Google Sheets

The Google Sheets action allows you to interact with Google Sheets. It supports creating new spreadsheets, appending data to existing sheets, and exporting spreadsheets in various formats. Mechanic interacts with Google Sheets via the Google Sheets API, using OAuth2 for authentication.

Due to Google security restrictions, Mechanic can only access spreadsheets that were created through Mechanic itself. To work with Google Sheets:

• First create a spreadsheet using the "create_spreadsheet" operation

• Store the returned spreadsheet ID for later use

• Then use operations like "append_rows" on this spreadsheet

See this great example in the task library.

Options

Option	Type	Description
account	string	Required: the Google account email address to authenticate with
operation	string	Required: the operation to perform. One of: "append_rows", "create_spreadsheet", "export_spreadsheet"
spreadsheet_id	string	Required: for append_rows and export_spreadsheet; the ID of the target spreadsheet
title	string	Required: for create_spreadsheet; the title for the new spreadsheet
rows	array	Required: for append_rows and optional for create_spreadsheet; array of arrays containing the data to write
sheet_name	string	Optional: for append_rows; defaults to "Sheet1"
file_type	string	Optional: for export_spreadsheet; the format to export. One of: "xlsx" (default), "csv", "pdf", "html", "ods", "tsv"
folder_path	string	Optional: for create_spreadsheet; the folder path where the spreadsheet should be created (e.g., "reports/2024/monthly")

Operations

append_rows

Adds new rows to an existing spreadsheet.

Required Options

• account

• spreadsheet_id

• rows

Optional Options

• sheet_name (defaults to "Sheet1")

create_spreadsheet

Creates a new spreadsheet, optionally with initial data.

Required Options

• account

• title

Optional Options

• folder_path (path where spreadsheet should be created)

• rows (initial data to populate the spreadsheet)

export_spreadsheet

Exports a spreadsheet in various formats.

Required Options

• account

• spreadsheet_id

Optional Options

• file_type

  • xlsx (default)

  • csv

  • pdf

  • html

  • ods

  • tsv

Authentication

This action requires connecting a Google account with the appropriate permissions. To connect an account:

1. Go to the Settings screen

2. Click Authentication

3. Follow the Google account connection flow

File Access

The action can only access spreadsheets it creates, no other spreadsheets in your drive.

Folder Support

When creating spreadsheets, you can specify a folder path to organize your files:

• Use forward slashes to separate folder names (e.g., "reports/2024/monthly")

• Folders will be created if they don't exist

• Can only access folders created by this integration

• Invalid characters not allowed: < > : " / \ | ? *

Folder Path Examples

reports/monthly           # Two levels deep
data/2024/q1/sales       # Four levels deep
archives/exports/sheets   # Three levels deep

Examples

Append Rows to Existing Google Sheet

{% action "google_sheets" %}
  {
    "account": "[e-mail]",
    "operation": "append_rows",
    "spreadsheet_id": "1234567890abcdef",
    "sheet_name": "Orders",
    "rows": [
      ["Order ID", "Customer", "Total"],
      ["1001", "John Doe", "99.99"],
      ["1002", "Jane Smith", "149.99"]
    ]
  }
{% endaction %}

Create New Google Sheet

{% action "google_sheets" %}
  {
    "account": "[e-mail]",
    "operation": "create_spreadsheet",
    "title": "Monthly Sales Report",
    "rows": [
      ["Month", "Revenue", "Expenses", "Profit"],
      ["January", "5000", "3000", "2000"],
      ["February", "5500", "3200", "2300"]
    ]
  }
{% endaction %}

Export Google Sheet

{% action "google_sheets" %}
  {
    "account": "[e-mail]",
    "operation": "export_spreadsheet",
    "spreadsheet_id": "1234567890abcdef",
    "file_type": "pdf"
  }
{% endaction %}

Dynamic Data Example

{% assign order_rows = array %}
{% assign header_row = array %}
{% assign header_row["Order", "Customer", "Total"] %}
{% assign order_rows[header_row] %}

{% for order in shop.orders %}
  {% assign order_row = array %}
  {% assign order_row[order.name, order.customer.name, order.total_price] %}
  {% assign order_rows[order_row] %}
{% endfor %}

{% action "google_sheets" %}
  {
    "account": {{ options.google_account | json }},
    "operation": "append_rows",
    "spreadsheet_id": {{ options.spreadsheet_id | json }},
    "rows": {{ order_rows | json }}
  }
{% endaction %}

Create Google Sheet in a Folder

{% action "google_sheets" %}
  {
    "account": "[e-mail]",
    "operation": "create_spreadsheet",
    "folder_path": "reports/2024/monthly",
    "title": "March Sales",
    "rows": [
      ["Date", "Revenue", "Units"],
      ["2024-03-01", "5000", "50"],
      ["2024-03-02", "6000", "60"]
    ]
  }
{% endaction %}

Read Data From Google Sheet

Task subscriptions

mechanic/user/trigger
mechanic/actions/perform

Task code

{% if event.topic == "mechanic/user/trigger" %}
  {% action "google_sheets" %}
    {
      "account": {{ options.google_account__required | json }},
      "operation": "export_spreadsheet",
      "spreadsheet_id":  {{ options.spreadsheet_id__required | json }},
      "file_type": "csv"    
    }
  {% endaction %}
{% endif %}

{% if event.topic == "mechanic/actions/perform" %}
  {% if action.type == "google_sheets" and action.run.ok %}
    {% assign sheet_data = action.run.result.data_base64 | 
    base64_decode | parse_csv: headers: true %}
      {% action "echo" sheet_data %}
  {% endif %}
{% endif %}

Action Responses

The action returns different responses based on the operation performed:

append_rows Response

{
  "spreadsheet_id": string,
  "updated_range": string,
  "updated_rows": number,
  "updated_columns": number,
  "spreadsheet_url": string
}

Example:

{
  "spreadsheet_id": "1234567890abcdef",
  "updated_range": "Sheet1!A1:C3",
  "updated_rows": 3,
  "updated_columns": 3,
  "spreadsheet_url": "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1234567890abcdef"
}

create_spreadsheet Response

{
  "spreadsheet_id": string,
  "spreadsheet_url": string,
  "title": string
}

Example:

{
  "spreadsheet_id": "1234567890abcdef",
  "spreadsheet_url": "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1234567890abcdef",
  "title": "Monthly Sales Report"
}

create_spreadsheet Response with Folder

{
  "spreadsheet_id": string,
  "spreadsheet_url": string,
  "title": string,
  "folder_path": string
}

Example:

{
  "spreadsheet_id": "1234567890abcdef",
  "spreadsheet_url": "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1234567890abcdef",
  "title": "March Sales",
  "folder_path": "reports/2024/monthly"
}

export_spreadsheet Response

{
  "spreadsheet_id": string,
  "name": string,
  "size": number,
  "file_type": string,
  "data_base64": string
}

Example:

{
  "spreadsheet_id": "1234567890abcdef",
  "name": "Monthly Sales Report",
  "size": 12345,
  "file_type": "pdf",
  "data_base64": "base64encodeddata..."
}