An application programming interface, or API, co-ordinates how different software components interact with each other. The Google Analytics API both sends and retrieves data, ultimately making possible the reports that you want to generate. There are collection APIs that allow you to measure how users interact with your content and marketing initiatives, reporting APIs that allow you to create reports, and a Management API to access configuration data.
The Google Analytics Core Reporting API allows you to build customs dashboards to display the data retrieved from Google Analytics, automate complex reporting tasks, and integrate Google Analytics with other applications.
You ask the Google Analytics API for report data, which is stored as either dimensions or metrics. Metrics are information relating to user activity on your Website where as dimensions organize those metrics into categories such as language, or country, or referral, or browser, among other potential criteria. The metrics, in other words, describe the visitor while the dimensions document their activities on your Website. The API gathers information based on the metrics and dimensions specified.
The API returns data in the form of a table. A header describes the data type contained in each column. The rows break down the data collected. The Google Analytics API co-ordinates millions of operations. The Google Help function describes in detail what the various APIs are doing and how to use them.
The Management API allows you to manage the hierarchy of User IDs within your enterprise. It also allows you to see how the data is being accessed throughout your organization, although it is not through this API that the actual data is accessed.
Google Analytics has a number of entries to help you through the various APIs, understand their separate functions, and allow you to use them to compile the reports you want as well as keep an eye on how the system is being used throughout your organization. We at Devrun Web Agency can help you to take advantage of all it has to offer. Contact us today to find out more about our services.
