Google Analytics calculated metric not available from core reporting API - google-analytics

Question

Here's how the calculated metric is defined in the Google Analytics web interface:
Name
Profit
External Name
calcMetric_Profit
Formatting Type
Currency (Decimal)
Formula
{{Revenue}} - {{Shipping}} - {{Tax}}
The "External Name" field has this description:
The external name is used to uniquely identify the calculated metric when querying via API. External names may contain alphanumeric and underscore characters only. Special characters, symbols, and spaces are not allowed.
When I request the metric from v4 of the reporting API, using this request:
POST https://analyticsreporting.googleapis.com/v4/reports:batchGet?key=<redacted>
{
"reportRequests": [
{
"dateRanges": [
{
"startDate": "2018-01-01",
"endDate": "2018-01-22"
}
],
"metrics": [
{
"expression": "ga:calcMetric_Profit"
}
],
"viewId": "<redacted>"
}
]
}
I get this response:
400
{
"error": {
"code": 400,
"message": "Invalid value 'ga:calcMetric_Profit' for metric parameter.",
"status": "INVALID_ARGUMENT"
}
}
Am I doing something wrong?
Is this related to calculated metrics still being in Beta?

Answer 1

Change your startDate to one day after you created the calculated metric. Calculated metrics apply from the date they were created (there is no retrofilling). So if your startDate is before the date of creation, the API will throw an error, as the calculated metric doesn't exist for the dates prior to it being created.