All Requests to Youtube Analytics API via Google PHP Library Results in 400 Bad Request

Question

I am able to successfully make requests to Youtube Analytics API via the API Explorer. My code is attempting to use the Google PHP Client library, specifically the Google_Service_YouTubeAnalytics class. Unfortunately, there is no documentation on this class.

I am setting the ID and Assertion Credentials on the client. I'm fairly confident this is working correctly, because if I change the private key to something I know to be incorrect, I get:

{"code":400,"error":"Error refreshing the OAuth2 token, message: '{\n \"error\" : \"invalid_grant\"\n}'"}

But when I insert the correct private key, I get the following response:

{"code":400,"error":"Error calling GET https:\/\/www.googleapis.com\/youtube\/analytics\/v1\/reports?ids=channel%3D%3DCHANNEL_ID&start-date=2014-09-01&end-date=2014-09-05&metrics=views%2Cuniques: (400) Invalid query. Query did not conform to the expectations."}

It doesn't tell me what is invalid about the query (which would be incredibly helpful), so I have no idea what I could be doing incorrectly. Any help is appreciated.

Here is my code that makes the request:

$client = new \Google_Client();
$client->setApplicationName(self::APP_NAME);

// set some stuff
$client->setClientId( self::CLIENT_ID );
$client->setClientSecret( self::CLIENT_SECRET );
$client->setAssertionCredentials(new \Google_Auth_AssertionCredentials(
    self::CRED_ID,
    [
        "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly",
        'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/yt-analytics.readonly'
    ],
    self::youtubeKey()
));

$youtubeService = new \Google_Service_YouTubeAnalytics($client);
$resp = $youtubeService->reports->query(
    self::CHANNEL_ID,
    '2014-09-01',
    '2014-09-05',
    'views,uniques'
);

Answer 1

You are making a not supported query, it's no possible to use views & uniques with no dimensions provided. You can check it in Youtube's Analytics API Reference.

Try add it a dimension like day and it will work:

$youtubeService = new \Google_Service_YouTubeAnalytics($client);
$resp = $youtubeService->reports->query(
    self::CHANNEL_ID,
    '2014-09-01',
    '2014-09-05',
    'views,uniques',
    array('dimensions' => 'day')
);

That query will get a Response similar to:

200 OK

- Show headers -

{
 "kind": "youtubeAnalytics#resultTable",
 "columnHeaders": [
  {
   "name": "day",
   "columnType": "DIMENSION",
   "dataType": "STRING"
  },
  {
   "name": "views",
   "columnType": "METRIC",
   "dataType": "INTEGER"
  },
  {
   "name": "uniques",
   "columnType": "METRIC",
   "dataType": "INTEGER"
  }
 ],
 "rows": [
  [
   "2014-09-04",
   1250,
   621
  ],
  [
   "2014-09-05",
   1265,
   577
  ],
  [
   "2014-09-03",
   1255,
   557
  ],
  [
   "2014-09-01",
   1076,
   532
  ],
  [
   "2014-09-02",
   1182,
   570
  ]
 ]
}

Google's APIs Explorer is a very useful tool in order to test your queries.

---

For documentation purposes you can have a look to the source code and the classes themselves, they are very well documented and "maybe" self-explanatory.

• YouTubeAnalytics.php
• Client.php

---

A newer approach is to make requests to this API using oAuth 2.0 protocol for authorizing access.
Google provides an amazing resource to try all this stuff: OAuth 2.0 Playground

Basically, you need to get an access token and its refresh token to apply it when the prior expires.

$client = new \Google_Client();
$client->setApplicationName(self::APP_NAME);

// set some stuff
$client->setClientId( self::CLIENT_ID );
$client->setClientSecret( self::CLIENT_SECRET );

// Set oAuth info
$client->addScope(\Google_Service_YouTubeAnalytics::YT_ANALYTICS_READONLY);
$client->setAccessToken($accessToken);

// Check if token is expired
if ($client->isAccessTokenExpired()) {
    $client->refreshToken($refreshToken());
    $newToken = $client->getAccessToken();

    $authObj = json_decode($newToken);
    if (!is_object($authObj)) {
        throw new \Google_Auth_Exception('Error on updating oAuth tokens');
    }

    //update tokens
    //...            
}

$youtubeService = new \Google_Service_YouTubeAnalytics($client);

Hope it helps!