Import from Simple Analytics
Export your Simple Analytics history as raw datapoints and upload it to Pulse.
Read Import your history first for what an import is, who can run one, and how far back it can reach. This page covers Simple Analytics' export specifically.
Getting the export
Simple Analytics' raw datapoints export gives Pulse one row per pageview (and, alongside them, one row per custom event, which this release skips). It's an authenticated API request, not a button in the dashboard, so build it yourself against this endpoint:
https://simpleanalytics.com/api/export/datapointsSend it with these parameters, and with your account's Api-Key and
User-Id as request headers:
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
format | csv |
hostname | your site's domain |
start | the start of your range, one day earlier than you actually want |
end | the end of your range, one day later than you actually want |
type | all |
robots | false |
fields | added_iso,datapoint,is_robot,is_unique,hostname,path,document_referrer,utm_source,utm_medium,utm_campaign,country_code,device_type,browser_name,os_name,lang_language,lang_region,screen_width,screen_height |
A few things worth getting right:
type=all, nottype=pageviews. Pulse still only imports pageviews in this release, but it needs the full stream now so a later release can read the custom-event rows already sitting in the file you exported today, without asking you to export again.- Pad the range by a day on each side. Simple Analytics' export reports in UTC regardless of your site's own timezone, so requesting a day earlier and a day later than the range you actually want, and letting Pulse clip the extra rows, avoids losing rows that fall right at the edge.
- There's no timezone question on the confirm screen for this source: Pulse reads the padded UTC range and buckets everything into your site's own timezone itself.
Download the response as a CSV file and upload that file to Pulse.
What's imported
- Visitors, visits and pageviews, per day
- Pages and entry pages
- Referrers and campaigns, including Direct versus Shared Link (see "Worth knowing" below)
- Countries
- Devices, browsers and operating systems
What isn't
- Region and city. Simple Analytics doesn't collect them on any plan.
- Exit pages. Simple Analytics has no session concept, so there's no landing-to-exit sequence to read one from.
- Custom events. The export includes them so a later release can read them without a fresh export, but this release skips them.
- Bounce rate and visit duration. Pulse shows its own, measured from the days it tracked itself. See Why imported numbers differ.
Worth knowing
Simple Analytics doesn't identify returning visitors, even within a single day. Someone who visits your site from two different links on the same day is two separate visitors in Simple Analytics' own dashboard, and an imported day keeps that same count. Adding days or months together compounds a count that was never deduplicated to begin with, more so than with Plausible, Umami or Matomo.
Entry-page pageviews always equal entry-page visitors for this source. Simple Analytics doesn't track what a visitor did after the landing pageview, so there's no separate pageviews figure to report for an entry page.
A no-referrer visit is Direct or Shared Link, the same distinction Umami's import draws. Simple Analytics' raw rows carry the real landing page, so Pulse can tell a homepage landing with no referrer apart from any other no-referrer landing.