diff --git a/R/visitssummary.R b/R/visitssummary.R
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+#' Get visits summary from matomo API server
+#'
+#' See matomo Reporting API Reference (\url{https://developer.matomo.org/api-reference/reporting-api}) for details.
+#'
+#' @references \url{https://developer.matomo.org/api-reference/reporting-api}
+#'
+#' @param matomoUrl    base URL of your matomo instance
+#' @param siteId       matomo site id or vector of site ids
+#' @param period       \code{day}, \code{week}, \code{month} or \code{year}
+#' @param date         date range (see \url{https://developer.matomo.org/api-reference/reporting-api})
+#' @param filter_limit defines the maximum number of rows to be returned
+#' @param accessToken  API Authentication Token - you can get this in your
+#' matomo interface under Settings -> Personal -> Settings -> API Authentication Token
+#' @param removeFirst  logical that determines whether the first row of each site should be removed (to account for incomplete periods)
+#' @param removeLast   logical that determines whether the last row of each site should be removed (to account for incomplete periods)
+#' and pass it here, or you can make it persistent with \code{\link{persistAccessToken}}.
+#' @return data frame
+#'
+#' @import httr
+#' @importFrom jsonlite fromJSON
+#' @importFrom dplyr mutate rowwise bind_rows select summarise n
+#' @import tibble
+#' @importFrom magrittr %>%
+#' @importFrom utils head tail
+#'
+#' @examples
+#' \dontrun{
+#' df <- getVisitsSummary("https://demo.matomo.org/", siteId=3, period="day", date="last60")
+#' plot(df$nb_actions ~ df$date, type="b")
+#' }
+#'
+#' @export
+getVisitsSummary <- function(matomoUrl,
+                            siteId,
+                            period = "month",
+                            date = "last16",
+                            filter_limit = 100,
+                            removeFirst = FALSE,
+                            removeLast = FALSE,
+                            accessToken = getAccessToken(matomoUrl)
+
+) {
+  if (is.null(accessToken) && matomoUrl != "https://demo.matomo.org/") {
+    stop(
+      paste0(
+        "You mast set an access token with persistAccessToken(\"",
+        matomoUrl,
+        "\", token) first. Get the token in your matomo interface under Settings -> Personal -> Settings -> API Authentication Token."
+      ),
+      call. = FALSE
+    )
+  }
+
+  httr::GET(
+    url = matomoUrl,
+    query = list(
+      module = "API",
+      method = "API.getBulkRequest",
+      format = "json",
+      "urls[0]" = "method=VisitsSummary.get",
+      idSite = paste0(siteId, collapse = ","),
+      date = date,
+      period = period,
+      filter_limit = filter_limit,
+      token_auth = accessToken
+    )
+  ) -> res
+
+  if (status_code(res) != 200) {
+    if (json && !http_type(res) %in% c("application/json", "application/ld+json")) {
+      stop("API did not return json", call. = FALSE)
+    }
+    result <- jsonlite::fromJSON(content(res, "text", encoding = "UTF-8"))
+    if (!is.null(result$warnings)) {
+      message <- if (nrow(result$warnings) > 1)
+        sapply(result$warnings, function(warning) paste(sprintf("%s: %s", warning[1], warning[2]), sep="\n"))
+      else
+        sprintf("%s: %s", result$warnings[1], result$warnings[2])
+      warning(message, call. = FALSE)
+    }
+  }
+
+  if (!http_type(res) %in% c("application/json", "application/ld+json")) {
+    stop("API did not return json", call. = FALSE)
+  }
+
+  json <- httr::content(res, "text", encoding = "UTF-8")
+  l <- jsonlite::fromJSON(json, simplifyVector = F)
+
+  if (!is.null(l[[1]]$result) && l[[1]]$result == "error") {
+    stop(l[[1]]$message, call. = FALSE)
+  }
+
+  (if (length(siteId) == 1) {
+    bind_rows(l[[1]], .id=period) %>%
+      head(if(removeLast) -1 else filter_limit) %>%
+      tail(if(removeFirst) -1 else filter_limit) %>%
+      mutate(site_id=siteId)
+  } else {
+    df <- bind_rows(l[[1]][[1]], .id=period) %>%
+      head(if(removeLast) -1 else filter_limit) %>%
+      tail(if(removeFirst) -1 else filter_limit) %>%
+      mutate(site_id=siteId[1])
+    for (i in 2:length(l[[1]])) {
+      df <- bind_rows(df,
+                      bind_rows(l[[1]][[i]], .id=period) %>%
+                      head(if(removeLast) -1 else filter_limit) %>%
+                      tail(if(removeFirst) -1 else filter_limit) %>%
+                      mutate(site_id=siteId[i]))
+    }
+    df
+  }) %>%
+    mutate(date = as.Date(
+      if (period == "month")
+        paste0(month, "-01")
+      else if (period == "year")
+        paste0(year, "-01-01")
+      else if (period == "week")
+        sub(",.*", "", week)
+      else if (period == "day")
+        day
+      else
+        stop(paste0("unsupported period parameter: '", period, "'"), call. = FALSE)
+    ))
+}
+
+utils::globalVariables(c("year", "month", "day", "week"))
+
+#' Save access token persistently to your keyring
+#'
+#' @param matomoUrl   base URL of your matomo instance
+#' @param accessToken your oauth token
+#' @param id          supply if you have multiple IDs, i.e. logins to your matomo instance
+#'
+#' @import keyring
+#'
+#' @export
+#'
+#' @examples
+#' persistAccessToken("https://demo.matomo.org/", "ad7609a669179c4ebca7c995342f7e09")
+#'
+persistAccessToken <- function(matomoUrl, accessToken, id="default") {
+  if (is.null(accessToken))
+    stop("It seems that you have not supplied any access token that could be persisted.", call. = FALSE)
+
+  keyring::key_set_with_value(matomoUrl, username=id, password=accessToken, keyring = NULL)
+}
+
+clearAccessToken <- function(matomoUrl, id="default") {
+  key_delete(matomoUrl, id)
+}
+
+
+
+#' get access token for matomo from keyring
+#'
+#' @param matomoUrl   base URL of your matomo instance
+#' @param id          supply if you have multiple IDs, i.e. logins to your matomo instance
+#'
+#' @return access token
+#' @export
+#'
+#' @import keyring
+#'
+getAccessToken <- function(matomoUrl, id="default") {
+  keyList <- tryCatch(withCallingHandlers(key_list(service = matomoUrl),
+                                          warning = function(w) invokeRestart("muffleWarning"),
+                                          error = function(e) return(NULL)),
+                      error = function(e) { })
+  if (id %in% keyList)
+    key_get(matomoUrl, id)
+  else
+    NULL
+}
+
+