Use Google Analytics API to show information in C#

Question

I been looking for a good solution all day but google evolve so fast that I can\'t find something working. What I want to do is that, I have a Web app that has an admin sect

Answer 1

This answer is for those of you who want access to your own Analytics account and want to use the new Analytics Reporting API v4.

I recently wrote a blog post about how to get Google Analytics data using C#. Read there for all the details.

You first need to choose between connecting with OAuth2 or a Service Account. I'll assume you own the Analytics account, so you need to create a "Service account key" from the Google APIs Credentials page.

Once you create that, download the JSON file and put it in your project (I put mine in my App_Data folder).

Next, install the Google.Apis.AnalyticsReporting.v4 Nuget package. Also install Newtonsoft's Json.NET.

Include this class somewhere in your project:

public class PersonalServiceAccountCred
{
    public string type { get; set; }
    public string project_id { get; set; }
    public string private_key_id { get; set; }
    public string private_key { get; set; }
    public string client_email { get; set; }
    public string client_id { get; set; }
    public string auth_uri { get; set; }
    public string token_uri { get; set; }
    public string auth_provider_x509_cert_url { get; set; }
    public string client_x509_cert_url { get; set; }
}

And here's what you've been waiting for: a full example!

string keyFilePath = Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/Your-API-Key-Filename.json");
string json = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(keyFilePath);

var cr = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);

var xCred = new ServiceAccountCredential(new ServiceAccountCredential.Initializer(cr.client_email)
{
    Scopes = new[] {
        AnalyticsReportingService.Scope.Analytics
    }
}.FromPrivateKey(cr.private_key));

using (var svc = new AnalyticsReportingService(
    new BaseClientService.Initializer
    {
        HttpClientInitializer = xCred,
        ApplicationName = "[Your Application Name]"
    })
)
{
    // Create the DateRange object.
    DateRange dateRange = new DateRange() { StartDate = "2017-05-01", EndDate = "2017-05-31" };

    // Create the Metrics object.
    Metric sessions = new Metric { Expression = "ga:sessions", Alias = "Sessions" };

    //Create the Dimensions object.
    Dimension browser = new Dimension { Name = "ga:browser" };

    // Create the ReportRequest object.
    ReportRequest reportRequest = new ReportRequest
    {
        ViewId = "[A ViewId in your account]",
        DateRanges = new List() { dateRange },
        Dimensions = new List() { browser },
        Metrics = new List() { sessions }
    };

    List requests = new List();
    requests.Add(reportRequest);

    // Create the GetReportsRequest object.
    GetReportsRequest getReport = new GetReportsRequest() { ReportRequests = requests };

    // Call the batchGet method.
    GetReportsResponse response = svc.Reports.BatchGet(getReport).Execute();
}

We start by deserializing the service account key information from the JSON file and convert it to a PersonalServiceAccountCred object. Then, we create the ServiceAccountCredential and connect to Google via the AnalyticsReportingService. Using that service, we then prepare some basic filters to pass to the API and send off the request.

It's probably best to set a breakpoint on the line where the response variable is declared, press F10 once, then hover over the variable, so you can see what data is available for you to use in the response.

Answer 2

It requires a bit of setup on the google side but it's actually quite simple. I will list step by step.

First you will need to create an application in the Google cloud console and enable the Analytics API.

• Go to http://code.google.com/apis/console
• Select the drop down and create a project if you do not already have one
• Once the project is created click on services
• From here enable the Analytics API

Now that the Analytics API is enabled the next step will be to enable a service account to access your desired analytics profiles/sites. The service account will allow you to log in without having to prompt a user for credentials.

• Go to http://code.google.com/apis/console and choose the project you created from the drop down.
• Next go to the "API Access" section and click the "Create another client id" button.
• In the Create Client ID window choose service account and click create client id.
• Download the public key for this account if it doesn't start the download automatically.You will need this later on when you code for authorization.
• Before exiting copy the service accounts auto generated email address as you will need this in the next step. The client email looks like @developer.gserviceaccount.com

Now that we have a service account you will need to allow this service account to access to your profiles/sites in Google Analytics.

