Creating Google Drive data feeds and custom metrics

 

Our recent redesign simplifies the data transfer experience by combining raw and modelled data sources into a single object - data feeds. We’re gradually releasing this new feature to our customers.
If you see Data Feeds in the left navigation sidebar, you’ll learn how to create data feeds and custom metrics for Google Drive files in this article. If not, go here.

 

Ready to visualize and track your Google Drive data? Get started by setting up a connection between PowerMetrics and your Google Drive account and adding one (or more) data feeds.

When you're finished adding Google Drive data feeds, you'll use them to power your custom metrics.

This article includes:

Notes:

  • Google Sheets with pivot tables are not supported.
  • To ensure files upload as expected, make sure your Google Sheet names don't exceed 31 characters.

Creating a Google Drive data feed

When you create a Google Drive data feed, you:

Connecting PowerMetrics to your Google Drive account

The first step in creating a Google Drive data feed is to connect PowerMetrics to your Google Drive account.

Here are a couple things to note:

Your data is safe with us. The first time you connect your Google Drive account to PowerMetrics, you'll be prompted to enter your Google login credentials and give permission to allow access to the data within your Google account. We are serious about protecting your data privacy.

Managing your connections. By default, your connection name looks like this: yourname@Google<date and time created>. You can modify the default connection name when you create a new connection or from your list of connections, accessed by clicking the button in the left navigation sidebar and selecting Connections. Each time you connect to Google Drive, you can use the same account (or switch to a different account if needed). If you have trouble accessing an existing connection, your OAuth token may have expired. If that happens to you, go here for help.

To connect PowerMetrics to your Google Drive account:

  1. In the left navigation sidebar, click the + button beside Data Feeds.

  1. Click Select data.
  2. On the Where is your data? page, select Google Drive. (See below.)

  1. If this is your first time connecting to Google Drive:
    • Click Connect new account. Enter your Google login credentials and click Next. If prompted, click Allow to enable Klipfolio to securely access your Google Drive data. Click Continue.
  2. If you've connected to Google Drive before:
    • Select an existing connection from the drop-down list and click Continue.

Next step - Choosing data for the data feed.

Choosing data for the data feed

To choose data for the data feed:

  1. On the Configure data service page, click Choose File.
  2. Navigate through your Google Drive folders (choose from My Drive, Shared drives, or Shared with me) to locate your file.

  1. Click the file you want to use for your data feed. Then click Select.

Note: If you're uploading a multi-sheet file, use the Sheet selector to choose the sheet to show by default when you enter the data feed editor. (See below.) You can also switch between sheets in the editor by double-clicking a column header in the data feed table. This opens the raw data, where, under Sheet, you can choose the sheet you want to work with from the drop-down list.

  1. Ensure this is the data you're looking for and, then, click Continue.
  2. You're taken to the data feed editor, where you can either save the data as-is or modify it.

If you want to modify the data feed, go to this article for detailed editing information.

  1. Click Save data feed.

The data feed is added to your account and is ready to use for custom metrics. To see a list of all your data feeds, click Data Feeds in the left navigation sidebar.

Next steps - Creating Google Drive custom metrics

Now that you've created one or more Google Drive data feeds, you can return to them and use them to make custom metrics. A single data feed can be used to create a single or multiple custom metrics.

To create custom metrics using a data feed:

  1. In the left navigation sidebar, click Data Feeds to open your list of data feeds.
  2. Select the data feed you want to use for your custom metric.
  3. Click either the +Add metric button in the top right corner of the window or open the Metrics tab and click +Add metric. (See below.)

  1. Choose settings for your custom metric and click Save metric. If you need help, go here to learn more.

The metric opens in its homepage and is added to your list of metrics (accessed by clicking Metrics in the left navigation sidebar).

Now you're ready to start interacting with and learning from your metric data!

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