This document describes the data deprecation policy for the Core Reporting and Metadata APIs.
Overview
Dimensions and metrics (columns) are used to query the Google Analytics Reporting APIs. At times it is necessary to add, remove, or rename these columns. The data deprecation policy is provided to increase transparency on how these changes take place.
All column changes will be communicated through changelogs and the Metadata API will automatically update to reflect these changes.
What’s Covered By This Policy
This policy covers the dimensions and metrics exposed by public APIs. It does not cover the API request (query parameters), the API response, the values returned by the API, or valid combinations of dimensions and metrics.
New Data
When new columns are added to an API:
- The changelog of the corresponding API will be updated with details about the new column(s).
- The column(s) will be available in the Metadata API.
Data Removal
When columns are removed from an API:
- The changelog of the corresponding API will be updated with details about the column(s) being removed.
- In the
Metadata API, the
column
status
attribute will be set toDEPRECATED
. - The column(s) will continue to work in reporting queries for a minimum of 6 months.
- After 6 months, the column(s) will be removed from the
Metadata API and
querying for the column(s) in the reporting API will result in a
400 Bad Request
error.
Data Rename
When columns are renamed:
- The changelog of the corresponding API will be updated with details about the original and replacement column(s).
- In the Metadata API
, the
status
attribute of the original column will be set toDEPRECATED
and thereplacedBy
attribute will be set to the Id of the replacement column. - The original column(s) will continue to work in reporting queries for a minimum of 6 months.
- After 6 months, the original column(s) will be removed from the
Metadata API and
querying for the column(s) in the reporting API will result in a
400 Bad Request
error.