• Log into Google Analytics.
• Once logged in click on the Admin button to the bottem left on the screen.
• In Admin click the account drop down and select the account/site you would like your service account to be able to access then click on "User Management" under the account section.
• Enter the email address that was generated for your service account and give it read and analyze permission.
• Repeat these steps for any other account/site you would like your service to have access to.

Now that the setup is done for the service account to access Google Analytics through the API we can start to code.

Get this package from NuGet:

Google.Apis.Analytics.v3 Client Library

Add these usings:

using Google.Apis.Analytics.v3;
using Google.Apis.Analytics.v3.Data;
using Google.Apis.Services;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using Google.Apis.Auth.OAuth2;
using System.Collections.Generic; 
using System.Linq;

Some things to note are.

• The keyPath is the path to the key file you downloaded with a .p12 file extention.
• The accountEmailAddress is the api email we got earlier.
• Scope is an Enum in the Google.Apis.Analytics.v3.AnalyticService class that dictates the url to use in order to authorize (ex: AnalyticsService.Scope.AnalyticsReadonly ).
• Application name is a name of your choosing that tells the google api what is accessing it (aka: it can be what ever you choose).

Then the code to do some basic calls is as follows.

public class GoogleAnalyticsAPI
{
    public AnalyticsService Service { get; set; }

    public GoogleAnalyticsAPI(string keyPath, string accountEmailAddress)
    {
        var certificate = new X509Certificate2(keyPath, "notasecret", X509KeyStorageFlags.Exportable);

        var credentials = new ServiceAccountCredential(
           new ServiceAccountCredential.Initializer(accountEmailAddress)
           {
               Scopes = new[] { AnalyticsService.Scope.AnalyticsReadonly }
           }.FromCertificate(certificate));

        Service = new AnalyticsService(new BaseClientService.Initializer()
            {
                HttpClientInitializer = credentials,
                ApplicationName = "WorthlessVariable"
            });
    }

    public AnalyticDataPoint GetAnalyticsData(string profileId, string[] dimensions, string[] metrics, DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate)
    {
        AnalyticDataPoint data = new AnalyticDataPoint();
        if (!profileId.Contains("ga:"))
            profileId = string.Format("ga:{0}", profileId);

        //Make initial call to service.
        //Then check if a next link exists in the response,
        //if so parse and call again using start index param.
        GaData response = null;
        do
        {
            int startIndex = 1;
            if (response != null && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(response.NextLink))
            {
                Uri uri = new Uri(response.NextLink);
                var paramerters = uri.Query.Split('&');
                string s = paramerters.First(i => i.Contains("start-index")).Split('=')[1];
                startIndex = int.Parse(s);
            }

            var request = BuildAnalyticRequest(profileId, dimensions, metrics, startDate, endDate, startIndex);
            response = request.Execute();
            data.ColumnHeaders = response.ColumnHeaders;
            data.Rows.AddRange(response.Rows);

        } while (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(response.NextLink));

        return data;
    }

    private DataResource.GaResource.GetRequest BuildAnalyticRequest(string profileId, string[] dimensions, string[] metrics,
                                                                        DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate, int startIndex)
    {
        DataResource.GaResource.GetRequest request = Service.Data.Ga.Get(profileId, startDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"),
                                                                            endDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"), string.Join(",", metrics));
        request.Dimensions = string.Join(",", dimensions);
        request.StartIndex = startIndex;
        return request;
    }

    public IList<Profile> GetAvailableProfiles()
    {
        var response = Service.Management.Profiles.List("~all", "~all").Execute();
        return response.Items;
    }

    public class AnalyticDataPoint
    {
        public AnalyticDataPoint()
        {
            Rows = new List<IList<string>>();
        }

        public IList<GaData.ColumnHeadersData> ColumnHeaders { get; set; }
        public List<IList<string>> Rows { get; set; }
    }
}

---

Other Links that will prove helpful:

Analytic API Explorer - Query API From The Web

Analytic API Explorer version 2 - Query API From The Web

Dimensions and Metrics Reference

Hopefully this helps someone trying to do this in the future.

