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Access Live REST Data in Google Sheets through Connect Spreadsheets
Use Connect Spreadsheets by CData to gain access to live REST data from your Google Sheets.
Looking for Connect Cloud instructions?
Your Connect Cloud account includes Connect Spreadsheets, so you can use the instructions below. You can expect minor differences when referencing the Connect Spreadsheet platform, but the principles still apply!
Google Sheets is a web-based spreadsheet program provided by Google. When integrated with Connect Spreadsheets by CData, you can effortlessly gain access to REST data directly within Google Sheets for tasks such as data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more. This article offers a comprehensive guide on connecting to REST within Connect Spreadsheets and accessing live REST data seamlessly within Google Sheets.
Connect Spreadsheets is the easiest way to get all your live data into Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets - no more downloading, wrangling, and uploading files again. Just connect to your data, select the dataset you'd like to see, and import it into your spreadsheet.
This setup requires a Connect Spreadsheets account and the Connect Spreadsheets Add-On for Google Sheets. To get started, sign up a free Connect Spreadsheets account and install the free Connect Spreadsheets Google Sheets Add-On.
Configure REST Connectivity for Google Sheets
Connectivity to REST from Google Sheets is made possible through Connect Spreadsheets. To work with REST data from Google Sheets, we start by creating and configuring a REST connection.
- Log into Connect Spreadsheets, click Connections and click Add Connection
- Select "REST" from the Add Connection panel
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to REST.
See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models REST APIs as bidirectional database tables and XML/JSON files as read-only views (local files, files stored on popular cloud services, and FTP servers). The major authentication schemes are supported, including HTTP Basic, Digest, NTLM, OAuth, and FTP. See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation for authentication guides.
After setting the URI and providing any authentication values, set Format to "XML" or "JSON" and set DataModel to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.
The DataModel property is the controlling property over how your data is represented into tables and toggles the following basic configurations.
- Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your REST data. The data provider returns nested elements as aggregates of data.
- FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested documents and their parents into a single table.
- Relational: Return individual, related tables from hierarchical data. The tables contain a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.
See the Modeling REST Data chapter for more information on configuring the relational representation. You will also find the sample data used in the following examples. The data includes entries for people, the cars they own, and various maintenance services performed on those cars.
- Click Create & Test
With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to REST data from Google Sheets.
Access Live REST Data from Google Sheets
The steps below outline connecting to Connect Spreadsheets from Google Sheets to access live REST data.
- Log into Google Sheets, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
- Click Add-ons and click Get Add-ons (if you have already installed the Add-on, jump to step 5).
- Search for Connect Spreadsheets Add-On and install the Add-on.
- Authorize the Add-On.
- Back in Google Sheets, click Add-ons and open the Connect Spreadsheets Add-On.
- In the Add-On panel, click "Log in" to sign into and authenticate with your Connect Spreadsheets account
- In the Connect Spreadsheets panel in Google Sheets, click Import
- Choose a Connection (e.g. REST1), Table (e.g. people, and Columns to import
- Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
- Click Execute to import the data and opt to overwrite the existing sheet or create a new one.
Live Access to REST Data from Cloud Applications
New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live REST data from your Google Sheets workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.
Try Connect Spreadsheets and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.
