Set up the Route Optimization API

  • This guide explains how to set up a Google Cloud project, including creating a project, enabling billing, and enabling necessary APIs, before using Google Maps Platform APIs.

  • A billing account is required for each project, though usage within the free tier quota does not incur charges.

  • You can enable and manage APIs through the Google Cloud console or using the Cloud SDK.

  • Projects can be shut down to disable billing and release associated Cloud resources.

  • After project setup, configure user roles for appropriate access to Google Maps Platform services.

This document describes the steps you need to start using the Route Optimization API.

Prerequisites

This procedure guides you through setting up a Google Cloud Account and Google Cloud project with billing enabled. You should also be familiar with how you are charged for using the Route Optimization API.

  1. Review billing and cost for usage at Route Optimization API Usage and Billing.

  2. Verify that you have a Google Cloud Account.

    Sign in to the Google Cloud console

  3. Verify that you have a Google Cloud project with billing enabled.

    Go to the Billing page
    1. Select your project to open the Billing page.

    2. On the Billing page:

      • If billing is already enabled for the selected project, and you only have a single billing account, then the Billing page opens.
      • If you have multiple billing accounts, select Go to linked billing account to see the details about the billing account associated with the project.
      • If a billing account exists but is not associated with the project, you are prompted to link a billing account with the project.
      • If no billing account exists, or you want to create a new billing a account, select Manage Billing Accounts to create a new billing account. For more information, see Create a new self-serve Cloud Billing account.

Enable the API

Before you can use Route Optimization API, you must use the Google Cloud console or the gcloud command to enable it in your Google Cloud project.

To enable the API:

Console

  1. Open the product page in the Google Cloud console:

    Enable the Route Optimization API

  2. Click the Enable button.

gcloud

gcloud services enable \
    --project "PROJECT" \
    "routeoptimization.googleapis.com"

Read more about the Google Cloud SDK, Cloud SDK installation, and the following commands:

Google Maps Platform products require API calls to include an OAuth token to prevent unauthorized use.

Create an OAuth token

Route Optimization API supports OAuth 2.0 for authentication. Google supports common OAuth 2.0 scenarios, such as scenarios for a web server.

This document describes how to pass an OAuth token to a Route Optimization API call in your development environment. For more information about using OAuth in a production environment, see Authentication methods at Google.

You can call Google Maps APIs directly by making API requests to the server, or you can use client libraries to simplify your code. Google Maps provides client libraries for Go, Java, Node.js, and Python. For more information, see Route Optimization API client libraries.

OAuth overview

You can create and manage access tokens with OAuth in several ways depending on your deployment environment.

You can use OAuth 2.0 for server-to-server interactions between your application and a Google service. For this scenario, you use a service account that's associated with your application rather than an individual user. You can make API requests using the service account without involving users directly. For more information about authentication methods, see Authentication methods at Google.

Alternatively, you can integrate Route Optimization API into an Android or iOS mobile app. For more information about using OAuth and managing access tokens for different deployment environments, see Using OAuth 2.0 to Access Google APIs.

OAuth scopes

To use OAuth with Route Optimization API, you must assign the OAuth token the following scope:

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform

Configure roles

This document provides information on Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles and permissions for Route Optimization. IAM lets you grant granular access to specific Route Optimization resources and helps prevent access to other resources. IAM lets you apply the security principle of least privilege, which states that no one should have more permissions than they actually need.

When a principal (a user, group, or service account) calls a Google Cloud API, that principal must have the appropriate IAM permissions to use the resource. To give a principal the required permissions, you grant an IAM role to the principal.

To familiarize yourself with managing access in Google Cloud in general, see IAM overview.

The predefined IAM roles to allow principals to access Route Optimization are:

  • Route Optimization Editor (roles/routeoptimization.editor): grants the user or services account read and write access to Route Optimization resources in the project. This includes the ability to call OptimizeTours and BatchOptimizeTours, as well as to retrieve long running operations using GetOperation.
  • Route Optimization Viewer (roles/routeoptimization.viewer): grants read-only access to Route Optimization resources in the project. This role enables the ability to call OptimizeTours and access to Long Running Operations using GetOperation.
You can assign a role by creating binding for a principal using the Cloud SDK: 
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT \
  --member user:someone@example.com \
  --role roles/routeoptimization.editor

For more information, see Grant an IAM role by using the Google Cloud console.

