Efficiently preparing your Google Sheets for import is a key step in ensuring the success of your data integration with our app. In this guide, we'll walk you through the essential tips and techniques to structure and format your sheets for seamless and error-free data transfer experience.

In order for Frontly to read the data from your Google Sheet we require headings for each column you'd like to display in Frontly.

Correct:

Incorrect:

It's helpful to set these up before you attempt to bring any data into your Frontly app, as any changes such as adding a new column or changing a heading name will lead to a mapping error in Frontly, and you'll have to reload the Sheet data. This will prompt our system to re-fetch the headings in your Google Sheet, and you can map the headings again within Frontly to match your source data properly.

Frontly works only with Google Spreadsheets, but to use a spreadsheet from another service like Microsoft Office, you can using the File => Import feature in Google Sheets to import and convert it to the correct format.

Best practice for laying out your Google Sheet in Frontly is to structure your Sheet with headings at the top of each row, with data in rows beneath. Setting up a page with multiple tables is not supported.

Multiple different types of data, not using standard headers at the top of the document, data types beneath other data types.

Each row has one heading, and each page only has data of one type. This will be very easy to work with in Frontly!
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If you require multiple tables of data, separate them into different Tabs which can be imported separately in Frontly and loaded when needed.

Frontly reads data from your cells, and writes whatever data back you've set up in Frontly. This means that cells should be set up in Sheets as standard field such as text, number, date, or currency. More complex cell formatting such as dropdown menus or locked cells may not function correctly with Frontly, as the returned values will be in text, number, date, or currency format from Frontly.

If your spreadsheet has complex cell formats, please contact our support team so they can help you properly connect your data with Frontly.

You can set up formulas within Sheets to perform a variety of equations, cell references, look up data, and much more. All of these functions can be set up in Sheets, and the outputs can be read by Frontly.

Remember if your Frontly app performs an Update Cell Action that any cells you've asked Frontly to update will be overwritten with the new value. This may erase existing data, including formulas.

Click here if you want to learn how to ensure formulas are being applied through your user's Form block submissions.

To keep track of your specific rows for using in an app, Frontly will inject a new column in your spreadsheet called frontly_id.

This column will be populated automatically with unique IDs generated by our system.

When you make a Frontly page to display one specific row, our system will be using the frontly_id to know which data to display.

You are welcome to move the column to a different position in your spreadsheet, but it's important that you do not delete this column if you still plan to use it with your Frontly app.

If you don't have any real data and need generic data in your Google Sheets to test out your app, here's a helpful article showing you the external tools that can allow you to do this quickly.