# Installing the library

Supported Environments

The library supports these Python environments:

• Python 2.5, 2.6, 2.7
• Google App Engine

This is a pure Python library that can be used from any platform. Samples are included for Google App Engine, Django, and command-line apps.

If you wish to use a Google API that is not in this list then you should look at the Google Data APIs Python Client Library.

Prerequisites

To use the Google API Python Client, you'll need a few things. You might have them installed already or you might need to set them up. Here's a checklist:

• Python
• The App Engine SDK - only if you plan to run your code on Google App Engine

Installation

The easiest way to install the client library is by running easy_install:

easy_install --upgrade google-api-python-client

You might need to add a sudo to the beginning of that command depending on your platform. If you don't have easy_install you can get it by installing the setuptools package.

Samples

After performing the installation steps above, if you want the samples you can download the latest release package from the downloads page and then unpack it. The downloads for the client library are the ones that start with google-api-python-client-.

The Plus sample will retrieve and print the first few words from all the entries in your activities.

Because Google Plus is protected by OAuth, the first time you run the sample you will be prompted to authorize the sample application to view and manage your Google Plus account.

$ cd samples/plus
$ python plus.py