Tag Archives: tutorials

Formatting cells with the Google Sheets API

Posted by Wesley Chun (@wescpy), Developer Advocate, G Suite
At Google I/O earlier this year, we launched a new Google Sheets API (click here to watch the entire announcement). The updated API includes many new features that weren't available in previous versions, including access to more functionality found in the Sheets desktop and mobile user interfaces. Formatting cells in Sheets is one example of something that wasn't possible with previous versions of the API and is the subject of today's DevByte video.
In our previous Sheets API video, we demonstrated how to get data into and out of a Google Sheet programmatically, walking through a simple script that reads rows out of a relational database and transferring the data to a new Google Sheet. The Sheet created using the code from that video is where we pick up today.

Formatting spreadsheets is accomplished by creating a set of request commands in the form of JSON payloads, and sending them to the API. Here is a sample JavaScript Object made up of an array of requests (only one this time) to bold the first row of the default Sheet automatically created for you (whose ID is 0): 

{"requests": [
    {"repeatCell": {
        "range": {
            "sheetId": 0,
            "startRowIndex": 0,
            "endRowIndex": 1
        },
        "cell": {
            "userEnteredFormat": {
                "textFormat": {
                    "bold": true
                }
            }
        },
        "fields": "userEnteredFormat.textFormat.bold"
    }}
]}
With at least one request, say in a variable named requests and the ID of the sheet as SHEET_ID, you send them to the API via an HTTP POST to https://sheets.googleapis.com/v4/spreadsheets/{SHEET_ID}:batchUpdate, which in Python, would be a single call that looks like this: 
SHEETS.spreadsheets().batchUpdate(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID,
        body=requests).execute()

For more details on the code in the video, check out the deepdive blog post. As you can probably guess, the key challenge is in constructing the JSON payload to send to API calls—the common operations samples can really help you with this. You can also check out our JavaScript codelab where we guide you through writing a Node.js app that manages customer orders for a toy company, featuring the toy orders data we looked at today but in a relational database. While the resulting equivalent Sheet is featured prominently in today's video, we will revisit it again in an upcoming episode showing you how to generate slides with spreadsheet data using the new Google Slides API, so stay tuned for that!

We hope all these resources help developers enhance their next app using G Suite APIs! Please subscribe to our channel and tell us what topics you would like to see in other episodes of the G Suite Dev Show!

Introducing the Google Sheets API v4: Transferring data from a SQL database to a Sheet

Posted by Wesley Chun (@wescpy), Developer Advocate, Google Apps

At Google I/O 2016, we launched a new Google Sheets API—click hereto watch the entire announcement. The updated API includes many new features that weren’t available in previous versions, including access to functionality found in the Sheets desktop and mobile user interfaces. My latest DevBytevideo shows developers how to get data into and out of a Google Sheet programmatically, walking through a simple script that reads rows out of a relational database and transferring the data to a brand new Google Sheet.

Let’s take a sneak peek of the code covered in the video. Assuming that SHEETS has been established as the API service endpoint, SHEET_ID is the ID of the Sheet to write to, and datais an array with all the database rows, this is the only call developers need to make to write that raw data into the Sheet:


SHEETS.spreadsheets().values().update(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID,
    range='A1', body=data, valueInputOption='RAW').execute()
Reading rows out of a Sheet is even easier. With SHEETS and SHEET_ID again, this is all you need to read and display those rows: 
rows = SHEETS.spreadsheets().values().get(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID,
    range='Sheet1').execute().get('values', [])
for row in rows:
    print(row)

If you’re ready to get started, take a look at the Python or other quickstarts in a variety of languages before checking out the DevByte. If you want a deeper dive into the code covered in the video, check out the post at my Python blog. Once you get going with the API, one of the challenges developers face is in constructing the JSON payload to send in API calls—the common operations samples can really help you with this. Finally, if you’re ready to get going with a meatier example, check out our JavaScript codelab where you’ll write a sample Node.js app that manages customer orders for a toy company, the database of which is used in this DevByte, preparing you for the codelab.

We hope all these resources help developers create amazing applications and awesome tools with the new Google Sheets API! Please subscribe to our channel, give us your feedback below, and tell us what topics you would like to see in future episodes!

Introducing the Google Sheets API v4: Transferring data from a SQL database to a Sheet

Posted by Wesley Chun (@wescpy), Developer Advocate, Google Apps

At Google I/O 2016, we launched a new Google Sheets API—click hereto watch the entire announcement. The updated API includes many new features that weren’t available in previous versions, including access to functionality found in the Sheets desktop and mobile user interfaces. My latest DevBytevideo shows developers how to get data into and out of a Google Sheet programmatically, walking through a simple script that reads rows out of a relational database and transferring the data to a brand new Google Sheet.

Let’s take a sneak peek of the code covered in the video. Assuming that SHEETS has been established as the API service endpoint, SHEET_ID is the ID of the Sheet to write to, and datais an array with all the database rows, this is the only call developers need to make to write that raw data into the Sheet:


SHEETS.spreadsheets().values().update(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID,
    range='A1', body=data, valueInputOption='RAW').execute()
Reading rows out of a Sheet is even easier. With SHEETS and SHEET_ID again, this is all you need to read and display those rows: 
rows = SHEETS.spreadsheets().values().get(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID,
    range='Sheet1').execute().get('values', [])
for row in rows:
    print(row)

If you’re ready to get started, take a look at the Python or other quickstarts in a variety of languages before checking out the DevByte. If you want a deeper dive into the code covered in the video, check out the post at my Python blog. Once you get going with the API, one of the challenges developers face is in constructing the JSON payload to send in API calls—the common operations samples can really help you with this. Finally, if you’re ready to get going with a meatier example, check out our JavaScript codelab where you’ll write a sample Node.js app that manages customer orders for a toy company, the database of which is used in this DevByte, preparing you for the codelab.

We hope all these resources help developers create amazing applications and awesome tools with the new Google Sheets API! Please subscribe to our channel, give us your feedback below, and tell us what topics you would like to see in future episodes!