A simple Node.js module for reading and manipulating data in Google Spreadsheets.
- with or without auth
- cell-based API - read, write, bulk-updates
- row-based API - read, update, delete
- managing worksheets - add, remove, resize, change title
var GoogleSpreadsheet = require("google-spreadsheet");
// spreadsheet key is the long id in the sheets URL
var doc = new GoogleSpreadsheet('<spreadsheet key>');
var sheet;
async.series([
function setAuth(step) {
// see notes below for authentication instructions!
var creds = require('./google-generated-creds.json');
// OR, if you cannot save the file locally (like on heroku)
var creds_json = {
client_email: 'yourserviceaccountemailhere@google.com',
private_key: 'your long private key stuff here'
}
doc.useServiceAccountAuth(creds, step);
},
function getInfoAndWorksheets(step) {
doc.getInfo(function(err, info) {
console.log('Loaded doc: '+info.title+' by '+info.author.email);
sheet = info.worksheets[0];
console.log('sheet 1: '+sheet.title+' '+sheet.rowCount+'x'+sheet.colCount);
step();
});
},
function workingWithRows(step) {
// google provides some query options
sheet.getRows({
offset: 1,
limit: 20,
orderby: 'col2'
}, function( err, rows ){
console.log('Read '+rows.length+' rows');
// the row is an object with keys set by the column headers
rows[0].colname = 'new val';
rows[0].save(); // this is async
// deleting a row
rows[0].del(); // this is async
step();
});
},
function workingWithCells(step) {
sheet.getCells({
'min-row': 1,
'max-row': 5,
'return-empty': true
}, function(err, cells) {
var cell = cells[0];
console.log('Cell R'+cell.row+'C'+cell.col+' = '+cells.value);
// cells have a value, numericValue, and formula
cell.value == '1'
cell.numericValue == 1;
cell.formula == '=ROW()';
// updating `value` is "smart" and generally handles things for you
cell.value = 123;
cell.value = '=A1+B2'
cell.save(); //async
// bulk updates make it easy to update many cells at once
cells[0].value = 1;
cells[1].value = 2;
cells[2].formula = '=A1+B1';
sheet.bulkUpdateCells(cells); //async
step();
});
},
function managingSheets(step) {
doc.addWorksheet({
title: 'my new sheet'
}, function(err, sheet) {
// change a sheet's title
sheet.setTitle('new title'); //async
//resize a sheet
sheet.resize({rowCount: 50, colCount: 20}); //async
sheet.setHeaderRow(['name', 'age', 'phone']); //async
// removing a worksheet
sheet.del(); //async
step();
});
}
});
IMPORTANT: Google recently deprecated their ClientLogin (username+password) access, so things are slightly more complicated now. Older versions of this module supported it, so just be aware that things changed.
By default, this module makes unauthenticated requests and can therefore only access spreadsheets that are "public".
The Google Spreadsheets Data API reference and developers guide is a little ambiguous about how you access a "published" public Spreadsheet.
If you wish to work with a Google Spreadsheet without authenticating, not only must the Spreadsheet in question be visible to the web, but it must also have been explicitly published using "File > Publish to the web" menu option in the google spreadsheets GUI.
Many seemingly "public" sheets have not also been "published" so this may cause some confusion.
This is a 2-legged oauth method and designed to be "an account that belongs to your application instead of to an individual end user". Use this for an app that needs to access a set of documents that you have full access to. (read more)
Setup Instructions
- Go to the Google Developers Console
- Select your project or create a new one (and then select it)
- Enable the Drive API for your project
- In the sidebar on the left, expand APIs & auth > APIs
- Search for "drive"
- Click on "Drive API"
- click the blue "Enable API" button
- Create a service account for your project
- In the sidebar on the left, expand APIs & auth > Credentials
- Click blue "Add credentials" button
- Select the "Service account" option
- Select the "JSON" key type option
- Click blue "Create" button
- your JSON key file is generated and downloaded to your machine (it is the only copy!)
- note your service account's email address (also available in the JSON key file)
- Share the doc (or docs) with your service account using the email noted above
Google's API is somewhat limiting. Calls are made to two differently designed APIs, one made to deal with cells, and one to deal with rows. These APIs will let you manage the data in your sheets, but you cannot make any modifications to the formatting of the cells.
The row-based API assumes that the "header row" (first row) of your sheet is set. They have limitations on the column names they will accept - all lowercase with no symbols or spaces. If the values in your sheet do not follow their rules, their API will adapt the key it actually returns to you. I recommend just following their rules to avoid confusion.
You can set a formula value into a cell using the row-based API, but when reading rows, you cannot access the formula, or even be aware that there is one in the cell. Any cells with formulas will return the calculated value of the formula. If you try to update a row, the cell with a formula will be overwritten to its calculated value.
IMPORTANT The row-based API also assumes there are no empty rows in your sheet. If any row is completely empty, you will not be able to access any rows after the empty row using the row-based API.
The main class that represents an entire spreadsheet.
