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YouTube Analytics Advanced Settings

Advanced Settings

Establishing a Connection

Authenticate via OAuth Authentication

Use the OAuth authentication standard to connect to YouTube Analytics. You can authenticate with a user account or with a service account. A service account is required to grant organization-wide access scopes to the provider. The provider facilitates these authentication flows as described below.

Authenticate with a Service Account

Service accounts have silent authentication, without user authentication in the browser. You can also use a service account to delegate enterprise-wide access scopes to the provider.

You need to create an OAuth application in this flow. You can then connect to YouTube Analytics data that the service account has permission to access.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

  • InitiateOAuth: Set to GETANDREFRESH.
  • OAuthClientId: Set to the Client Id in your app settings.
  • OAuthClientSecret: Set to the Client Secret in your app settings.
  • OAuthJWTCertType: Set to "PEMKEY_FILE".
  • OAuthJWTCert: Set to the path to the .pem file you generated.
  • OAuthJWTCertPassword: Set to the password of the .pem file.
  • OAuthJWTCertSubject: Set to "*" to pick the first certificate in the certificate store.
  • OAuthJWTSubject: Set to the email address of the user for whom the application is requesting delegate access. Note that delegate access must be granted by an administrator.
  • ChannelId: Set to the Id of a YouTube channel. If not specified, data is returned for the authenticated user's channel.
  • ContentOwnerId: Set if you want to generate content owner reports.

When you connect the provider completes the OAuth flow for a service account.

  1. Creates and signs the JWT with the claim set required by the provider.
  2. Exchanges the JWT for the access token.
  3. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.
  4. Submits the JWT for a new access token when the token expires.

Custom Credentials

You can use a custom OAuth app to authenticate with a service account or a user account.

Authenticate with a User Account

Desktop Authentication with a Custom OAuth App

Follow the steps below to authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth app.

Get and Refresh the OAuth Access Token

After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

  • OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id assigned when you registered your app.
  • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret assigned when you registered your app.
  • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
  • ChannelId: Set this to the Id of a YouTube channel. If not specified, data is returned for the authenticated user's channel.
  • ContentOwnerId: Set this if you want to generate content owner reports.
When you connect the provider opens the OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. The provider then completes the OAuth process:
  1. Extracts the access token from the callback URL and authenticates requests.
  2. Refreshes the access token when it expires.
  3. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.

Web Authentication with a Custom OAuth App

When connecting via a Web application, you need to register a custom OAuth app with YouTube Analytics. You can then use the provider to get and manage the OAuth token values.

Get an OAuth Access Token

Set the following connection properties to obtain the OAuthAccessToken:

  • OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
  • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.

You can then call stored procedures to complete the OAuth exchange:

  1. Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB and set the CallbackURL input to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings. The stored procedure returns the URL to the OAuth endpoint.
  2. Log in and authorize the application. You are redirected back to the callback URL.
  3. Call the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB. Set the Verifier input to the "code" parameter in the query string of the callback URL.

Refresh the OAuth Access Token

You can set InitiateOAuth to REFRESH to automatically refresh the OAuth access token when it expires, or you can call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure to refresh the token manually.

Automatic Refresh

To refresh the token with InitiateOAuth, set the following on the first data connection:

  • OAuthAccessToken: Set this to the access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
  • InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
  • OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the path where the provider will save the OAuth values, to be persisted across connections.
  • OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
  • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.
  • OAuthRefreshToken: Set this to the refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
  • ChannelId: Set this to the Id of a YouTube channel. If not specified, data is returned for the authenticated user's channel.
  • ContentOwnerId: Set this if you want to generate content owner reports.

On subsequent data connections, set the following:

  • InitiateOAuth
  • OAuthSettingsLocation
  • ChannelId: Set this to the Id of a YouTube channel. If not specified, data is returned for the authenticated user's channel.
  • ContentOwnerId: Set this if you want to generate content owner reports.

Authenticate with a Service Account

Service accounts have silent authentication, without user authentication in the browser. You can also use a service account to delegate enterprise-wide access scopes to the provider.

