Updated March 2012. New code and demo posted to GitHub

The Hooking into Google Analytics post details how to connect to the Data Export API of Google Analytics (GA) and get a simple visitors count in return. Here we will expand greatly on that and create a cfc that will process just about any result from the API.

This code requires at least ColdFusion 8.0.1. Check your version before installing.

An auth token is needed for requests to the API and two ways to do that are the AuthSub and ClentLogin methods. The method used is up to the developer as once the auth token is retrieved and set into session, data calls to the API can be repeatedly made.

<cffunction name="googleLogin" access="public" hint="GA account authorization">
        <cfargument name="email" type="string" required="yes" default="">
        <cfargument name="password" type="string"required="yes" default="">
        <cfargument name="gaLoginUrl" type="string" required="no" default="https://www.google.com/accounts/ClientLogin">
    
        <cfset var loginAuth = "" />
           
        <cfhttp url="#arguments.gaLoginUrl#" method="post">
            <cfhttpparam name="accountType" type="url" value="GOOGLE">
            <cfhttpparam name="Email" type="url" value="#arguments.email#">
            <cfhttpparam name="Passwd" type="url" value="#arguments.password#">
            <cfhttpparam name="service" type="url" value="analytics">
            <cfhttpparam name="source" type="url" value="my-analytics">
        </cfhttp>
    
        <cfif NOT FindNoCase("Auth=",cfhttp.filecontent)>
            <cfset loginAuth = "Authorization Failed" />
        <cfelse>
            <cfset loginAuth = Mid(cfhttp.filecontent, FindNoCase("Auth=",cfhttp.filecontent) + (Len("Auth=")), Len(cfhttp.filecontent)) />
        </cfif>
        
         <cflock scope="session" type="exclusive" timeout="5">
                <cfset session.ga_loginAuth = loginAuth />
         </cflock>

    </cffunction>

To retrieve the profile or data feed, a call is made to the API via a function.

   <cffunction name="callApi" access="public" returntype="array" hint="GA data as array of structures">
        <cfargument name="gaUrl" type="string" required="yes">
        <cfargument name="authToken" type="string" required="no" default="#session.ga_loginAuth#" />
            
        <cfset var authTokenHeader = 'GoogleLogin auth=' & arguments.authToken />
        
        <cfset var responseOutput = "" />
           
        <cfhttp url="#arguments.gaUrl#" method="get">
            <cfhttpparam name="Authorization" type="header" value="#authTokenHeader#">
        </cfhttp>
        
        <cfset responseOutput = cfhttp.filecontent />      
        <!---remove dxp: prefix from nodes that have it and strip xmlns from feed element--->
         <cfset responseOutput = responseOutput.ReplaceAll("(</?)(\w+:)","$1") />
         <cfset responseOutput = REReplaceNoCase(responseOutput,"<feed[^>]*>","<feed>") />
         <!---entry nodes hold the data--->
         <cfset entryNodes = XmlSearch(responseOutput, '//entry/') />
         
         <cfreturn entryNodes />
    </cffunction>

Next, a list of the profiles (websites) that the user has access to are retrieved by requesting an account feed. If the user has only one profile associated with their credentials, the data is displayed immediately. If they have more than one, they are presented with a select box to select the profile they want data from.

<cfinvoke component="ga" method="parseProfiles" returnvariable="profilesArray"></cfinvoke>

 <cffunction name="parseProfiles" access="public" returntype="array" hint="GA profiles as array of structures">
    
	<cfset var profileArray = ArrayNew(1) />
        <cfset var entryStruct = StructNew() />
        
        <cfset entryNodes = callApi("https://www.google.com/analytics/feeds/accounts/default") />
        
        <cfloop array="#entryNodes#" index="entry">
            <cfset entryStruct = StructNew() />
        
            <cfset entryStruct.title = entry.title.XmlText />
            <cfset entryStruct.tableId = entry.tableId.XmlText />
         
            <cfset arrayAppend(profileArray,duplicate(entryStruct)) />       
        </cfloop>
		
        <cfreturn profileArray />        
    </cffunction>

A default date range of one year is set initially. A dialog box that allows the user to change the date range is presented as an option. The date range is limited to a max date of yesterday because GA does not have full data for the current day. This causes the averages that are calculated on the return data to be skewed.

