Turn your Google Sheet into a REST API and access it in any application.

This blog was originally published onRavSam’s blog. We publish our articles on Medium after a week.

What if we can use our Google Sheets as a CMS? What if we want the data in our Google Sheet to be publicly available. This can be done easily using Google Sheets and Google Apps Script. In this blog, we will take a look at how we can convert a Google Sheet into a REST API and access it publicly from any app we want.

Contents

• 1. Setting up a Spreadsheet
• 1. Creating a Google Apps Script
• 1. Converting data to JSON format
• 1. Creating a Web App

• Results

1. Setting up a Spreadsheet

The first task is to set up a Spreadsheet and initialize it with some data.

2. Creating a Google Apps Script

The first step in our journey to convert the above Google Sheet into a REST API is to be able to access the data in it. So, fromTools, selectScript Editor. This will create a new Apps Script project.

Let us start by adding the following snippet of code in the Code.gs file.

functionjson(sheetName){constspreadsheet=SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet()constsheet=spreadsheet.getSheetByName(sheetName)constdata=sheet.getDataRange().getValues()constjsonData=convertToJson(data)returnContentService.createTextOutput(JSON.stringify(jsonData)).setMimeType(ContentService.MimeType.JSON)}

The above function is really simple to understand. All we are doing is:

• Get the current active spreadsheet to which this Apps Script project is linked with

• Get our specific sheet by its name

• Get the data in that sheet

• Convert the data to JSON format

• Return the JSON response

3. Converting data to JSON format

The data returned by the sheet.getDataRange().getValues() is of the following format:

[['name','age','role'],['John',28.0,'Front End Engineer'],['Marry',21.0,'Staff Engineer'],['Jackson',22.0,'Backend Engineer']]

In the above snippet, we can see that there is a custom function convertToJson that needs to be written. To convert our sheet data with headers into JSON format, let us the following code in our Apps Script.

functionconvertToJson(data){constheaders=data[0]constraw_data=data.slice(1,)letjson=[]raw_data.forEach(d=>{letobject={}for(leti=0;i<headers.length;i++){object[headers[i]]=d[i]}json.push(object)});returnjson}

4. Creating a Web App

To access our Google Sheet as a REST API, we need to publish our Google Apps Script as a Web App. This web app will handleGET requests.

Let us add the following code in our Apps Script file:

functiondoGet(e){constpath=e.parameter.pathreturnjson(path)}

Once we are done with this, the final step is to publish our Apps Script as a Web App. We can simply create a new deployment and set theExecute As tome andWho has access toAnyone. These settings allow our Web App to be publicly accessible.

Results

Let us send a GET request to our published Web App using Postman. The path for the GET request would be our Web App’s URL and query parameterpath set to our Google Sheet’s name.

In our case, the URL ishttps://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbw9gpHbIauF8obidyDjxe3_L9qA-Ww-e8bv6pvNNGavAv-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/exec?path=people

Alright! We can see that we have transformed our Google Sheet into a REST API in under five minutes using the above code. We can add more sheets in our spreadsheet and access them simply using the sheet name in the path query parameter when sending a GET request.

If you loved my article, please clap 👏 for it.

Connect with Me

I love writing for the community while working on my freelance and open source projects. Connect with me throughTwitter •LinkedIn •Github •Email.

About RavSam Web Solutions

We are helping companies and startups power their IT infrastructure with modern JAMstack architecture. Reach out to us to know more about our services, pricing, or anything else. We are always looking forward to work on great ideas. If you are looking foran application development company, you are most welcome to get in touch with us.

You might also enjoy reading

• Add Unsubscribe link in emails using Google Apps Script

• Custom Log Monitoring using Google Apps Script