Professional, performant and accessible Joomla extensions

Introduction

The DPAnalytics Google Analytics plugin integrates the widely known Google Analytics service into Joomla. The plugin adds a tracking code to your web site which does allow Google Analytics to analyze your visitors behavior. Additionally it is able to track none HTML page requests.

Google Analytics is a powerful web analytics tool provided by Google, designed to help businesses and website owners understand and analyze their web traffic. By leveraging Google Analytics, users can gain valuable insights into how visitors interact with their website, track key metrics, and make informed decisions to optimize their online presence. While Google Analytics is an invaluable tool for understanding website performance and user behavior, its use raises several privacy concerns that businesses and website owners must address. These concerns stem from the data collection practices and legal regulations governing user privacy in different regions.

1. Traffic Analysis
   Track the number of visitors, their geographic location, device usage, and referral sources to understand how users find your site.

2. User Behavior Insights
   Analyze how visitors navigate your site, including pages viewed, time spent on each page, and bounce rates.

3. Goals and Conversions
   Set up goals to track specific user actions like form submissions, purchases, or sign-ups, and measure your website's performance in achieving these objectives.

4. Real-Time Data
   Monitor user activity on your site in real-time to track immediate trends and events.

5. Custom Reports
   Create tailored reports to focus on metrics that matter most to your business.

6. Integration with Other Google Services
   Seamlessly connect with tools like Google Ads, Google Tag Manager, and Search Console to enhance your data tracking capabilities.

Create API project

Select in the top bar a project, when you open the console the first time, Google creates an initial "API Project" for you automatically. Then click on the "Enable API's And Services" link.

Enable API

You will get redirected to the API search page. Search for "analytics data" and click on the Google Calendar API result. Now a page comes up where you can activate by clicking on the "Enable" link.

Create client

Go to the "Google Auth Platform", define the branding with a name, support E-Mail and authorized domains. Then go to the clients views and click now on the "Create Client" button and then choose "Web application" from the application list. Put into the "Authorized Javascript origins" your web site url. You have to make sure to set url correctly without any path, and it must start with https. In the "Authorized redirect URIs" field you have to put an url with the following parameters:

https://www.example.com/administrator/index.php?option=com_dpanalytics&task=plugin.action&plugin=google&action=import

Replace example.com with your web site url. This url is important, if it is wrong you can't import the refresh token, you will get a redirect_uri_mismatch error! Yo need also to use HTTPS as scheme as HTTP is not supported. Then click on "Create". After the API client is created, the list of apps is shown. Click on the new client to get the screen with the "Client ID and Secret". Now you are seeing the actual credentials which will be used then later for the import.

Import the refresh token

1. Open the DPAnalytics Google plugin in the back end.
2. An import dialog is opened where the Client ID and Client Secret from the google developer console can be copied to the form. Make sure you are logged in with the Google account you want to import the calendars, otherwise you will get an error like "Could not json decode the token"!
3. Click the "Import" button.
4. Accept the permission questions from Google. If you get a message, that the app isn't verified, then click on the "Show advanced" link and then on the "Go to sitename" link. It will forward you to the permissions page.
5. The "Client ID/Secrets" and the refresh token should be imported into the DPAnalytics Google Analytics plugin.