Google Sheets Integration Home
🧠 Big Idea
You want to make your Smart Sites website read information from a Google Sheet and automatically show it as cards and/or a table on a page.
Think of it like this:
👉 Your Google Sheet = a spreadsheet notebook
👉 Your website = a display screen
The website looks at your notebook and copies what it sees.
📊 What the Google Sheet does
Let’s use the Roster Solution for example. Your Google Sheet is like a table where each row is a player.
Example:
| Number | Name | Year | Position | Height | Weight | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Sam | 10 | QB | 5’9” | 150 | (link) |
Each row = one player
Each column = one type of info
So your sheet is basically your database (storage).
🌐 What the website does
Your website:
-
goes to the sheet
-
reads all the rows
-
builds cards automatically
So instead of typing players into the website manually, it just says:
“Hey Google Sheet, give me all your data.”
🧩 How the connection works (simple version)
There’s a piece of code on your website that does this:
-
Waits for the page to load
-
Finds the spot where the roster should go
-
Goes to Google Sheets
-
Downloads the data
-
Turns it into nice-looking cards
🔁 Why this is powerful
Instead of doing this:
❌ Edit website every time
❌ Re-publish every time
You now do this:
✅ Edit the Google Sheet
✅ Website updates automatically
🎮 Real-life comparison
It’s like a scoreboard:
-
The scorekeeper (Google Sheet) enters the scores
-
The scoreboard (website) shows them instantly
You don’t change the scoreboard directly—you change the source.
🔍 Extra features that we added
Your site also lets people:
-
🔎 Search players
-
🎯 Filter by year
-
📄 See more details in a popup
-
📚 Switch views (cards/table)
All of that is built using the same sheet data.
🧱 Simple breakdown of parts
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Google Sheet | Stores the data |
| Website page | Shows the data |
| JavaScript | Connects them |
| CSS | Makes it look good |
🎯 Why this is better than normal websites
Normal way:
-
Hard to update
-
Requires web edits
Your way:
-
Easy to update
-
Anyone can use it
-
No coding needed after setup
🧠 Final simple explanation
You built a system where:
“My website reads my spreadsheet and turns it into a roster automatically.”