Does anyone have a way to, or know if Ross is planning to, add a google sheet source to Datalinq Sever? Currently a lot of our graphics are driven via Google sheets and our workflow since moving to Xpression has been to run a script to download and convert the google sheet to an XLSX file before bringing a scene live that uses that data. It works, but is somewhat cumbersome. It seems odd to me that Ross doesn't natively support google sheets yet since Chryon and others have offered this as an option for many years.
In the latest XPression version 11.1 5761 beta we have added support for the “Text Data Format” to the RSS/HTTP Data Source which will allow Datalinq to natively access Google sheets as a CSV file (when the Google Sheet is set to publish to web and the publish settings are set to CSV).
XPression version 11.1 beta should release as version 11.5 official release sometime around April-May 2023.
Attached is a document describing use of a paid plugin from CDATA to connect to Google Sheets as a database for XPression Datalinq.
Circling back to this Google Sheets/Datalinq question…
Using the new Datalinq 11.5, works great as far as bringing in a Google Sheets as CSV… however, when I add data to the Google Sheet, it seems like in Datalinq the new line/date fluctuates for around 4-5 minutes before solidifying. What I mean is that I can go into “Browse” and hit refresh, sometime the new line will appear, sometimes it won’t… which leads to the data disappearing/reappearing in my scene as the datalinq re-queries. After 4-5 minutes seems like the new line is “solidified” and the data will stay when it refreshes.
The issue you have reported is something which Google is aware of. It does not affect their core customers so it might not get their attention to resolve the matter. Here is what I can explain about it, since it was quite a topic of discussion around our office.
Google Sheets is a web browser tool, which allows for both sharing of content and worksheets, but also version tracking (the ability to roll back to an older version of the data input or document). Google Sheets does a constant compare of values entered into the fields, which can exhibit the results as a flashing of data when viewed in real-time. DataLinq is viewing the data in real-time, which is where you see this happening in your scenes ustilizing DataLinq.
Google’s primary user is a web browser user, who does not see real time refreshing of the content in their browser, unless they hit the REFRESH BROWSER (F5) button on their toolbar. So, they never see the constant flashing you are reporting. Thus, Google feels that this is not a problem for their core users, and has not expressed urgency to resolve the issue, which does affect our core users.
To resolve this, you can either turn off LIVE UPDATE when you SET DATALINQ PROPERTIES (which might mean you will have captured the older data and not the latest value), or use Google Sheets data to set data points (player Rosters/Bios )which are not likely going to be edited while working on air. COnstantly updating in-game stats might present a problem, and you might not want to make the use of Google Sheets to handle a focal point of your data-driven graphics workflow. I have found it usually takes Google about 3-4 minutes to stop checking values against prior entries.
In my case, I am building a crawl using data that will only go on-air periodically. I have found an adequate work-around for this, which is I am pulling in the Google Sheet data into a Dashboard StructTable. I need to hit a button to reload the table data, but that’s perfectly fine for our use. Then since it isn’t continually refreshing, it holds on to the data I need until it is time to do another crawl update.
Hi Patrick, appreciate the update about this ‘live update’ issue. Does the same thing hapen if you use Microsoft services? Can this work via OneDrive or SharePoint?
Microsoft does not provide a similar access to their files in the cloud. The big push for so many users of Google Sheets is that it can be free to use, rather than paying for the annual subscription of Microsoft. The nice folks at Microsoft have not provided a similar access to their files. I can ask if our team can find a way to utilize Microsoft Excel across the One Drive workflow, but I am not sure it will be easy or quick to do.
Ah I see. Thats a pity. Well i hope google can work with your team to evenually fix this. Microsoft would be prefferred by us, but also happy if it ends up working with google.
Does anyone have a way to, or know if Ross is planning to, add a google sheet source to Datalinq Sever? Currently a lot of our graphics are driven via Google sheets and our workflow since moving to Xpression has been to run a script to download and convert the google sheet to an XLSX file before bringing a scene live that uses that data. It works, but is somewhat cumbersome. It seems odd to me that Ross doesn't natively support google sheets yet since Chryon and others have offered this as an option for many years.
In the latest XPression version 11.1 5761 beta we have added support for the “Text Data Format” to the RSS/HTTP Data Source which will allow Datalinq to natively access Google sheets as a CSV file (when the Google Sheet is set to publish to web and the publish settings are set to CSV).
XPression version 11.1 beta should release as version 11.5 official release sometime around April-May 2023.
Attached is a document describing use of a paid plugin from CDATA to connect to Google Sheets as a database for XPression Datalinq.
Circling back to this Google Sheets/Datalinq question…
Using the new Datalinq 11.5, works great as far as bringing in a Google Sheets as CSV… however, when I add data to the Google Sheet, it seems like in Datalinq the new line/date fluctuates for around 4-5 minutes before solidifying. What I mean is that I can go into “Browse” and hit refresh, sometime the new line will appear, sometimes it won’t… which leads to the data disappearing/reappearing in my scene as the datalinq re-queries. After 4-5 minutes seems like the new line is “solidified” and the data will stay when it refreshes.
The issue you have reported is something which Google is aware of. It does not affect their core customers so it might not get their attention to resolve the matter. Here is what I can explain about it, since it was quite a topic of discussion around our office.
Google Sheets is a web browser tool, which allows for both sharing of content and worksheets, but also version tracking (the ability to roll back to an older version of the data input or document). Google Sheets does a constant compare of values entered into the fields, which can exhibit the results as a flashing of data when viewed in real-time. DataLinq is viewing the data in real-time, which is where you see this happening in your scenes ustilizing DataLinq.
Google’s primary user is a web browser user, who does not see real time refreshing of the content in their browser, unless they hit the REFRESH BROWSER (F5) button on their toolbar. So, they never see the constant flashing you are reporting. Thus, Google feels that this is not a problem for their core users, and has not expressed urgency to resolve the issue, which does affect our core users.
To resolve this, you can either turn off LIVE UPDATE when you SET DATALINQ PROPERTIES (which might mean you will have captured the older data and not the latest value), or use Google Sheets data to set data points (player Rosters/Bios )which are not likely going to be edited while working on air. COnstantly updating in-game stats might present a problem, and you might not want to make the use of Google Sheets to handle a focal point of your data-driven graphics workflow. I have found it usually takes Google about 3-4 minutes to stop checking values against prior entries.
In my case, I am building a crawl using data that will only go on-air periodically. I have found an adequate work-around for this, which is I am pulling in the Google Sheet data into a Dashboard StructTable. I need to hit a button to reload the table data, but that’s perfectly fine for our use. Then since it isn’t continually refreshing, it holds on to the data I need until it is time to do another crawl update.
Hi Patrick, appreciate the update about this ‘live update’ issue. Does the same thing hapen if you use Microsoft services? Can this work via OneDrive or SharePoint?
Microsoft does not provide a similar access to their files in the cloud. The big push for so many users of Google Sheets is that it can be free to use, rather than paying for the annual subscription of Microsoft. The nice folks at Microsoft have not provided a similar access to their files. I can ask if our team can find a way to utilize Microsoft Excel across the One Drive workflow, but I am not sure it will be easy or quick to do.
Ah I see. Thats a pity. Well i hope google can work with your team to evenually fix this. Microsoft would be prefferred by us, but also happy if it ends up working with google.
