How do I call Google Analytics Admin API (for GA4) using an OAuth2 client in node.js? - node.js

Question

I've noticed that all the node.js code samples for Google Analytics Admin and Google Analytics Data assume a service account and either a JSON file or a GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable.
e.g.
const analyticsAdmin = require('#google-analytics/admin');
async function main() {
// Instantiates a client using default credentials.
// TODO(developer): uncomment and use the following line in order to
// manually set the path to the service account JSON file instead of
// using the value from the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment
// variable.
// const analyticsAdminClient = new analyticsAdmin.AnalyticsAdminServiceClient(
// {keyFilename: "your_key_json_file_path"});
const analyticsAdminClient = new analyticsAdmin.AnalyticsAdminServiceClient();
const [accounts] = await analyticsAdminClient.listAccounts();
console.log('Accounts:');
accounts.forEach(account => {
console.log(account);
});
}
I am building a service which allows users to use their own account to access their own data, so using a service account is not appropriate.
I initially thought I might be able to use the google-api-node-client -- Auth would be handled by building a URL to redirect and do the oauth dance...
Using google-api-nodejs-client:
const {google} = require('googleapis');
const oauth2Client = new google.auth.OAuth2(
YOUR_CLIENT_ID,
YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET,
YOUR_REDIRECT_URL
);
// generate a url that asks permissions for Google Analytics scopes
const scopes = [
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/analytics", // View and manage your Google Analytics data
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/analytics.readonly", // View your Google Analytics data
];
const url = oauth2Client.generateAuthUrl({
access_type: 'offline',
scope: scopes
});
// redirect to `url` in a popup for the oauth dance
After auth, Google redirects to GET /oauthcallback?code={authorizationCode}, so we collect the code and get the token to perform subsequent OAuth2 enabled calls:
// This will provide an object with the access_token and refresh_token.
// Save these somewhere safe so they can be used at a later time.
const {tokens} = await oauth2Client.getToken(code)
oauth2Client.setCredentials(tokens);
// of course we need to handle the refresh token too
This all works fine, but is it possible to plug the OAuth2 client from the google-api-node-client code into the google-analytics-admin code?
👉 It looks like I need to somehow call analyticsAdmin.AnalyticsAdminServiceClient() with the access token I've already retrieved - but how?

Answer 1

The simple answer here is don't bother with the Node.js libraries for Google Analytics Admin & Google Analytics Data.
Cut out the middleman and build a very simple wrapper yourself which queries the REST APIs directly. Then you will have visibility on the whole of the process, and any errors made will be your own.
Provided you handle the refresh token correctly, this is likely all you need:
const getResponse = async (url, accessToken, options = {}) => {
const response = await fetch(url, {
...options,
headers: {
Authorization: `Bearer ${accessToken}`,
},
});
return response;
};

Answer 2

I use Python but the method could be similar. You should create a Credentials object based on the obtained token:
credentials = google.auth.credentials.Credentials(token=YOUR_TOKEN)
Then use it to create the client:
from google.analytics.admin import AnalyticsAdminServiceClient
client = AnalyticsAdminServiceClient(credentials=credentials)
client.list_account_summaries()