How can I get information from HubSpot API on contact’s timeline events (event types, dates, event text, etc) ?
Basicly what we see in timeline section :
Here is the screenshot: http://take.ms/upey3
I just had a friend ask at the Hubspot conference today, coincidentally. Unfortunately, no news that this is even on their radar. It is one of the crown jewels of data, and either they don't want to have customers having access to it or they don't realize how valuable it is. Arguably, they are bound by law to provide this info because of GDPR data request compliance requirements... but legally they can email us a file and not surface it via API. Would be super valuable to have this capability. We need more people to ask for it (and people with connections!).
No worries; things have been busy on our end so I hardly noticed! I appreciate the feedback, and I can completely understand the use case(s) you're describing. For what it's worth, I'd be happy to pass this feedback along internally. Additionally, be sure to check out the new Analytics API; it's not exactly what you're describing, but it's a powerful new tool that allows integrators to pull a lot of info from HubSpot. I have no doubt you'll find some aspect of it useful!
Hi @Derek_Gervais, just stumbled upon your reply – thank you for the thoughtful response and apologies for the delay!
What you say makes total sense. For us, an awesome start would be exposing APIs that allow us to pull form submission data and page view data. This data would give us insight into buyer intent and interest (based on where they are going and what they are downloading). This is gold for machine learning.
The timeline events seemed like a broader, more generic approach to this, as you can already filter on event types, but the former would be an incredible start for us. I will propose this as an Idea.
I can't speak for every team here at HubSpot, but I do know of some discussion surrounding making timeline data available via API. The biggest consensus is that as a rule, we strive to build APIs that allow third parties to build powerful apps that add features to the HubSpot platform, or provide more specialized functionality. With that in mind, we generally don't prioritize APIs that can be used to directly replicate existing in-app functionality.
While I can completely understand the use case you're describing, creating a 'Get a contact's timeline' endpoint would in effect replicate the existing in-app timeline in an external system. There are some novel and compelling use cases (like yours), but I'm not sure if a timeline export API is the best way to solve for them. With few exceptions, most of the information that actually appears on a contact's timeline can already be pulled from HubSpot via existing APIs (Engagements API, Email Events API, Contacts API, etc.).
The timeline is just a collection of information, most of which you can get from other APIs. We’d likely consider making the info that isn't currently accessible via a new API, but it's unlikely we'll create an API to get the entire collection.
For the time being, I would encourage you to check out the Ideas Forum on the HubSpot Community. There, you can create a post including your use case; this is generally the best place for this type of feedback, since it's a centralized place for HubSpotters, partners, and customers to view & vote on ideas.
That endpoint is only intended for use by the app, and can't be access using external authentication. Peter is correct that we don't currently support pulling all contact timeline data via the API.
While unfortunate to hear, I appreciate the quick response @Derek_Gervais. Does it make sense why this data is so valuable to us? Arguably one of HubSpot's greatest value-adds is in providing insight into what content a prospect is consuming. The next logical step is being able to pull this invaluable data externally so that we can perform our own analysis on (in our case, machine learning).
Are you able to share if HubSpot has discussed whether to make this data accessible or has any plans to do so?
You can create and pull custom timeline events using it. Any standard/default timeline event that comes with HubSpot you will not be able to pull from the API.
@altaf The Timeline API allows you to return any custom timeline events. At the moment HubSpot does not offer the ability to pull all of the timeline events from a specific Contact through the API.
Hi @pmanca - has anything changed with regards to this? We too would love to be able to pull both default and custom timeline events for a given contact within a given date range. This will allow us to do in-depth analysis on user website behavior. For example, if someone visits certain types of content, they are likely a high-quality prospect.
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