+.. _Compute Engine service accounts:
+    https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/access/service-accounts
+
+The App Engine standard environment
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Applications running on the `App Engine standard environment`_ can obtain
+credentials provided by the `App Engine App Identity API`_. You can obtain
+credentials one of two ways:
+
+1. Use :ref:`application default credentials <application-default>`.
+   :func:`default` will automatically detect if these credentials are available.
+
+2. Use :class:`app_engine.Credentials`::
+
+        from google.auth import app_engine
+
+        credentials = app_engine.Credentials()
+
+.. _App Engine standard environment:
+    https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/python
+.. _App Engine App Identity API:
+    https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/python/appidentity/
+
+User credentials
+++++++++++++++++
+
+User credentials are typically obtained via `OAuth 2.0`_. This library does not
+provide any support for *obtaining* user credentials, however, you can use user
+credentials with this library. You can use libraries such as `oauthlib`_ or
+`oauth2client`_ to obtain the access token. After you have an access token, you
+can create a :class:`google.oauth2.credentials.Credentials` instance::
+
+    import google.oauth2.credentials
+
+    credentials = google.oauth2.credentials.Credentials(
+        'access_token')
+
+If you obtain a refresh token, you can also specify the refresh token and token
+URI to allow the credentials to be automatically refreshed::
+
+    credentials = google.oauth2.credentials.Credentials(
+        'access_token',
+        refresh_token='refresh_token',
+        token_uri='token_uri',
+        client_id='client_id',
+        client_secret='client_secret')
+
+.. _OAuth 2.0:
+    https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/OAuth2
+.. _oauthlib:
+    https://oauthlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
+.. _oauth2client:
+    https://oauth2client.readthedocs.org
+
+Making authenticated requests
+-----------------------------
+
+Once you have credentials you can attach them to a *transport*. You can then
+use this transport to make authenticated requests to APIs. google-auth supports
+several different transports. Typically, it's up to your application or an
+opinionated client library to decide which transport to use.
+
+Requests
+++++++++
+
+The recommended HTTP transport is :mod:`google.auth.transport.requests` which
+uses the `Requests`_ library. To make authenticated requests using Requests
+you use a custom `Session`_ object::
+
+    from google.auth.transport.requests import AuthorizedSession
+
+    authed_session = AuthorizedSession(credentials)
+
+    response = authed_session.get(
+        'https://www.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b')
+
+.. _Requests: http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/
+.. _Session: http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/user/advanced/#session-objects
+
+Urllib3
++++++++
+
+:mod:`urllib3` is the underlying HTTP library used by Requests and can also be
+used with google-auth. urllib3's interface isn't as high-level as Requests but
+it can be useful in situations where you need more control over how HTTP
+requests are made. To make authenticated requests using urllib3 create an
+instance of :class:`google.auth.transport.urllib3.AuthorizedHttp`::
+
+    from google.auth.transport.urllib3 import AuthorizedHttp
+
+    authed_http = AuthorizedHttp(credentials)
+
+    response = authed_http.request(
+        'GET', 'https://www.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b')
+
+You can also construct your own :class:`urllib3.PoolManager` instance and pass
+it to :class:`~google.auth.transport.urllib3.AuthorizedHttp`::
+
+    import urllib3
+
+    http = urllib3.PoolManager()
+    authed_http = AuthorizedHttp(credentials, http)
+
+gRPC
+++++
+
+`gRPC`_ is an RPC framework that uses `Protocol Buffers`_ over `HTTP 2.0`_.
+google-auth can provide `Call Credentials`_ for gRPC. The easiest way to do
+this is to use google-auth to create the gRPC channel::
+
+    import google.auth.transport.grpc
+    import google.auth.transport.requests
+
+    http_request = google.auth.transport.requests.Request()
+
+    channel = google.auth.transport.grpc.secure_authorized_channel(
+        credentials, 'pubsub.googleapis.com:443', http_request)
+
+.. note:: Even though gRPC is its own transport, you still need to use one of
+    the other HTTP transports with gRPC. The reason is that most credential
+    types need to make HTTP requests in order to refresh their access token.
+
+Alternatively, you can create the channel yourself and use
+:class:`google.auth.transport.grpc.AuthMetadataPlugin`::
+
+    import grpc
+
+    metadata_plugin = AuthMetadataPlugin(credentials, http_request)
+
+    # Create a set of grpc.CallCredentials using the metadata plugin.
+    google_auth_credentials = grpc.metadata_call_credentials(
+        metadata_plugin)
+
+    # Create SSL channel credentials.
+    ssl_credentials = grpc.ssl_channel_credentials()
+
+    # Combine the ssl credentials and the authorization credentials.
+    composite_credentials = grpc.composite_channel_credentials(
+        ssl_credentials, google_auth_credentials)
+
+    channel = grpc.secure_channel(
+        'pubsub.googleapis.com:443', composite_credentials)
+
+You can use this channel to make a gRPC stub that makes authenticated requests
+to a gRPC service::
+
+    from google.pubsub.v1 import pubsub_pb2
+
+    pubsub = pubsub_pb2.PublisherStub(channel)
+
+    response = pubsub.ListTopics(
+        pubsub_pb2.ListTopicsRequest(project='your-project'))
+
+
+.. _gRPC: http://www.grpc.io/
+.. _Protocol Buffers:
+    https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/overview
+.. _HTTP 2.0:
+    http://www.grpc.io/docs/guides/wire.html
+.. _Call Credentials:
+    http://www.grpc.io/docs/guides/auth.html