google analytics metrics and dimensions API question
I'm trying to use google analytics API to retrieve some data to build a chart that displays number of visitor per day for current month.
However I'm almost completely lost with metrics and dimensions idea.
if I use ga:visitors metrics - that would only give me a total number of visitors - right? How would I retrieve visitors per each day in a month?
any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Answer
I highly recommend using the Data Feed Query Explorer to get your feet wet:
https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/query-explorer/
You'll have to login with your Google Account and click the button to grant the application access. But it has a simple UI that lets you build your request. A good starting example might be:
- dimensions: ga:date
- metrics: ga:pageviews,ga:visitors
This will give you pageviews and visitors per day, for every day in your date range.
The general idea is that you are building a table of sorts. Metrics are what you are measuring, and Dimensions are what you are grouping the Metrics by.