Live Google Sheets

Connect a sheet once. Your dashboard shows its current data on every load.

What a live dashboard does

A live dashboard does not store a snapshot of your data. Each time someone opens it, it reads your spreadsheet and renders the current rows. Edit the sheet, then open or reload the dashboard: the numbers update. There is also a Refresh button in the dashboard header, and the header shows the row count and when the data was last read.

Live dashboards work with two kinds of source:

  • Google Sheets
  • Excel files (.xlsx, .xls) stored on Google Drive

Files on Dropbox or OneDrive, and files picked with the Drive chip in the prompt box, are copied once and are not live.

1

Open the Live Dashboards card

On your projects page, below the prompt box, find Live Dashboards: Connect to your data source. Click Google Sheets, or MS Excel for an Excel file on Drive.

2

Allow VibeFactory to open files you choose

The first time, Google asks you to sign in and grant access. We request the drive.file permission, which only covers files you explicitly select in the picker. We cannot list or read the rest of your Drive.

3

Pick the file

Google's own file picker opens. Select the sheet or Excel file. Only spreadsheet types are shown.

4

Share the file with the reader account

Because the dashboard reads your file every time it loads, our server needs permission to read it. You will see a Share Your File step with two options:

  1. Recommended: copy the service account email shown on screen and share your file with it as a Viewer, the same way you would share it with a colleague. Your file stays private to you and that account.
  2. Alternative: in Google's Share dialog set General access to Anyone with the link.

Click Test Access to confirm we can read the file, then continue. You can also skip the test and fix sharing later; the dashboard will show an error until the file is readable.

5

Describe and create

Add an optional description of the dashboard you want, pick a live template if you like, and click Create. Generation takes about a minute.

Keeping it working

  • The dashboard is built around the columns present when you connect. Adding rows is fine. If you rename or remove columns, or move the table to a different tab, regenerate the dashboard so it learns the new structure.
  • Keep the header row as the first row of the table and one value type per column (dates in the date column, numbers in the number column).
  • If you stop sharing the file with the reader account, the dashboard cannot load data until sharing is restored.

Limits

  • Live dashboards cannot be exported as an offline ZIP, because they need the connection to show data. Share the link instead.
  • A $0.99 single report can be a live dashboard, but stays online for 30 days.

Your Google sign-in is never placed in the published dashboard. The dashboard reads your file through our reader account. Tokens from your Google connection are stored encrypted on our side. See How we handle your data.

Next: Plans and credits →