Getting fields descriptions with GoogleAdsFieldService

[Luis]

Hi there,

Is it possible to get fields descriptions with GoogleAdsFieldService? If not, what is the best alternative to get fields description programmatically without having to parse and process the online documentation?

Many thanks in advance,

Luis

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Luis,

Thank you for posting your concern.

I am afraid that this is not possible and you will need to collect the description of each Google Ads API service from our document by implemented process on you end.

Regards,

Ernie John Blanca Tacata Google Ads API Team

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[Luis]

Hi Ernie,

Thanks a lot for your answer. How about the field display name? If there a way to programmatically get for a given field the display name as shown in the Google Ads interface? It seems that GoogleAdsFieldService doesn't offer that info neither. I believe it would really make sense that the metadata service GoogleAdsFieldService provided both the display name (as in the UI) and the description, wouldn't it?

Many thanks in advance,

Luis

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Luis,

This is Yasar and I work with Ernie. Let me assist you with this.

Unfortunately, there is no way to programmatically get the display name for a given field as shown in the Google Ads UI using GoogleAdsFieldService. However, I’ve created a feature request on your behalf to support the metadata service GoogleAdsFieldService to include the display name (shown on UI) and the description of the field. Please note that this will be subject for review and for now, you may keep an eye on our blog for any update or announcements.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards,

Yasar Google Ads API Team

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[Luis]

Thanks a lot Yasar. For third party reporting tools this is a essential information. With the AdWords API there used to be a centralized repository (https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/appendix/reports), and for each report you can have in a single place all the information about each field available in the report (type, name, display name, category, enum values, description, etc.). I'm missing this with the Google Ads API, and I guess many other developers too. If the service GoogleAdsFieldService is now the metadata service, I believe it should provide all the information about fields, including display name and description.

Another thing I'm missing in the service GoogleAdsFieldService is that for a given resource it does provide segments and metrics, but not its own attributes. We have been exploring the descriptor at resource level in each class (for instance com.google.ads.googleads.v9.resources.Campaign.getDescriptor()) and then getting the fields, but this way there are significant differences with the attributes that you can find in the online doc for the resource (for instance https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/fields/v9/campaign).

Many thanks,

Luis

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Luis,

Thank you for the additional details regarding what you are looking for in the GoogleAdsFieldService. I have also included this in the recently created feature request. 

As for your other concern, please note that the Google Ads AP's reports are still available and should include the attributes, metrics, and segments data, of a given Google Ads entity or resource.

However, could you also provide specific examples on the details you observed are currently missing? This is so that we can include these as well in the said feature request.

Best regards,

Peter Laurence Napa Oliquino Google Ads API Team

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[Luis]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your answer and for taking my feedback into consideration.

Regarding your comment: 

"As for your other concern, please note that the Google Ads AP's reports are still available and should include the attributes, metrics, and segments data, of a given Google Ads entity or resource." 

>> We are aware of it, but regarding the information available for the AdWords API (https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/appendix/reports) there are 3 relevant missing points in the Google Ads API documentation:

1. There are no field display names as shown in the UI (also missing in GoogleAdsFieldService)

2. There are no enum values' display names as shown in the UI (also missing in GoogleAdsFieldService, and as far as I've been able to see, that info is not available anywhere)

3. There are no downloadable CSV files for each resource, so if you want to exploit the information programmatically your are force to parse and process the online documentation (which can be an error promned process)

Regarding my comment in my previous message:

"Another thing I'm missing in the service GoogleAdsFieldService is that for a given resource it does provide segments and metrics, but not its own attributes. We have been exploring the descriptor at resource level in each class (for instance com.google.ads.googleads.v9.resources.Campaign.getDescriptor()) and then getting the fields, but this way there are significant differences with the attributes that you can find in the online doc for the resource (for instance https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/fields/v9/campaign)."

>> As the service GoogleAdsFieldService doesn't offer the attributes of a given resource, we were trying to programmatically get the fields of a resource using the descriptors in the Java class of the resource, for instance com.google.ads.googleads.v9.resources.Campaign.getDescriptor(). However, if you compare the attributes of a resource obtained that way, with the list of attributes of a resource you can obtain from the online doc, for instance https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/fields/v9/campaign, you will notice that the list of attributes is not exactly the same. For instance for this particular case of the campaign resource (though it happens with many more), the following attributes obtained from the Java class are referenced exactly the same way in the online doc:

campaign.real_time_bidding_setting, campaign.network_settings, campaign.hotel_setting, campaign.dynamic_search_ads_setting, campaign.shopping_setting, campaign.targeting_setting, campaign.geo_target_type_setting, campaign.local_campaign_setting, campaign.app_campaign_setting, campaign.vanity_pharma, campaign.selective_optimization, campaign.optimization_goal_setting, campaign.tracking_setting, campaign.commission, campaign.manual_cpc, campaign.maximize_conversions, campaign.maximize_conversion_value, campaign.target_cpa, campaign.target_impression_share, campaign.target_roas, campaign.target_spend, campaign.percent_cpc

I don't understand why there is such a misalignment with the attributes names, maybe I'm missing something.

As a summary, my main concern by now with the Google Ads API is that there is not an exhaustive and complete inventory of metadata for each resource, as both the service GoogleAdsFieldServic and the online documentation (https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/fields/v9/overview?hl=en) are missing key parts.

Many thanks,

Luis

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Luis,

I work with Peter and will assist you. I brought up with my team your suggestions for a csv downloadable of the fields of each report and the corresponding enums in the UI in our documentation and service. This request is subject to review. You may monitor our blog for an update.

Regarding getting information about report fields from com.google.ads.googleads.v9.resources.Campaign.getDescriptor(), I reproduced that the descriptors don't go to the next level of fields that the campaign report does get to in the documentation. However, when going after for example 

com.google.ads.googleads.v9.resources.Campaign.HotelSettingInfo.getDescriptor()

I received the field as it is in campaign report - google.ads.googleads.v9.resources.Campaign.HotelSettingInfo.hotel_center_id.

Regards,

Aryeh Baker Google Ads API Team

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[Luis]

Hi Aryeh,

Thanks a lot for the tip about the descriptors.

I keep on working with the metadata and the migration of our app, and I just realized that in the documentation about migrating from AdWords reports to Google Ads resources (https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/migration/mapping?hl=en), the detailed fields mapping is missing for one of the reports in the first and main table

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hllmlfuv3hdneo9/2021-12-29_12-07-43.png?dl=0

Many thanks,

Luis

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Luis,

Here's Shared set criteria. I couldn't find shared_set. Let me bring this to my team. You may monitor AdWords API reports to Google Ads API resources for an update.