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Extract data directly from Google Analytics using R is possible via the API. This is the process to authenticateand create a simple query returning a R DataFrame:

1. Packages needed: To work with the Google Analytics API you need two packages.

   library(httpuv)             # Web socket service package
   library(RGoogleAnalytics)   # Conexion R con GA
   

2. Authenticate into the right account. Here there are two possibilities, either you have acces to Google Cloud Platform and the or you don’t, in each case these are the steps:
   • If you don’t have access: You can connect directly to GA. Using this code a web browser will prompt asking for your email and password- Once you are authenticated into GA you can check all your accounts and get the viewId for the one you need

     ga_auth()                   # Opens browser to authenticate
     my_accounts <- ga_account_list()
     View(my_accounts)           # Search for the account and copy the viewId
     

   • If you do have access to GCP: Access the APIs and Oath service and get the credential for the Client ID for native application. You need both the clientId and the clientSecret. Then you can create a token to authenticate

     client.id     <- <clienId>
     client.secret <- <secret>
     
     #creacion y llamada del token
     
     token<-Auth(client.id,client.secret)
     invisible(GetProfiles(token))
     ValidateToken(token)
     

     You also need to copy the viewId with this process

3. Running a query is also different if you have a token (acces to GCP or not):
   • If you don’t have a token: The query can be run this way, returning a typical R dataframe

     viewId     <- "XXXXXXXXX"
     date       <- c("YYYY-MM-DD", "YYYY-MM-DD")
     metrics    <- "ga:metric_name"
     dimensions <- c("ga:dimensions_name", ...)
     
     # Query
     df1 <- google_analytics(viewId, 
                             date_range = date, 
                             metrics=metrics, 
                             dimensions=dimensions)
     

   • If you do have a token: You need to use the GetReportData function to run your query, like this

     viewId <- "ga:XXXXXXXXX"
          
     fechaInicio <- "YYYY-MM-DD"
     fechaFin    <- "YYYY-MM-DD"
          
     query <- Init(start.date  = fechaInicio,
                   end.date    = fechaFin,
                   metrics     = "ga:metrics_name, ...",
                   dimensions  = "ga:dimension_name, ...",
                   max.results = n,
                   table.id    = viewId)
     
     query <- QueryBuilder(query)
     data  <- GetReportData(query, token[, split_daywise = T, paginate_query = T, ...])