A data feed request url is sent to GA along with the auth token a via cfhttp tag.

<cfset reqUrl = "https://www.google.com/analytics/feeds/data?ids=" & session.tableId & "&metrics=ga:newVisits,ga:pageviews,ga:visits,ga:visitors,ga:timeOnSite&start-date=" & session.startdate & "&end-date=" & session.enddate />

The XML response is then parsed out and returned as an array of structures.

<cffunction name="parseData" access="public" hint="GA data as array of structures set in session">
        <cfargument name="gaUrl" type="string" required="yes" />
        <cfargument name="arrayName" type="string"required="yes" />
              
        <cfset var dataArray = ArrayNew(1) />
        <cfset var entryStruct = StructNew() />
                  
         <cfset entryNodes = callApi(arguments.gaUrl) />
         
        <!---CF8 loop through the entries and put each data point in structure--->
        <cfloop from="1" to="#ArrayLen(entryNodes)#" index="num">
		<!---rest of the stats data from GA, first check if dimension exists--->
		<cfif StructKeyExists(entryNodes[num],"dimension")>
		<cfloop from="1" to="#ArrayLen(entryNodes[num].dimension)#" index="i">
		<!---start after ga: to remove it--->
		<cfset "entryStruct.#Mid(entryNodes[num].dimension[i].XmlAttributes["name"],4,
Len(entryNodes[num].dimension[i].XmlAttributes["name"]))#" = entryNodes[num].dimension[i].XmlAttributes["value"] />
		</cfloop>
		</cfif>

		<cfloop from="1" to="#ArrayLen(entryNodes[num].metric)#" index="i">
			<cfset "entryStruct.#Mid(entryNodes[num].metric[i].XmlAttributes["name"],4,
Len(entryNodes[num].metric[i].XmlAttributes["name"]))#" = entryNodes[num].metric[i].XmlAttributes["value"] />
		</cfloop>

		<cfset arrayAppend(dataArray,duplicate(entryStruct)) />

	</cfloop>
                  
         <!---CF9 can use this simplier loop. If you have CF9, uncomment and delete loop above
            <cfloop array="#entryNodes#" index="entry">
		<cfif StructKeyExists(entry,"dimension")>
                	<cfloop array="#entry.dimension#" index="dimension">
                 	<cfset "entryStruct.#Mid(dimension.XmlAttributes["name"],4,
Len(dimension.XmlAttributes["name"]))#" = dimension.XmlAttributes["value"] />
                 	</cfloop>
                 </cfif>
                 
                 <cfloop array="#entry.metric#" index="metric">
                 	<cfset "entryStruct.#Mid(metric.XmlAttributes["name"],4,
Len(metric.XmlAttributes["name"]))#" = metric.XmlAttributes["value"] />
                  </cfloop>

                <cfset arrayAppend(dataArray,duplicate(entryStruct)) />       
           </cfloop>--->
       
        	<cflock scope="session" type="exclusive" timeout="5">
        		<cfset "session.#arrayName#" = dataArray />
        	</cflock>
       
    </cffunction>

Once the data is in a form you can manipulate, graphs, tables, and charts of all kinds can be made.

ClientLogin, AuthSub, and Secure AuthSub authentication examples are included in the demo. ClientLogin recommended only for client apps. Google notice on using ClientLogin:

“Important: Do not use ClientLogin if you are writing an application that runs on
your computer to make requests on behalf of 3rd party end users. Instead, use either
AuthSub or OAuth, which protects end users’ private data. Because ClientLogin stores
the user login data, it should only be used in cases where that data is under the
direct control of the user (e.g. their personal computer).”

Recommended Reading

Download files from github

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