Hello Analytics API: PHP quickstart for web applications

This tutorial walks through the steps required to access a Google Analytics account, query the Analytics APIs, handle the API responses, and output the results. The Core Reporting API v3.0, Management API v3.0, and OAuth2.0 are used in this tutorial.

Step 1: Enable the Analytics API

To get started using Google Analytics API, you need to first use the setup tool, which guides you through creating a project in the Google API Console, enabling the API, and creating credentials.

Create a client ID

From the Credentials page:

  1. Click Create Credentials and select OAuth client ID.
  2. Select Web application for APPLICATION TYPE.
  3. Name the credential.
  4. Leave the AUTHORIZED JAVASCRIPT ORIGINS blank, it is not needed for this tutorial.
  5. Set the AUTHORIZED REDIRECT URIS to http://localhost:8080/oauth2callback.php
  6. Click Create.

Select the credential you just created and click Download JSON. Save the downloaded file as client_secrets.json; you need it later in the tutorial.

Step 2: Install the Google Client Library

You can obtain the Google APIs Client Library for PHP downloading the release or using Composer:

composer require google/apiclient:^2.0

Step 3: Setup the sample

You'll need to create two files:

  1. index.php will be the main page visited by the user.
  2. oauth2callback.php will handle the OAuth 2.0 response.

index.php

This file contains the main logic for querying the Google Analytics APIs and displaying the results. Copy or download the first sample code to index.php.

<?php
// Load the Google API PHP Client Library.
require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

// Start a session to persist credentials.
session_start();

// Create the client object and set the authorization configuration
// from the client_secretes.json you downloaded from the developer console.
$client = new Google_Client();
$client->setAuthConfig(__DIR__ . '/client_secrets.json');
$client->addScope(Google_Service_Analytics::ANALYTICS_READONLY);

// If the user has already authorized this app then get an access token
// else redirect to ask the user to authorize access to Google Analytics.
if (isset($_SESSION['access_token']) && $_SESSION['access_token']) {
  // Set the access token on the client.
  $client->setAccessToken($_SESSION['access_token']);

  // Create an authorized analytics service object.
  $analytics = new Google_Service_Analytics($client);

  // Get the first view (profile) id for the authorized user.
  $profile = getFirstProfileId($analytics);

  // Get the results from the Core Reporting API and print the results.
  $results = getResults($analytics, $profile);
  printResults($results);
} else {
  $redirect_uri = 'http://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . '/oauth2callback.php';
  header('Location: ' . filter_var($redirect_uri, FILTER_SANITIZE_URL));
}


function getFirstProfileId($analytics) {
  // Get the user's first view (profile) ID.

  // Get the list of accounts for the authorized user.
  $accounts = $analytics->management_accounts->listManagementAccounts();

  if (count($accounts->getItems()) > 0) {
    $items = $accounts->getItems();
    $firstAccountId = $items[0]->getId();

    // Get the list of properties for the authorized user.
    $properties = $analytics->management_webproperties
        ->listManagementWebproperties($firstAccountId);

    if (count($properties->getItems()) > 0) {
      $items = $properties->getItems();
      $firstPropertyId = $items[0]->getId();

      // Get the list of views (profiles) for the authorized user.
      $profiles = $analytics->management_profiles
          ->listManagementProfiles($firstAccountId, $firstPropertyId);

      if (count($profiles->getItems()) > 0) {
        $items = $profiles->getItems();

        // Return the first view (profile) ID.
        return $items[0]->getId();

      } else {
        throw new Exception('No views (profiles) found for this user.');
      }
    } else {
      throw new Exception('No properties found for this user.');
    }
  } else {
    throw new Exception('No accounts found for this user.');
  }
}

function getResults($analytics, $profileId) {
  // Calls the Core Reporting API and queries for the number of sessions
  // for the last seven days.
  return $analytics->data_ga->get(
      'ga:' . $profileId,
      '7daysAgo',
      'today',
      'ga:sessions');
}

function printResults($results) {
  // Parses the response from the Core Reporting API and prints
  // the profile name and total sessions.
  if (count($results->getRows()) > 0) {

    // Get the profile name.
    $profileName = $results->getProfileInfo()->getProfileName();

    // Get the entry for the first entry in the first row.
    $rows = $results->getRows();
    $sessions = $rows[0][0];

    // Print the results.
    print "<p>First view (profile) found: $profileName</p>";
    print "<p>Total sessions: $sessions</p>";
  } else {
    print "<p>No results found.</p>";
  }
}

?>

oauth2callback.php

This file handles the OAuth 2.0 response. Copy or download the second sample code to oauth2callback.php.

<?php

// Load the Google API PHP Client Library.
require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

// Start a session to persist credentials.
session_start();

// Create the client object and set the authorization configuration
// from the client_secrets.json you downloaded from the Developers Console.
$client = new Google_Client();
$client->setAuthConfig(__DIR__ . '/client_secrets.json');
$client->setRedirectUri('http://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . '/oauth2callback.php');
$client->addScope(Google_Service_Analytics::ANALYTICS_READONLY);

// Handle authorization flow from the server.
if (! isset($_GET['code'])) {
  $auth_url = $client->createAuthUrl();
  header('Location: ' . filter_var($auth_url, FILTER_SANITIZE_URL));
} else {
  $client->authenticate($_GET['code']);
  $_SESSION['access_token'] = $client->getAccessToken();
  $redirect_uri = 'http://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . '/';
  header('Location: ' . filter_var($redirect_uri, FILTER_SANITIZE_URL));
}


Step 4: Run the sample

After you have enabled the Analytics API, installed the Google APIs client library for PHP, and set up the sample source code the sample is ready to run.

Run the sample with a web server configured to serve PHP. If you use PHP 5.4 or newer, you can use PHP's built-in test web server by executing the following command:

php -S localhost:8080 /path/to/sample

Then visit http://localhost:8080 in your browser.

When you finish these steps, the sample outputs the name of the authorized user's first Google Analytics view (profile) and the number of sessions for the last seven days.

With the authorized Analytics service object you can now run any of code samples found in the Management API reference docs. For example you could try changing the code to use the accountSummaries.list method.