Example: Try REST API calls in your local development environment

If you don't have an environment that generates tokens and you want to try Route Optimization API with an OAuth token, use the procedure in this section.

This example describes how to use the OAuth token provided by Application Default Credentials (ADC) to make the call. For more information about using ADC to call Google APIs with client libraries, see Authenticate using client libraries.

Use the following REST procedure only for development or testing, not for production.

Prerequisites

Before you make a REST request using ADC, use the gcloud CLI to provide credentials to ADC:

  1. Install and initialize the gcloud CLI. For more information, see Install the gcloud CLI.

  2. Authenticate with the gcloud CLI:

    gcloud auth application-default login

  3. Complete the sign-in process to save your credentials in the local credential file used by ADC.

For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment.

Make a REST request

In this example, you pass two request headers:

  • Pass the OAuth token in the Authorization header by using the following command to generate the token:

    gcloud auth application-default print-access-token

    The returned token has a scope of https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform.

  • Pass the ID or name of your Google Cloud project that has billing enabled in the X-Goog-User-Project header.

To call Route Optimization API using an OAuth token, complete the following steps:

  1. In the following code sample, replace PROJECT_NUMBER_OR_ID with your Google Cloud project number or ID:

    curl -X POST 'https://routeoptimization.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_NUMBER_OR_ID:optimizeTours' \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth application-default print-access-token)" \
--data-binary @- << EOM
{
"model": {
"shipments": [
  {
    "pickups": [
      {
        "arrivalLocation": {
          "latitude": 37.73881799999999,
          "longitude": -122.4161
        }
      }
    ],
    "deliveries": [
      {
        "arrivalLocation": {
          "latitude": 37.79581,
          "longitude": -122.4218856
        }
      }
    ]
  }
],
"vehicles": [
  {
    "startLocation": {
      "latitude": 37.73881799999999,
      "longitude": -122.4161
    },
    "endLocation": {
      "latitude": 37.73881799999999,
      "longitude": -122.4161
    }
  }
],
"globalStartTime": "2023-01-13T16:00:00-08:00",
"globalEndTime": "2023-01-14T16:00:00-08:00"
}
}
EOM

  2. To copy the curl command, click Copy in the code sample.

  3. Paste the command in a terminal window, and then run it.

The response is a JSON object:

{
  "routes": [
    {
      "vehicleStartTime": "2023-01-14T00:00:00Z",
      "vehicleEndTime": "2023-01-14T00:39:22Z",
      "visits": [
        {
          "isPickup": true,
          "startTime": "2023-01-14T00:00:00Z",
          "detour": "0s"
        },
        {
          "startTime": "2023-01-14T00:19:53Z",
          "detour": "0s"
        }
      ],
      "transitions": [
        {
          "travelDuration": "0s",
          "waitDuration": "0s",
          "totalDuration": "0s",
          "startTime": "2023-01-14T00:00:00Z"
        },
        {
          "travelDuration": "1193s",
          "travelDistanceMeters": 9007,
          "waitDuration": "0s",
          "totalDuration": "1193s",
          "startTime": "2023-01-14T00:00:00Z"
        },
        {
          "travelDuration": "1169s",
          "travelDistanceMeters": 9546,
          "waitDuration": "0s",
          "totalDuration": "1169s",
          "startTime": "2023-01-14T00:19:53Z"
        }
      ],
      "metrics": {
        "performedShipmentCount": 1,
        "travelDuration": "2362s",
        "waitDuration": "0s",
        "delayDuration": "0s",
        "breakDuration": "0s",
        "visitDuration": "0s",
        "totalDuration": "2362s",
        "travelDistanceMeters": 18553
      }
    }
  ],
  "metrics": {
    "aggregatedRouteMetrics": {
      "performedShipmentCount": 1,
      "travelDuration": "2362s",
      "waitDuration": "0s",
      "delayDuration": "0s",
      "breakDuration": "0s",
      "visitDuration": "0s",
      "totalDuration": "2362s",
      "travelDistanceMeters": 18553
    },
    "usedVehicleCount": 1,
    "earliestVehicleStartTime": "2023-01-14T00:00:00Z",
    "latestVehicleEndTime": "2023-01-14T00:39:22Z"
  }
}

Troubleshooting

If your request returns an error message stating that this API doesn't support end-user credentials, see Troubleshoot your ADC setup.