When working with the API reports it is sometimes necessary to obtain background information about these or other query parameters to the API. To obtain a list of all the metrics and dimensions RGA package provides the list_metadata() function, which return actual informtation about all dimensions and metrics for the given report type (now support only the Core Reporting API metadata).
list_metadata() return an data.frame, which consists of the following columns:
id - the parameter code name (metric or dimension) (used for queries);type - parameter type: metric (METRIC) or dimension (DIMENSION);data.type - data type: STRING, INTEGER, PERCENT, TIME, CURRENCY, FLOAT;group - group of parameters (ex. User, Session, Traffic Sources);status - status: actual (PUBLIC) or outdated (DEPRECATED);ui.name - parameter name (not used for queries);description - parameter description;allowed.in.segments - whether the parameter can be used in the segments;replaced.by - name of the replacement parameter, if the parameter is deprecated;calculation - formula of calculating the parameter value, if the parameter is calculated based on other parameters;min.template.index - if the parameter contains a numeric index, the minimum parameter index;max.template.index - if the parameter contains a numeric index, the maximum parameter index;premium.min.template.index - if the parameter contains a numeric index, a minimum index for the parameter;premium.max.template.index - if the parameter contains a numeric index, a maximum index for the parameter.There are several examples of usage the metadata Google Analytics API.
To obtain the relevant information metadata:
ga_meta <- list_metadata()List of all outdated parameters and those ones which were replaced:
subset(ga_meta, status == "DEPRECATED", c(id, replaced.by))List of all parameters from certain group:
subset(ga_meta, group == "Traffic Sources", c(id, type))List of all calculated parameters:
subset(ga_meta, !is.na(calculation), c(id, calculation))List of all parameters allowed in segments:
subset(ga_meta, allowed.in.segments, id)List of all templatized parameters:
subset(ga_meta, !is.na(min.template.index) & !is.na(max.template.index), id)RGA package also provide the shiny demo app to access ga dataset:
dimsmets("ga")