How can I grant read-only access to the third-party application

[luk...@tarasiewicz.net]

Hello,

A friend of mine will develop an application that works with AdWords API and that will download reports from my AdWords accounts.

We're not sure, however, what's the preferred way for me (the user) to grant permissions for his application so that it can read my data.

Honestly, reading the documentation does not make it clear either.

In order to his app access my account:

1) Do I need to set up a new project in my Developer Console and pass on to him the ClientID and ClientSecret so that he can use them to request the refresh token? (it would feel rather strange passing on these..)

2) If HE authorizes his application to access HIS AdWords Manager Account by OAuth - Is it enough if I link my AdWords account with his Manager Account for read-only access?

and finally 

3) Should I authorize my developerToken with Google and pass the token on to him, or he should  authorize his own developerToken and later use it?

I think option 2 above sounds the most reasonable, correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks!

[Shwetha Vastrad (AdWords API Team)]

Hi,

If you link your AdWords account to your friend's Manager account, he'll have both read and write access to the account. 

I would suggest that you grant read only access by following these instructions. If both of you are in the same legal entity, you would probably have the same developer token. If you want to keep the developer tokens separate, your friend should have a production manager account with a developer token of his own. He should just authenticate using the Google account that was granted access to the AdWords account while making API calls, i.e., create the OAuth 2.0 credentials using the email which was used to grant access. 

I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any issues while using the AdWords API.

Regards,

Shwetha

AdWords API Team.