Answer 3

I've setup something pretty similar to the above answer in a nuGet package. It does the following: - connects to a "Service Account" you set up in the API Console - Pulls any Google Analytics data you would like - Displays that data using Google's Charts API and it does all of this in a very easy to modify way. You can see more here: https://www.nuget.org/packages/GoogleAnalytics.GoogleCharts.NET/.

Answer 4

Hope google will provide proper documentation someday. Here I am listing all the steps to integrate google analytics server side authentication in ASP.NET C#.

Step 1: Create a project in google console

Goto the link https://console.developers.google.com/iam-admin/projects and create a project by clicking on "Create Project" button and provide project name in the pop up window and submit it.

Step 2: Create credentials and service account

After creation of the project, you will be redirected to "API Manager" page. Click on credentials and press "Create Credentials" button. select "service account key" from dropdown you will be redirected to next page. In the service account drop down, select "New service account". Fill in the service account name and download the p12 key. It will have p12 extension. you will get a popup having a password "notasecret" which is default and your private key will be downloaded.

Step 3: Create 0auth client ID

click on the "create credentials" dropdown and select "0auth client ID" you will be redirected to "0auth consent screen" tab. provide a random name in the project name textbox. select application type as "Web application" and click create button. Copy the generated client ID in a notepad.

Step 4: Enable the APIs

On the left side click on the "Overview" tab and select "Enabled APIs" from the horizontal tab. In the search bar search for "Analytics API" click on the dropdown and press "Enable" button. Now again search for "Analytics Reporting V4" and enable it.

Step 5: Install nuget packages

In visual studio, Go to Tools > Nuget Package Manager > Package Manager Console. Copy paste the below code in the console to install the nuget packages.

Install-Package Google.Apis.Analytics.v3

Install-Package DotNetOpenAuth.Core -Version 4.3.4.13329

The above two packages are Google analytics and DotNetOpenAuth nuget packages.

Step 6: Provide 'View and Analyze' permission to service account

Go to google analytics account and click on "Admin" tab and select "User Management" from left menus,select a domain of which you want to access analytics data and insert the service account email id under it and select "Read and Analyze" permission from the dropdown. Service account email id looks like ex: googleanalytics@googleanalytics.iam.gserviceaccount.com.

Working Code

FRONT END CODE:

Copy and paste the below analytics embed script in your front end or else you can get this code from google analytics documentation page also.

 <script>
    (function (w, d, s, g, js, fs) {
        g = w.gapi || (w.gapi = {}); g.analytics = { q: [], ready: function (f) { this.q.push(f); } };
        js = d.createElement(s); fs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
        js.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js';
        fs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fs); js.onload = function () { g.load('analytics'); };
    }(window, document, 'script'));</script>

Paste the below code in the body tag of your front end page.

 <asp:HiddenField ID="accessToken" runat="server" />
<div id="chart-1-container" style="width:600px;border:1px solid #ccc;"></div>
        <script>
           var access_token = document.getElementById('<%= accessToken.ClientID%>').value;

            gapi.analytics.ready(function () {
                /**
                 * Authorize the user with an access token obtained server side.
                 */
                gapi.analytics.auth.authorize({
                    'serverAuth': {
                        'access_token': access_token
                    }
                });
                /**
                 * Creates a new DataChart instance showing sessions.
                 * It will be rendered inside an element with the id "chart-1-container".
                 */
                var dataChart1 = new gapi.analytics.googleCharts.DataChart({
                    query: {
                        'ids': 'ga:53861036', // VIEW ID <-- Goto your google analytics account and select the domain whose analytics data you want to display on your webpage. From the URL  ex: a507598w53044903p53861036. Copy the digits after "p". It is your view ID
                        'start-date': '2016-04-01',
                        'end-date': '2016-04-30',
                        'metrics': 'ga:sessions',
                        'dimensions': 'ga:date'
                    },
                    chart: {
                        'container': 'chart-1-container',
                        'type': 'LINE',
                        'options': {
                            'width': '100%'
                        }
                    }
                });
                dataChart1.execute();


