Overview: Dimensions, Fields, and Parameters

Dimensions and fields

Dimensions are the primary data buckets for analytics. To see full guides to the individual dimensions, click on the dimension name in the list below.

Example request

A typical use case for getting a report on multiple dimensions: you want a breakdown of video views between desktop and mobile devices, and also want to know how many of the mobile device views were on iOS versus Android devices, and how many of the desktop views were on Macs versus Windows machines. Currently there is no standard report in the Studio Analytics Module that provides this information, but you can obtain it via this Analytics API call:

  https://analytics.api.brightcove.com/v1/data?accounts=57838016001&dimensions=video,device_type,device_os&from=2014-01-01&to=2014-04-01&fields=video_view

(In this case we are requesting video views for the period from January 1 to April 1 in 2014.)

Example using cURL

If you want to try out the API using cURL, here are a couple of notes:

• You will first need to get an access token
• Since the URL for the request will always include URL parameters, you will need to enclose it in quotation marks (single or double)

Sample

Here is a sample cURL command:

  curl -s --header "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  "https://analytics.api.brightcove.com/v1/data?accounts={account_id}&dimensions=video&from=2017-04-04&limit=100"

If you replace $ACCESS_TOKEN with a valid access token, and {account_id} with your account id, this request should work. Note that you can use this sample app to generate an access token.

Supported dimension combinations

For quick reference, the table below shows dimension combinations that are supported or not. Note that there are cases where more than two dimensions can be used.

URL parameters

Analytics API reports support the following URL parameters.

Accounts

The Video Cloud account(s) that you want a report for are specified using the accounts parameter. For example:

  https://analytics.api.brightcove.com/v1/data?accounts={account1_id,account2_id}

Where filters

The general syntax for filters is:

where=dimension1==value1;dimension2==value2

For example:

https://analytics.api.brightcove.com/v1?accounts=account_id(s)&dimensions=device_type&where=video==video_id;device_type==tablet

Commas are treated as logical ORs, and semicolons as logical ANDs. For example, where=video==1234,5678;player==9876 is interpreted as "where video = 1234 OR 5678 AND player = 9876"

Spaces and special characters

String values should be URI encoded. You can also escape special characters using a "":

where=search_terms==boston,%20ma

You can use any dimension as a filter, but only if that dimension is also included in the dimensions you are requesting.

Filtering by video properties

Using the special where=video.q=={property}:{value} filter, you can limit your report to a specific set of videos based on a variety of properties, including:

• tags
• reference_id
• custom_fields ^[1]
• {a_specific_custom_field}
• created_at

Notes

^[1] The basic syntax is where=video.q==custom_fields:value (matches the value in any custom field) or where=video.q==myfield:value (matches the value in the specific custom field myfield). If you are searching on a specific custom fields, note that you must search on the Internal Name, not the Display Name:

One quick check on whether you are using the right name: the internal name will be all lowercase and contain no spaces.

Examples

Here are some example where filters for searching on tags and custom fields:

Single tag

where=video.q==tags:foo

Multiple tags:

where=video.q==tags:foo,bar

Custom fields

where=video.q==custom_fields:foo

Tags and custom fields

where=video.q==tags:foo,bar+custom_fields:fish

Note that the video.q search functionality includes AND, OR and NOT logic as follows:

• A + (plus) sign before the search term means results must include this term.
• A - (minus) sign before the search term means results must not include this term.
• If there is neither a plus or minus sign, results may or may not include this term.

The following examples illustrate the use of this logic.

For a complete explanation of this query syntax, see Using the CMS API: Search for Videos.

Summary of filters and allowable values

The following table shows allowable values for each dimension used as a filter:

Date ranges

Date ranges, specified in from and to parameters for all types of reports, can be indicated in different formats:

• Text values:
  • to=now (available and the default value for all requests)
• Epoch time values in milliseconds, such as 1377047323000
• Dates expressed in ISO 8601 standard international date format: YYYY-MM-DDformat, such as 2013-09-12. For dates expressed in this format:
  • Any date range specified will be interpreted in the timezone set for the account
  • The time for the date give will be interpreted as midnight ( 00:00:00) on the date specified in the timezone set for the account
• Relative dates: you can express either of the to and from values relative to the other one in d (days) or h (hours). For example:
  • from=2015-01-01&to=31d
  • from=-48h&to=now
  • from=-2d&to=now (will give the same results as the previous example)
  • from=-365d&to=2014-12-31

  Note that negative numbers (-2d) are interpreted as "before" (the other value) and positive numbers (48h) are treated as "from" (the other value)

To generate a report on some dimension like "video" for a single day, set the to and from values to that date:

...&dimensions=video&from=2013-11-01&to=2013-11-01

Limit and offset

The limit is the number of items to return (default: 10). To return all items, use limit=all. offset is the number of items to skip (default: 0). You can use limit and offset together to create an app that pages through the results.

Reconciled data

The reconciled parameter is a boolean. If it is set to true, the results will be limited to reconciled data. If false, results will be limited to realtime (hourly unreconciled) data.

Geographical reports

Dimensions for geographical analytics

• country - As the ISO-3611-1 country code. eg: 'US'
• region - As the ISO-3611-2 region code. eg: 'US-WA'
• city - City name. eg: Seattle

Note: For unknown country or region the API returns "ZZ" as the code (As per ISO-3611-alpha2).

Fields and Sorting

Use the fields parameter to specify the fields you want to return. By default, video_view is returned and the field corresponding to the dimension you are reporting on (e.g. destination_domain) are returned. See dimensions and fields for more details.

Use the sort parameter to specify which metric field is used to sort the returned items; for example: sort=video_view. You can reverse the sort order by negating the sort field: sort= -video_view.

Calculated fields

You can add calculated fields to your API requests using the syntax:

fields=calulated_field_name:expression

You can use calculated fields to create your own custom fields out of existing metrics, or to rename an existing field.

The name for the calculated field can be any URI-compatible string. The expression can include regular field names and the following arithmetic operators:

• + (addition)
• - (subtraction)
• * (multiplication)
• / (division)
• ^ (exponent)
• () (parentheses)

Examples

fields=avg_seconds_viewed:video_seconds_viewed/video_view,video.name

fields=avg_incomplete_ads:(ad_mode_begin-ad_mode_complete)/video_view,video.name

fields=Video%20Views:video_view,video.name

Sample request

Sample response (to the request above)

{
  "item_count": 110,
  "items": [
    {
      "avg_seconds_viewed": 2152.2519913106444,
      "video.name": "Flamingos",
      "video_seconds_viewed": 2972260,
      "video": "4825279519001",
      "video_view": 1381
    },
    {
      "avg_seconds_viewed": 14.016225448334756,
      "video.name": "Tiger",
      "video_seconds_viewed": 16413,
      "video": "4093643993001",
      "video_view": 1171
    },
    {
      "avg_seconds_viewed": 12.06,
      "video.name": "Zebra",
      "video_seconds_viewed": 9045,
      "video": "3851389913001",
      "video_view": 750
    },
    {
      "avg_seconds_viewed": 23.343065693430656,
      "video.name": "Sea-SeaTurtle",
      "video_seconds_viewed": 15990,
      "video": "1754276205001",
      "video_view": 685
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "avg_seconds_viewed": 274.27374399301004,
    "video_seconds_viewed": 3139063,
    "video_view": 11445
  }
}