google/googleapis.dart

The error message when `clientViaApplicationDefaultCredentials` fallbacks to reading `metadata` servers (and failing) is cryptic

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#572 opened on Oct 11, 2023

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Description

Context for this issue: https://github.com/invertase/dart_firebase_admin/issues/6

It appears that if a user tries to create a client with clientViaApplicationDefaultCredentials, yet have neither the environment nor gcloud/application_default_credentials.json setup, then google_apis_auth fallbacks to reaching out to metadata.google.internal.

The problem is that if that endpoint is unavailable (which is likely the case if the user made a mistake and did want to login using the other options), then we end-up with a "Failed host lookup: 'metadata.google.internal'" error.

This is likely confusing, and a better error message could make it more intuitive to understand what the issue is.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Investigate the fallback mechanism in `clientViaApplicationDefaultCredentials` and propose a more descriptive error message when the metadata server is unreachable.
Tech stack
dart
Domain
authentication
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
Dart
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70