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google-apigoogle-analytics-apigoogle-api-python-client

How to use segments in Google Analytics API

In Google Analytics, we are able to create segments like below:

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From the Google Analytics API explorer, we can pull the segment information be it by segment id or by its code:

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I would assume we can just cut and paste that code into the google analytics core reporting v3 reference code like we do with all the other parameters:

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When I run the code however, I get this error: 

Arg, there was an API error : 400 : Invalid value 'users::condition::dateOfSession==2015-04-30;ga:sessionCount==1;condition::ga:campaign=@33100;sessions::condition::ga:userType=@Returning Visitor' 
for segment parameter.

I am not sure what could be wrong. When I use the segment id instead in my code for the segment parameter(segment ='gaid::xxxxxxx'), i get this error:

Arg, there was an API error : 400 : Segment XXXXXXXXXXX is not supported in the API.

Not sure how I should structure the code.

Solution

  • I found the solution after tweaking with the segment code and reading more about segments in the segments dev guide.

    I was having issues with the dateOfsession parameter where i should have used '<>' instead of '=' for the date. So this is what i should have done: dateOfsession<>2015-04-30_2015-04-30 Somehow using '==' doesn't work.

    The dateOfsession is a new parameter in the GA API and hence have little examples and documentation about it.