                /**
                 * Creates a new DataChart instance showing top 5 most popular demos/tools
                 * amongst returning users only.
                 * It will be rendered inside an element with the id "chart-3-container".
                 */


            });
</script>

You can also get your View ID from https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/account-explorer/

BACK END CODE:

 using System;
    using System.Linq;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Collections.Specialized;
    using System.Web.Script.Serialization;
    using System.Net;
    using System.Text;
    using Google.Apis.Analytics.v3;
    using Google.Apis.Analytics.v3.Data;
    using Google.Apis.Services;
    using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
    using Google.Apis.Auth.OAuth2;
    using Google.Apis.Util;
    using DotNetOpenAuth.OAuth2;
    using System.Security.Cryptography;

    namespace googleAnalytics
    {
        public partial class api : System.Web.UI.Page
        {
            public const string SCOPE_ANALYTICS_READONLY = "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/analytics.readonly";

            string ServiceAccountUser = "googleanalytics@googleanalytics.iam.gserviceaccount.com"; //service account email ID
            string keyFile = @"D:\key.p12"; //file link to downloaded key with p12 extension
            protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
            {

               string Token = Convert.ToString(GetAccessToken(ServiceAccountUser, keyFile, SCOPE_ANALYTICS_READONLY));

               accessToken.Value = Token;

                var certificate = new X509Certificate2(keyFile, "notasecret", X509KeyStorageFlags.Exportable);

                var credentials = new ServiceAccountCredential(

                    new ServiceAccountCredential.Initializer(ServiceAccountUser)
                    {
                        Scopes = new[] { AnalyticsService.Scope.AnalyticsReadonly }
                    }.FromCertificate(certificate));

                var service = new AnalyticsService(new BaseClientService.Initializer()
                {
                    HttpClientInitializer = credentials,
                    ApplicationName = "Google Analytics API"
                });

                string profileId = "ga:53861036";
                string startDate = "2016-04-01";
                string endDate = "2016-04-30";
                string metrics = "ga:sessions,ga:users,ga:pageviews,ga:bounceRate,ga:visits";

                DataResource.GaResource.GetRequest request = service.Data.Ga.Get(profileId, startDate, endDate, metrics);


                GaData data = request.Execute();
                List<string> ColumnName = new List<string>();
                foreach (var h in data.ColumnHeaders)
                {
                    ColumnName.Add(h.Name);
                }


                List<double> values = new List<double>();
                foreach (var row in data.Rows)
                {
                    foreach (var item in row)
                    {
                        values.Add(Convert.ToDouble(item));
                    }

                }
                values[3] = Math.Truncate(100 * values[3]) / 100;

                txtSession.Text = values[0].ToString();
                txtUsers.Text = values[1].ToString();
                txtPageViews.Text = values[2].ToString();
                txtBounceRate.Text = values[3].ToString();
                txtVisits.Text = values[4].ToString();

            }


         public static dynamic GetAccessToken(string clientIdEMail, string keyFilePath, string scope)
        {
            // certificate
            var certificate = new X509Certificate2(keyFilePath, "notasecret");

            // header
            var header = new { typ = "JWT", alg = "RS256" };

            // claimset
            var times = GetExpiryAndIssueDate();
            var claimset = new
            {
                iss = clientIdEMail,
                scope = scope,
                aud = "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token",
                iat = times[0],
                exp = times[1],
            };

