Google Analytics API

tl;dr

Using PHP with the Google Analytics API is easy with Google’s APIs Client Library for PHP. Install the PHP library with composer, then query it as needed. Check out the example below.

/**
 * Include the required composer dependencies.
 */
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';
// Initialize the Google_Client PHP library.
$client = new Google_Client();
$client->setApplicationName("ApplicationName");
$client->setAssertionCredentials(
  new Google_Auth_AssertionCredentials(
    // Google client ID email address.
    'generated-email@developer.gserviceaccount.com',
    array('https://www.googleapis.com/auth/analytics.readonly'),
    // Downloaded client ID certificate file.
    file_get_contents( 'certificate-filename.p12' )
  )
);
// Google client ID.
$client->setClientId( 'generated-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com' );
$client->setAccessType( 'offline_access' );
$analytics = new Google_Service_Analytics( $client );
// Google Analytics account view ID.
$analytics_id = 'ga:XXXXXXX';
// Get unique pageviews and average time on page.
try {
  $optParams = array();
  // Required parameter
  $metrics = 'ga:uniquePageviews,ga:avgTimeOnPage';
  $start_date = '2014-01-29';
  $end_date = '2015-01-29';
  // Optional parameters.
  $optParams['filters'] = 'ga:pagePath==/';
  $optParams['dimensions'] = 'ga:pagePath';
  $optParams['sort'] = '-ga:pageviews';
  $optParams['max-results'] = 10;
  $result = $analytics->data_ga->get( 
    $analytics_id,
    $start_date,
    $end_date,
    $metrics,
    $optParams
  );
  if ( $result->getRows() ) {
    print_r( $result->getRows() );
  }
} catch(Exception $e) {
  echo 'There was an error : ' . $e->getMessage();
}

Google Analytics API Tutorial

The Google Analytics API is a powerful tool that allows you to query your Google Analytics account allowing you to create custom dashboards, reports, and website integration.

In this tutorial, we’ll go over how to create a Google project to generate your API credentials, how to install the PHP library with composer, then query the API to retrieve traffic metrics.

Step 1: Generate the API credentials.

In order to retrieve information from the Google Analytics API, you’ll need to generate API credentials that will be used to authorize your application.

Create a Google project.

First, create a project in the Google API Console.

1. Log in, then click on the project dropdown that appears next to the Google APIs logo in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
2. Click the ‘NEW PROJECT‘ button in the modal that pops up.
3. Enter a Project name and select a Location.

Enable the Google Analytics API

Next, we’ll enable the Google Analytics API.

1. Click the ‘ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES‘ button next to the APIs & Services headline.
   
2. Search for, select, and enable the Google Analytics API.
   

Generate the API Credentials

Next, we’ll need to create the credentials by clicking the “CREATE CREDENTIALS” button in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Next, you’ll need to go to your Google Analytics account and add the email address Google generated in the previous step. Once in GA, go to the admin dashboard and navigate to User Management under the Account column.

From here you can add the email address Google generated.

Step 2: Use PHP to connect to the Google Analytics API

This is where the fun part begins. You’ll need to download the Google Analytics API Client from Github. Unzip it and place it in the docroot of your project (you only really need the src directory). Use Composer to install the dependieces and create the autoload.php file. You’ll also need to place the certificate file your browser downloaded when you created your client ID in the same place.

Let’s create a PHP file called index.php and save it in the docroot. Add the following code:

[php]// Include the Google API PHP client.
require_once( ‘google-api-php-client/autoload.php’ );

// Initialize the Google API.
$client = new Google_Client();
$client->setApplicationName( ‘analyticsapipro’ );

$client->setAssertionCredentials(
new Google_Auth_AssertionCredentials(

// Google client ID email address
‘generated-email@developer.gserviceaccount.com’,
array(‘https://www.googleapis.com/auth/analytics.readonly’),

// Downloaded client ID certificate file
file_get_contents( ‘certificate-filename.p12’ )
)
);

// Google client ID
$client->setClientId( ‘generated-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com’ );
$client->setAccessType( ‘offline_access’ );

$analytics = new Google_Service_Analytics( $client );

// Google Analytics account view ID
$analytics_id = ‘ga:XXXXXXX’;[/php]

Be sure to update the code with your client ID credentials and analytics account view ID.

Next, you’ll need to write the API class to gather information from your Google Analytics account. In order to make a successful query, the view ID, date range and dimension parameters need to be set. All other parameters are optional. One very useful tool to help build proper queries is Google’s Query Explorer. It’s essentially doing the same thing we’re doing below, but in a pretty interface.

[php]// Get unique pageviews and average time on page.
try {
$optParams = array();

// Required parameter
$metrics = ‘ga:uniquePageviews,ga:avgTimeOnPage’;
$start_date = ‘2014-01-29’;
$end_date = ‘2015-01-29’;

// Optional parameters
// optParams[‘filters’] = ‘ga:pagePath==/’;
// $optParams[‘dimensions’] = ‘ga:pagePath’;
// $optParams[‘sort’] = ‘-ga:pageviews’;
// $optParams[‘max-results’] = ’10’;

$result = $analytics->data_ga->get( $analytics_id,
$start_date,
$end_date, $metrics, $optParams);

if( $result->getRows() ) {
print_r( $result->getRows() );
}
} catch(Exception $e) {
echo ‘There was an error : – ‘ . $e->getMessage();
}[/php]

And viola! This will output a PHP array with the data you need to build some awesome apps.

For more information, check out Google’s Hello Analytics API tutorial that walks through the steps required to access a Google Analytics account, query the Analytics APIs, handle API responses, and output the results. Also, check out these other great resources for playing around with the Analytics API:

• Common API Queries
• Google’s Query Explorer
• How to Use Google Analytics API with PHP by Younes Rafie
• Display Top URLs With Google Analytics API (PHP) by Sanwebe

Thanks to Austin Hutchison for getting me off to a good start in putting this together.