[GA-API] Question about ga:month

[chrissky]

http://www.google.com/analytics/feeds/data?ids=ga:xxx&dimensions=ga:month&metrics=ga:visits&start-date=2009-01-01&end-date=2009-12-31

- you get entries for each month (Jan-Dec)

But for this query

http://www.google.com/analytics/feeds/data?ids=ga:xxx&dimensions=ga:month,ga:visitorType&metrics=ga:visits&start-date=2009-01-01&end-date=2009-12-31

- you get entries only for months with data (Oct-Dec)

Is that by design? It seems inconsistent.

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[chrissky]

Just bumbing my own post since I had yet another client ask why this
was the case.

[jk]

What are your numbers for Jan - Sept in your first query? If they were
0 visits for these months, then you will have no data to report for
the visitorType in the next query.

When did you install the analytics tracking code on the site? I'm
guessing that it wasn't installed until Oct 2009.

You can try out your queries here: http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/gdata/gdataExplorer.html

I duplicated what you are talking about and I had 0 visits in the
first query for the missing months in the second query. In other
words, there was no data for the second query to return so it did not
return any.

On May 6, 1:11 am, chrissky wrote:
> Just bumbing my own post since I had yet another client ask why this
> was the case.
>
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[chrissky]

I'll still call it inconsistent since the same argument can be made if
only ga:month is present. But in that case it does return entries. I'm
not asking why - I'm asking why it is inconsistent.

[Nick]

Hi Chris,

It's by design. Dimensions are all treated as strings. For a date
range we know what should be filled in, but for other dimensions we
have no way of knowing how many and what the values should be.

If you feel there should be a different response, feel free to open up
a feature request with what you think should be there instead.

Thanks!
-Nick

[chrissky]

Hey,

Ok. That makes sense. But I think that for typical use cases it would
be better to always "fill in" months (and other time dimensions which
behave that way). Perhaps the feed schema needs to support having null
values for other dimension members.

<dxp:dimension name="ga:visitorType" xsi:null="true" value="" />

I'll open a feature request. But I'd be curious to hear others
opinions.

- Chris

[Nick]

Thanks,

I would like to hear if others have been running into this as well.

Right now ga:visitorType returns 2 values New Visitor and Returning
Visitor. So for each month, two feed entries will be added, or put
another way the month dimension will be replicated twice. So how many
times would you replicate for this null entry?

Would you keep the table structure consistent and return 2 entries for
each month with null visitorType values or only return 1 month for
each?
Both approaches have pros and cons. Is it better to let developers
decide as we do now?

-Nick

[chrissky]

I had been thinking one entry (because ga:month, etc. are special),
but I can see an argument being made to have two. What say you are the
pros and cons, Nick? That might help other ponder it.