            JavaScriptSerializer ser = new JavaScriptSerializer();

            // encoded header
            var headerSerialized = ser.Serialize(header);
            var headerBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(headerSerialized);
            var headerEncoded = Convert.ToBase64String(headerBytes);

            // encoded claimset
            var claimsetSerialized = ser.Serialize(claimset);
            var claimsetBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(claimsetSerialized);
            var claimsetEncoded = Convert.ToBase64String(claimsetBytes);

            // input
            var input = headerEncoded + "." + claimsetEncoded;
            var inputBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(input);

            // signature
            var rsa = certificate.PrivateKey as RSACryptoServiceProvider;
            var cspParam = new CspParameters
            {
                KeyContainerName = rsa.CspKeyContainerInfo.KeyContainerName,
                KeyNumber = rsa.CspKeyContainerInfo.KeyNumber == KeyNumber.Exchange ? 1 : 2
            };
            var aescsp = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(cspParam) { PersistKeyInCsp = false };
            var signatureBytes = aescsp.SignData(inputBytes, "SHA256");
            var signatureEncoded = Convert.ToBase64String(signatureBytes);

            // jwt
            var jwt = headerEncoded + "." + claimsetEncoded + "." + signatureEncoded;

            var client = new WebClient();
            client.Encoding = Encoding.UTF8;
            var uri = "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token";
            var content = new NameValueCollection();

            content["assertion"] = jwt;
            content["grant_type"] = "urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:jwt-bearer";

            string response = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(client.UploadValues(uri, "POST", content));


            var result = ser.Deserialize<dynamic>(response);

            object pulledObject = null;

            string token = "access_token";
            if (result.ContainsKey(token))
            {
                pulledObject = result[token];
            }


            //return result;
            return pulledObject;
        }

        private static int[] GetExpiryAndIssueDate()
        {
            var utc0 = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc);
            var issueTime = DateTime.UtcNow;

            var iat = (int)issueTime.Subtract(utc0).TotalSeconds;
            var exp = (int)issueTime.AddMinutes(55).Subtract(utc0).TotalSeconds;

            return new[] { iat, exp };
        }

        }
    }

Answer 5

I was hoping just to add a comment to the answer for v3 Beta, but rep points prevent that. However, I thought it would be nice for others to have this information so here it is:

using Google.Apis.Authentication.OAuth2;
using Google.Apis.Authentication.OAuth2.DotNetOpenAuth;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using Google.Apis.Services;

These name spaces are used throughout the code in that post. I always wish people would post name spaces more often, I seem to spend a good bit of time looking for them. I hope this saves some people a few minutes of work.

Answer 6

I did a lot of search and finally either looking up code from multiple places and then wrapping my own interface around it i came up with the following solution. Not sure if people paste their whole code here, but i guess why not save everyone else time :)

Pre-requisites, you will need to install Google.GData.Client and google.gdata.analytics package/dll.

This is the main class that does the work.

namespace Utilities.Google
{
    public class Analytics
    {
        private readonly String ClientUserName;
        private readonly String ClientPassword;
        private readonly String TableID;
        private AnalyticsService analyticsService;

        public Analytics(string user, string password, string table)
        {
            this.ClientUserName = user;
            this.ClientPassword = password;
            this.TableID = table;

            // Configure GA API.
            analyticsService = new AnalyticsService("gaExportAPI_acctSample_v2.0");
            // Client Login Authorization.
            analyticsService.setUserCredentials(ClientUserName, ClientPassword);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Get the page views for a particular page path
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="pagePath"></param>
        /// <param name="startDate"></param>
        /// <param name="endDate"></param>
        /// <param name="isPathAbsolute">make this false if the pagePath is a regular expression</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public int GetPageViewsForPagePath(string pagePath, DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate, bool isPathAbsolute = true)
        {
            int output = 0;

            // GA Data Feed query uri.
            String baseUrl = "https://www.google.com/analytics/feeds/data";

