Fixing the Google Analytics API (v3) examples

I'm currently working on consuming data from the Google Analytics API for one of the data sources we're using at Eysys.

So far, so normal. But what was strange was the poor state of the Google Analytics API documentation. I don't think I've ever seen one of their APIs be documented so poorly - missing source code, typos in example source code provided, a real rambling tone to the docs pointing off to different areas (a lot of this is to do with the OAuth 2.0 hoops you have to jump through before even starting to pull down the data you want to analyse).

I also couldn't believe how many dependencies the API has - I ended up with 29 jar files in my Eclipse project's lib folder! Surely this could all be a lot leaner, meaner and easier - it's just an API returning JSON data at the end of the day..

Anyway, if you're interested in getting up and running with the API examples, here's what to fix.

First of all, there is actually missing source code in the distro itself (or at least the one I used - google-api-services-analytics-v3-rev10-1.7.2-beta.zip), so you need to get LocalServerReceiver, OAuth2Native and VerificationCodeReceiver directly from the Google code repo.

LocalServerReceiver uses an old version of Jetty, so we need to migrate it to use the latest Jetty (I used 8.1.4.v20120524) which now has an org.eclipse.* package structure. So we need to update the imports as follows:

import org.eclipse.jetty.server.Connector;
import org.eclipse.jetty.server.Request;
import org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server;
import org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.AbstractHandler;

Refreshing Jetty will also necessitate upgrading the handle(..) method to fit in with the new signature, as follows:

@Override
public void handle(String target, Request arg1,
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
throws IOException, ServletException {
if (!CALLBACK_PATH.equals(target)) {
return;
}
writeLandingHtml(response);
response.flushBuffer();
((Request) request).setHandled(true);
String error = request.getParameter("error");
if (error != null) {
System.out.println("Authorization failed. Error=" + error);
System.out.println("Quitting.");
System.exit(1);
}
code = request.getParameter("code");
synchronized (LocalServerReceiver.this) {
LocalServerReceiver.this.notify();
}
}


There's also a small mod to be made in getRedirectUri(), change this line:

server.addHandler(new CallbackHandler());

to this instead:

server.setHandler(new CallbackHandler());


The logic of this class also seems pretty flawed to me - generating a random port for the redirect URI that OAuth calls back to at the end of authentication every time it's run, which by definition you won't be able to put into the APIs console. So I commented out the getUnusedPort() method and simply hard-coded one.

And after these mods, hey presto it works! :-)

Google IO 2011 (#io2011) - day one recap

The official Google code site  has the lowdown on all of the announcements that came thick and fast today (some 11 major items last time I checked and plenty of API revs and upgrades) and I won't replay them all here.

Specific announcements that interested me today:

Google Go is about to become an officially supported language on App Engine, alongside Python and Java (it's currently in "Trusted Tester" mode).

Rhetorical question: what value does a complete end-to-end technology stack with no overhanging IPR issues or blockers have to Google as a potential insurance policy in case the Oracle lawsuit does not go in their favor / be settled reasonably? Two things I heard today convinced me that there is now serious engineering investment going into Go (as opposed to a small, talented team cranking things out as they work down the list):

(a) The afore-mentioned App Engine support (this won't have been trivial to implement - Go is the first compiled language to run on App Engine after all for one thing)

(b) The info that a "comprehensive" Go library for ultimately all of the Google APIs is in development and will be with us "soon".

Go is a very nice language to write in, and the App Engine support announced today addresses one of the major gaps I identified when I took a look at Go when it was first released in Nov 2009.

Three final comments on day one:

1. Press articles I read in March / April this year about the +1 button being a make or break deal for Google to compete with Facebook seem overblown. The +1 button has merited just one session so far and apart from that you wouldn't even know Google had it. Either that or the memo didn't make it to the IO organisers in time.

2. It's instructive to watch Google see the mistake that companies like Sun Microsystems made and impressive to watch how they studiously avoid it. It's not enough to develop great code / software / hardware - you have to have people **using** it. Google's continued push into content ensures that usage. Google is not just the place you go to find content on the web, it's also where you consume that content (first youtube, but now books, movies and music too). I'm glad Google don't have a social network offering in their portfolio of services - they would be simply too powerful if they did.

3. Google IO seems to be **all** about Android so far - it's absolutely everywhere you look and consumed the entire keynote this morning (Ice Cream in Q4 that unifies tablet and phone, Futures (Android @ Home), open accessories etc.). Barring some crazy and unforeseen announcement tomorrow, I'd say Chrome OS has been given the last rites internally. But then again, who knows what day two will bring?

Presenting at JavaOne 2009 - SCEA Take Two!

Sun have accepted my BOF proposal for JavaOne 2009, so it's time to start looking for flights to SFO again and making sure that the hotel I'm staying at isn't right in the middle of the Tenderloin..

My proposal this year built on the material covered in last year's BOF, and I'll also take time to dig deeper into Part Two of the exam (where a lot of people come a cropper) and work through exactly what the examiners are / aren't looking for and why.

If you're going to JavaOne in this crunch year, looking forward to seeing you at the BOF!