Create a new google spreadsheet object.
sheet_id
-- the ID of the spreadsheet (from its URL)auth
- (optional) an existing auth tokenoptions
- (optional)visibility
- defaults topublic
if anonymousprojection
- defaults tovalues
if anonymous
Uses a service account email and public/private key to create a token to use to authenticated requests. Normally you would just pass in the result of requiring the json file that google generates for you when you create a service account.
See the "Authentication" section for more info.
If you are using heroku or another environment where you cannot save a local file, you may just pass in an object with
client_email
-- your service account's email addressprivate_key
-- the private key found in the JSON file
Internally, this uses a JWT client to generate a new auth token for your service account that is valid for 1 hour. The token will be automatically regenerated when it expires.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR HEROKU USERS
- Save your private key to a text file
- Replace
\n
with actual line breaks - Replace
\u003d
with=
- heroku config:add GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY="$(cat yourfile.txt)"
Use an already created auth token for all future requets.
Get information about the spreadsheet. Calls callback passing an object that contains:
id
- the URL/id as returned from googletitle
- the title of the documentupdated
- last updated timestampauthor
- auth info in an objectname
- author nameemail
- author email
worksheets
- an array ofSpreadsheetWorksheet
objects (see below)
Get an array of row objects from the sheet.
worksheet_id
- the index of the sheet to read from (index starts at 1)options
(optional)offset
- start reading from row #limit
- max # of rows to read at onceorderby
- column key to order byreverse
- reverse resultsquery
- send a structured query for rows (more info)
callback(err, rows)
- will be called with an array of row objects (see below)
NOTE The reverse
option only works in conjunction with orderby
. It will not work to reverse the default ordering. This is a known bug in Google's API.
Add a single row to the sheet.
worksheet_id
- the index of the sheet to add to (index starts at 1)new_row
- key-value object to add - keys must match the header row on your sheetcallback(err)
- callback called after row is added
Get an array of cell objects.
worksheet_id
- the index of the sheet to add to (index starts at 1)options
(optional)min-row
- row range min (uses #s visible on the left)max-row
- row range maxmin-col
- column range min (uses numbers, not letters!)max-col
- column range maxreturn-empty
- include empty cells (boolean)
Add a new worksheet to the doc.
options
(optional)title
- title for the new sheet, must be unique in the doc (default = 'Worksheet {timestamp}')rowCount
- number of rows (default = 50)colCount
- number of columns (default = 20)headers
- array of string keys to put in the first row
Remove a worksheet from the doc.
worksheet_id
- the index of the sheet to add to (index starts at 1)
Represents a single "sheet" from the spreadsheet. These are the different tabs/pages visible at the bottom of the Google Sheets interface.
These are the sheet objects returned as worksheets
when calling GoogleSpreadsheet.getInfo
. Many of the calls are accessible from the main Spreadsheet object by passing in a sheet ID (see above), but some functionality is only available on the Worksheet object because it requires various URLs only known after fetching the sheets for making requests.
Properties:
url
- the URL for the sheetid
- the ID of the sheettitle
- the title (visible on the tabs in google's interface)rowCount
- number of rowscolCount
- number of columns
See above.
See above.
See above.
Do a bulk update on cells.
cells
- an array of SpreadsheetCell objects to save
Remove this sheet from the doc.
Set the first row of the sheet
values
- array of string values to put in the first row of the sheet
Clears the entire sheet's contents
Set the dimensions of the sheet
options
rowCount
- number of rowscolCount
- number of columns
Set the title of the sheet
title
- new title for the worksheet
Represents a single row from a sheet.
These are returned from calling GoogleSpreadsheet.getRows
and SpreadsheetWorksheet.getRows
.
You can treat the row as a normal javascript object. Object keys will be from the header row of your sheet, however the google API mangles the names a bit to make them simpler. It's easiest if you just use all lowercase keys to begin with.
See limitations above for notes about Google's row-based API!
Saves any changes made to the row's values.
Deletes the row from the sheet.
Represents a single cell from the sheet. Using cells is the only way to read and modify the formulas in your sheet.
Properties:
id
- the ID of the cellrow
- the row this cell is incol
- the column this cell is invalue
- the value of the cell as a stringformula
- the formula present in the cell, for example=SUM(A3:B3)
(if applicable)numericValue
- the value of the cell as a number (if applicable)
IMPORTANT:
- You can modify
value
,numericValue
, orformula
, and things will work as expected - You can save a cell by either calling
save
or doing a bulk update. - Setting
value
ornumericValue
on a cell that contains a formula will clear the formula - Setting a
formula
value will clear thevalue
andnumericValue
and after saving the values will be updated
Saves the current value or formula
Clear the cell -- internally just calls .setValue('', callback)
Sets the value and saves it (Just for convenience)
- getting list of available spreadsheets for an authenticated user
- more authentication options
node-google-spreadsheets is free and unencumbered public domain software. For more information, see the accompanying UNLICENSE file.