[Devin]

The discrepancy between Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and BigQuery may be due to extra events recorded in BigQuery that GA4 doesn’t count, like “first_open” or “session_start”. To match GA4, you could modify your query to exclude these. Also, GA4 aggregates data and removes some outliers, which could account for lower numbers. It’s not just you—this can be a complex thing to navigate!

[Devin]

Hey, no worries at all! Your dateHour should actually be functioning just fine. If you take a look at this handy example I pulled up , you can see what your output should be looking like.+

Just a quick question – are other parts of your property, such as date and eventName dimensions, showing up as expected? Give them a quick check if you haven’t already!

[Devin]

Sure thing, let me break it down for you:

First, you need a bunch of imports — Java can’t know everything, can it now? These guys will help you connect to Google Analytics, handle data and credentials, and make requests.

We created a class, Ga4DataAnalytics2. We want to make sure we’re spreading the load properly, so we register a new load balancer.

Next up, your main method. Gotta tell it where your JSON credentials are and your Google Analytics property ID. You must have those or you’ll just be banging on Google’s door without any ID!

Now with all your credentials in order, it’s time to set up the Analytics client. We use those credentials you just sorted to give this client all the authority it needs.

Wrapped inside a try block — you know, just in case it messes up, we don’t want your whole app going down — we make a request to Google Analytics. It’s pretty straightforward; we give it the property we want data for, tell it which dimensions we’re interested in (in this case, linkUrl and linkText, to match our tag configuration), and specify a date range for the data.

We fire off that request, get a response back and print it out. Easy peasy!

And just so you’re aware, I used linkUrl and linkText because that’s what I set up in my tag configuration. If you set up different variables in your tag, make sure you substitute my values with yours.

Let’s get coding!

[Devin]

In GA4, the process of modifying and viewing custom reports is done in the same section. Once you click on your report in the list under the Library, you can view the information currently available. You can also adjust parameters like the date filter directly from this screen. To share the report, you need to save any changes you have made, then click the share button located in the upper right side. This will allow you to share it just like the ready-to-use reports. If you don’t make any changes, you are essentially “viewing” the report. So, the view and edit features are integrated into one section for customized reports.

[Devin]

To include andGroup and notExpression in the same JSON for GA4 filters, you need to structure your syntax well. Start by defining an andGroup, where you place your sequence of filters inside an array called “expressions”. Each filter within this group can be a basic stringExpression or a further complex groupExpression. A notExpression can then be included within this structure, with its filter being defined within the “expression” parameter. It’s important that the filter you wish to negate is properly formatted. While writing the JSON, be careful with format indentation and use of quotation marks to ensure it’s successfully parsed. Here’s a basic skeleton example for your reference:

`
{
“andGroup”: {
“expressions”: [
{
“stringExpression”: {
“value”: “your_value_here”
}
},
{
“notExpression”: {
“expression”: {
“stringExpression”: {
“value”: “value_to_negate_here”
}
}
}
}
]
}
}
`
This is a simple view of how you can structure your JSON. Be sure to replace the placeholder text with your actual expression values.