Google Analytics Measurement Protocol

Question

I tried to use google analytics to track some more custom data. So I thought I use the events. The following is the code I tried where I replaced the uuid and user agent:

<?php
function gen_uuid() {
return sprintf( '%04x%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x%04x%04x',
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
mt_rand( 0, 0x0fff ) | 0x4000,
mt_rand( 0, 0x3fff ) | 0x8000,
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff )
);
}

$data = array(
'v' => 1,
'tid' => 'UA-********-**',
'cid' => gen_uuid(),
't' => 'event'
);


$data['ec'] = "category";
$data['ea'] = "product";
$data['el'] = "element";
$data['ev'] = "34";


$url = 'http://www.google-analytics.com/collect';
$content = http_build_query($data);
$content = utf8_encode($content);
$user_agent = 'Example/1.0 (http://example.com/)';


$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $user_agent);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,array('Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded'));
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION,CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, TRUE);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $content);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
?>

Am I missing something?

Domesticity

Why do you think am i missing something? – Relish

because it doesn´t seem to work. or at least I don´t get any events logged in google analytics. – Domesticity

Can you add some examples of the final value for $data? In the end that's what matters when you are dealing with the measurement protocol – Brandes

this should help stumiller.me/… may be similar to what you're trying. – Bipod

Remember that Google analytics pet default only gives you data up untill yesterday. You have to choose your interval and make sure to specifically include today's date. – Borchardt

Answer 1

I've tested your code and it works.

But to help you debug this, change the /collect path to /debug/collect and Google will validate your hit.

Try:

<?php
function gen_uuid() {
return sprintf( '%04x%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x%04x%04x',
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
mt_rand( 0, 0x0fff ) | 0x4000,
mt_rand( 0, 0x3fff ) | 0x8000,
mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff )
);
}

$data = array(
'v' => 1,
'tid' => 'UA-1111111-1',
'cid' => gen_uuid(),
't' => 'event'
);


$data['ec'] = "category";
$data['ea'] = "product";
$data['el'] = "element";
$data['ev'] = "34";


$url = 'https://www.google-analytics.com/debug/collect';
$content = http_build_query($data);
$content = utf8_encode($content);
$user_agent = 'Example/1.0 (http://example.com/)';


$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $user_agent);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,array('Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded'));
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION,CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, TRUE);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $content);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
?>

And, make sure to go to the Real Time reports to check if your hits are being processed.

Gessner

Couldn't people add data to somebody else reports with this? If you knew their UA. – Chacha

Sure Gary! It's important to regularly check your hostnames report and/or implement some hit filters to guarantee that your official view/report only contains your desired data collection. – Gessner

I've tried this code and it seems ok in debug mode, but it returns a 500 Error when executed on google-analytics.com/collect. What should I check? – Swearingen

If you're using Measurement Protocol (/mp/collect) and you want to debug your request you should send requests to Measurement Protocol Validation Server (/debug/mp/collect). Details: developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/… – Micrometeorite

Answer 2

You can try this

        <?php
        function gen_uuid() {
        return sprintf( '%04x%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x%04x%04x',
        mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
        mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
        mt_rand( 0, 0x0fff ) | 0x4000,
        mt_rand( 0, 0x3fff ) | 0x8000,
        mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff )
        );
        }

        $data = array(
        'v' => 1,
        'tid' => 'UA-********-**',
        'cid' => gen_uuid(),
        't' => 'event'
        );


        $data['ec'] = "category";
        $data['ea'] = "product";
        $data['el'] = "element";
        $data['ev'] = "34";


        $url = 'http://www.google-analytics.com/collect';
        $content = http_build_query($data);
        $content = utf8_encode($content);
        $user_agent = 'Example/1.0 (http://example.com/)';


        $ch = curl_init();
        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $user_agent);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,array('Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded'));
        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION,CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1);
        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, TRUE);
        curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $content);
        curl_exec($ch);
        curl_close($ch);
        ?>

I think this may works

Footworn