            DataQuery query = new DataQuery(baseUrl);
            query.Ids = TableID;
            //query.Dimensions = "ga:source,ga:medium";
            query.Metrics = "ga:pageviews";
            //query.Segment = "gaid::-11";
            var filterPrefix = isPathAbsolute ? "ga:pagepath==" : "ga:pagepath=~";
            query.Filters = filterPrefix + pagePath;
            //query.Sort = "-ga:visits";
            //query.NumberToRetrieve = 5;
            query.GAStartDate = startDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
            query.GAEndDate = endDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
            Uri url = query.Uri;
            DataFeed feed = analyticsService.Query(query);
            output = Int32.Parse(feed.Aggregates.Metrics[0].Value);

            return output;
        }

        public Dictionary<string, int> PageViewCounts(string pagePathRegEx, DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate)
        {
            // GA Data Feed query uri.
            String baseUrl = "https://www.google.com/analytics/feeds/data";

            DataQuery query = new DataQuery(baseUrl);
            query.Ids = TableID;
            query.Dimensions = "ga:pagePath";
            query.Metrics = "ga:pageviews";
            //query.Segment = "gaid::-11";
            var filterPrefix = "ga:pagepath=~";
            query.Filters = filterPrefix + pagePathRegEx;
            //query.Sort = "-ga:visits";
            //query.NumberToRetrieve = 5;
            query.GAStartDate = startDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
            query.GAEndDate = endDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
            Uri url = query.Uri;
            DataFeed feed = analyticsService.Query(query);

            var returnDictionary = new Dictionary<string, int>();
            foreach (var entry in feed.Entries)
                returnDictionary.Add(((DataEntry)entry).Dimensions[0].Value, Int32.Parse(((DataEntry)entry).Metrics[0].Value));

            return returnDictionary;
        }
    }
}

And this is the interface and implementation that i use to wrap it up with.

namespace Utilities
{
    public interface IPageViewCounter
    {
        int GetPageViewCount(string relativeUrl, DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate, bool isPathAbsolute = true);
        Dictionary<string, int> PageViewCounts(string pagePathRegEx, DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate);
    }

    public class GooglePageViewCounter : IPageViewCounter
    {
        private string GoogleUserName
        {
            get
            {
                return ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["googleUserName"];
            }
        }

        private string GooglePassword
        {
            get
            {
                return ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["googlePassword"];
            }
        }

        private string GoogleAnalyticsTableName
        {
            get
            {
                return ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["googleAnalyticsTableName"];
            }
        }

        private Analytics analytics;

        public GooglePageViewCounter()
        {
            analytics = new Analytics(GoogleUserName, GooglePassword, GoogleAnalyticsTableName);
        }

        #region IPageViewCounter Members

        public int GetPageViewCount(string relativeUrl, DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate, bool isPathAbsolute = true)
        {
            int output = 0;
            try
            {
                output = analytics.GetPageViewsForPagePath(relativeUrl, startDate, endDate, isPathAbsolute);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Logger.Error(ex);
            }

            return output;
        }

        public Dictionary<string, int> PageViewCounts(string pagePathRegEx, DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate)
        {
            var input = analytics.PageViewCounts(pagePathRegEx, startDate, endDate);
            var output = new Dictionary<string, int>();

            foreach (var item in input)
            {
                if (item.Key.Contains('&'))
                {
                    string[] key = item.Key.Split(new char[] { '?', '&' });
                    string newKey = key[0] + "?" + key.FirstOrDefault(k => k.StartsWith("p="));

                    if (output.ContainsKey(newKey))
                        output[newKey] += item.Value;
                    else
                        output[newKey] = item.Value;
                }
                else
                    output.Add(item.Key, item.Value);
            }
            return output;
        }

        #endregion
    }
}

And now the rest is the obvious stuff - you will have to add the web.config values to your application config or webconfig and call IPageViewCounter.GetPageViewCount