Changes made through the API

[Péter Gerő]

Hi,

Is there a way to determine if a specific change in the account ( preferably logged and accessible in the change history ) has been made through the AdWords API or manually ( through the UI or editor)?

We have a tool using the PHP client library, which performs several operations ( reporting and updates as well ) after the user grants access to its AdWords account, so by looking at the change history manually, the user itself is displayed, and we don't have any way ( except the time and date of the change, which is not sufficient ) to determine, if it was made by our tool, or the user.

The reason behind it would be to give some information about our tools activity to our clients.

Thanks,

Peter Gerő

[Bharani Cherukuri (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Peter, 

These changes can be viewed through the AdWords UI by logging into the client account. You will need to follow these steps: 

1. Click the Tools tab and select Change History.
2. Click on the Filter drop-down menu and select Create filter.
3. In the filter, select Tool from the first drop-down menu and then select AdWords API from the second drop-down menu

Regards,

Bharani, AdWords API Team

[Péter Gerő]

Hi Bharani,

Thanks for the detailed answer, I wasn't familiar with the "User" and "Tool" filter types in the UI, I think these may have been added after last time I have checked it ( didn't see any updates about this though ).

I couldn't find any way to do this automatically ( through CustomerSyncService I'm able to filter only date, campaign and adgroup ids ), so is it possible only manually?

Is there any way - apart from our own logs - to get information about the data downloaded through the API? ( "what did our tool have access to" )

Thanks,

Peter

[Bharani Cherukuri (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Peter, 

I'm afraid, it is not possible to view changes specifically made from the AdWords UI and the API, using the AdWords API. The CustomerSyncService can be used to retrieve the changed entities for a customer account or a campaign based on the given date range as long as it is within the last 90 days. We currently do not have a report type that downloads the change history data. However, you could perform the CustomerSyncService.get() which returns all the changed entities in a customer account and this does not categorize between the UI and API separately. This said, I will share your interest with the rest of the team. Please keep an eye out on our blog for any new announcements.

Regards,

Bharani, AdWords API Team

On Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 1:06:21 PM UTC-5, Péter Gerő wrote: