Data Sources - Google Sheets

Owned by Paul Tober
Last updated: Dec 11, 2023 by Justin Shackelford
3 min read

As a Google Sheets user, you've probably already used the option to download the entire spreadsheet into an Excel file or a specific sheet/tab as a CSV/TSV file (under File > Download).

To use a Google Sheet as a data source in HootVid, we require a direct download link of a CSV file. There are currently two methods for doing so.

  1. Publish to web (recommended)

  2. Edit URL manually

Publish to Web

To make a spreadsheet available for a large audience to see, publish the file. For the purposes of HootVid, we will need access to the sheet in order to configure the URL. After you publish your file you can add your new URL as a data source in the HootVid platform.

Based on your account’s settings, when you publish a file, you can make it visible to everyone on the web, everyone in your organization, or a group of people in your organization. Be careful when publishing private or sensitive info.

For more information, please refer to Google’s Help Documentation:

Make Google Docs, Sheets, Slides & Forms public - Computer - Google Docs Editors Help

  1. In Google Sheets, open your file.

  2. At the top of the sheet, click File > Share > Publish to web.

  1. Choose a publishing option. The default is set to “Web page.” Change this to “Comma-separated values (.csv).”

  1. Click “Publish.”

  2. The updated URL will populate.

  1. Copy the URL and add as a data source in HootVid.

Edit URL Manually

Doing so is fairly straightforward, you need to remove the section of the URL starting from /edit and replace it with /export with some additional text.

Example Starting Google Sheet URL:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Gztm9o8JEPibPWEDwH54qBG5kwj51ILDOk_dxK6uTSY/edit#gid=1330027783

- /edit#gid=1330027783

+ /export?format=csv&gid=1330027783

Downloadable Google Sheet URL (HootVid Data Source):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Gztm9o8JEPibPWEDwH54qBG5kwj51ILDOk_dxK6uTSY/export?format=csv&gid=1330027783

Notice that the difference is we included &gid=1330027783 to the URL.  This is basically the "Sheet ID" and as you switch sheets/tabs in Google Sheets, you'll notice this value changes and you can basically just copy that ID and append it to the URL if you want that specific sheet exported.

Google Sheet Formatting

The formatting of your Google Sheet will entirely depend on the dynamic inventory that you’d like to display in your data source. For example, different verticals will necessitate different fields, or you may want to display more/less fields depending on your dynamic inventory.

However, there are some basic components and best practices to follow for a basic data source.

If you need assistance formatting your Google Sheet, please reach out to your Account Manager.

Let’s use this real estate data as an example:

As you can see, there are 6 inventory records listed in this sheet (rows 2-7). Each of which, has it’s own set of fields designated by the columns of the sheet (columns A-E).

Again, the number of rows and columns will always vary, as the client could also want to display things like the city, state, neighborhood, etc. in their ad, and these would require their own respective columns/fields. Additionally, they could also want to have more than six records for their data source. However, we recommend to have at least three columns/fields for every data source:

  1. ID

  2. Title

  3. Image