CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-analytics
Shlomi
Shlomi

Reputation: 3792

Google Analytics real-time - keep alive

i have a realtime platform when users are staying on pages for a long duration, i found that after 5 minutes (more or less) the GA realtime stop show them so i created timer that each 4 minutes send pageview and this way all users remain "connected" to GA.

I wonder if it's a good approach or it's can may produce un-accurate data on the reports later.

Is anyone experienced that?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1091

Answers (1)

Eike Pierstorff
Eike Pierstorff

Reputation: 32770

Your terminology seems a little off - users do not become "disconnected" from Google Analytics, the difference between realtime reports and data from the reporting api is that the former shows only a subset of ad hoc computed dimensions and metrics whereas the reporting api shows, after some processing latency, the full set of metrics and dimensions, including stuff that required more processing time like session- and user scoped data.

Other than that your approach is fine. There is a limit on the number of API calls you are allowed to make - the documentation has an example on how to calculate your calls to stay within the limits, and Google suggests to implement some sort of serverside caching if you do need a lot of realtime dashboards.

But this is not going to affect the data quality of reports in any way. Realtime API is a read-only API, the worst thing that can happen is that you exceed your quota and get blocked for the rest of the day. So there is no way this would create "un-accurate data on the reports later".

Upvotes: 1

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