You need to create an OAuth application in this flow. You can then connect to YouTube Analytics data that the service account has permission to access.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

  • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH.
  • OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
  • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.
  • OAuthJWTCertType: Set this to "PEMKEY_FILE".
  • OAuthJWTCert: Set this to the path to the .pem file you generated.
  • OAuthJWTCertPassword: Set this to the password of the .pem file.
  • OAuthJWTCertSubject: Set this to "*" to pick the first certificate in the certificate store.
  • OAuthJWTSubject: Set this to the email address of the user for whom the application is requesting delegate access. Note that delegate access must be granted by an administrator.
  • ChannelId: Set this to the Id of a YouTube channel. If not specified, data is returned for the authenticated user's channel.
  • ContentOwnerId: Set this if you want to generate content owner reports.
When you connect the provider completes the OAuth flow for a service account.
  1. Creates and signs the JWT with the claim set required by the provider.
  2. Exchanges the JWT for the access token.
  3. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.
  4. Submits the JWT for a new access token when the token expires.

Creating a Custom OAuth App

You can use a custom OAuth app to authenticate a service account or a user account.

Create an OAuth App for User Account Authentication

Follow the procedure below to register an app and obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret.

Create a Custom OAuth App: Desktop

  1. Log into the Google API Console and open a project. Select the API Manager from the main menu.

  2. In the user consent flow, click Credentials -> Create Credentials -> OAuth Client Id. Click Other. After creating the app, the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret are displayed.

  3. Click Library -> YouTube Analytics API -> Enable API.

Create a Custom OAuth App: Web Apps

  1. Log into the Google API Console and open a project. Select the API Manager from the main menu.
  2. Click Credentials -> Create Credentials -> OAuth Client Id -> Web Application. In the Authorized Redirect URIs box, enter the URL you want to be used as a trusted redirect URL, where the user will return with the token that verifies that they have granted your app access. After creating the app, the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret are displayed.
  3. Click Library -> YouTube Analytics API -> Enable API.

Create a Custom OAuth App: Headless Machines

 Follow the procedure below to register an app and obtain the OAuth client credentials.

  1. Log into the Google API Console and open a project. Select the API Manager from the main menu.
  2. Click Credentials -> Create Credentials -> OAuth Client Id. Click Other. After creating the app, the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret are displayed.
  3. Click Library -> YouTube Analytics API -> Enable API.

Create an OAuth App for Service Account Authentication

Follow the steps below to create an OAuth application and generate a private key. You will then authorize the service account.

  1. Log into the Google API Console and open a project. Select the API Manager from the main menu.
  2. Click Create Credentials -> Service Account Key.
  3. In the Service Account menu, select New Service Account or select an existing service account.
  4. If you are creating a new service account, additionally select one or more roles. You can assign primitive roles at the project level in the IAM and Admin section; other roles enable you to further customize access to Google APIs.
  5. In the Key Type section, select the P12 key type.
  6. Create the app to download the key pair. The private key's password is displayed: Set this in OAuthJWTCertPassword.
  7. In the service accounts section, click Manage Service Accounts and set OAuthJWTIssuer to the email address displayed in the service account Id field.
  8. Click Library -> YouTube Analytics API -> Enable API.

Connecting Through a Firewall or Proxy

HTTP Proxies

To connect through the Windows system proxy, you do not need to set any additional connection properties. To connect to other proxies, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

In addition, to authenticate to an HTTP proxy, set ProxyAuthScheme, ProxyUser, and ProxyPassword, in addition to ProxyServer and ProxyPort.

Other Proxies

Set the following properties:

  • To use a proxy-based firewall, set FirewallType, FirewallServer, and FirewallPort.
  • To tunnel the connection, set FirewallType to TUNNEL.
  • To authenticate, specify FirewallUser and FirewallPassword.
  • To authenticate to a SOCKS proxy, additionally set FirewallType to SOCKS5.

Troubleshooting the Connection

To show provider activity from query execution to network traffic, use Logfile and Verbosity. The examples of common connection errors below show how to use these properties to get more context. Contact the support team for help tracing the source of an error or circumventing a performance issue.

  • Authentication errors: Typically, recording a Logfile at Verbosity 4 is necessary to get full details on an authentication error.
  • Queries time out: A server that takes too long to respond will exceed the provider's client-side timeout. Often, setting the Timeout property to a higher value will avoid a connection error. Another option is to disable the timeout by setting the property to 0. Setting Verbosity to 2 will show where the time is being spent.