Syncing with Google Spreadsheets

While there are many systems that we sync with that you may already be aware of, one that fewer people realize is that we can set up a sync with your google spreadsheet. Sometimes you may have data you keep track of in a spreadsheet that is separate from your normal data. Maybe you have a spreadsheet with board members and their phone/email information in it. Maybe you have a spreadsheet of information for a special project. Whatever it is we can use it as a source for your messaging list as well.

Advantages to using a Google spreadsheet

Most of the time we use an API call to one of your systems or perhaps your system transfers a file on a daily basis and we import from there. Those are all very useful tools. What advantages are there to using a google spreadsheet?

• Flexibility. You might not have a place for some information in one of your other systems. This allows you to have a place to put the information and have it automatically available to you when you need to send a message.
• Share-ability. Maybe you have multiple people who are going to need to update data. Since you can share these you can have multiple people updating as needed from a common source that then feeds into your lists.
• Familiar. Google spreadsheets work just like excel spreadsheets so your users will have a familiar interface to enter data.
• Separate but secure. So far everything we've said is true if you just hand enter the data into a list in BrightArrow. But what if you have a person who needs to maintain the data but has no access to send messages? With a google spreadsheet someone with no message sending rights can still make the data changes you need.

How do we make a Google spreadsheet accessible to sync

In order to authorize us to setup a real-time synchronization with your Google Sheets, can you please take the following steps.

1. Open up your spreadsheet.
2. Publish
   1. Choose the menu item File > Share > Publish to the web…
   2. Expand the “Published content & settings” section
   3. Check the box for “Automatically republish when changes are made”
   4. Click “Start publishing”
   5. When it asks “Are you sure you want to publish this document” click “Ok”
   6. Click the X to close the “Publish to the web” window
3. Share with us
   1. Click on the Share icon (top right)
   2. In the box “Enter names or email addresses...” copy and paste109062479706-g7517ifjdpb3dj0vjo2tdlc2047rd5hu@developer.gserviceaccount.com
   3. By default it’s set to “Can Edit” (the pencil). If you want you can change it to “Can View” (the eye symbol)
   4. Click “Done”
4. Email us the information we need to identify your document.
   1. The name of your document (located in the upper left)
   2. The name of each tab/sheet you want us to use. There might be more than 1.
   3. The column headers so we know what order the information is in
   4. The URL of the document (from your browser’s address bar)

Keep in mind that we will not actually be able to see the spreadsheet. You are authorizing our server to sync with it, not for us to view it so sending us the column headers is important.

I've shared my google sheet with you, now what?

Once you've shared your sheet with us and let us know we can then set up a sync to get that data and import it into your list or lists. If you have more than 1 tab and want each tab to be it's own list that is fine, we just need to know which list each should go into. Also let us know how frequently you want us to update the data. Normally we'll update it once a night sometime in the middle of the night, but if you need a different timeline let us know.