Google Analytics (GA4) plugin
For more information about what this plugin does and the data streams it retrieves, see:
To add a data source click on the + next to Data Sources on the left-hand menu in SquaredUp. Search for the data source and click on it to open the Configure data source page.
There are two Google Analytics data sources, this article covers the v4 version which is most frequently referred to as GA4. Users are being forced from UA to the newer GA4 with UA being end-of-life mid-2023.
See Google Analytics UA plugin.
Before you start
In the GCP console select your project and ensure that the following are enabled:
- Google Analytics Data API
- Google Analytics Admin API are enabled
GCP Service Account Configuration
- Create a new Service Account, or edit an existing account.
See GCP - Creating and managing service accounts. - Ensure the account has the role Viewer by adding the role Basic > Viewer.
See GCP - Grant a single role. - Create a new key for the Service Account using the key type JSON. Download the JSON file as you will need to copy information from this JSON file when adding the data source next.
See GCP - Creating service account keys .Make sure to store the key file securely, because it can be used to authenticate as your service account.
Configuring the data source
- Open the JSON file that you downloaded when creating the key.
- Copy and paste the clientEmail from the JSON file into the data source form.
- Copy and paste the private_key from the JSON file into the data source form (everything between the quotes).
Restrict access to this data source:
You can enable this option if you only want certain users or groups to have access to the data source, or the permission to link it to new workspaces. See data source access control for more information.The term data source here really means data source instance. For example, a user may configure two instances of the AWS data source, one for their development environment and one for production. In that case, each data source instance has its own access control settings.
By default, Restrict access to this data source is set to off. The data source can be viewed, edited and administered by anyone. If you would like to control who has access to this data source, switch Restrict access to this data source to on.
Use the Restrict access to this data source dropdown to control who has access to the workspace:
- By default, the user setting the permissions for the data source will be given Full Control and the Everyone group will be given Link to workspace permissions.
- Tailor access to the data source, as required, by selecting individual users or user groups from the dropdown and giving them Link to workspace or Full Control permissions.
- If the user is not available from the dropdown, you are able to invite them to the data source by typing in their email address and then clicking Add. The new user will then receive an email inviting them to create an account on SquaredUp. Once the account has been created, they will gain access to the organization.
- At least one user or group must be given Full Control.
- Admin users can edit the configuration, modify the Access Control List (ACL) and delete the data source, regardless of the ACL chosen.
See Access control for more information.
Click Add.
You can also add a data source from Settings > Data Sources > Add data source, but sample dashboards are not added when using this method.
Next steps
Creating data streams
The data source will index the Google Analytics accounts and the properties which belong to them.
Currently all data streams require that at least one Properties item be scoped to produce data. Once scoped the user will have the choice of a couple built-in data streams as well as two configurable data streams details below.
The GA4 Query Explorer can be helpful for looking up metrics and dimensions.
Data streams
The following data streams are installed with this plugin.
Data streams standardize data from all the different shapes and formats your tools use into a straightforward tabular format.
While creating a tile you can tweak data streams by grouping or aggregating specific columns.
Depending on the kind of data, SquaredUp will automatically suggest how to visualize the result, for example as a table or line graph.
Data streams can be either global or scoped:
- Global data streams are unscoped and return information of a general nature (e.g. "Get the current number of unused hosts").
- A scoped data stream gets information relevant to the specific set objects supplied in the tile scope (e.g. "Get the current session count for these hosts").
See Data Streams for more information.
This configurable data stream accepts one or more metrics (e.g. activeUsers) and returns that metric for the scoped property in a graphable format.
Optionally, a single dimension (e.g. browser) returns the data grouped by the dimension for the scoped property. Using these two examples would give you website users per browser.
This is the least constrictive configurable data stream. It accepts JSON request format found at the bottom of the GA4 Query Explorer page, and will return data as a table.