Using Google Docs with Private Plugins

You've got data, and you want to put it on TRMNL.

If the content fits nicely on a website, Screenshot might do the trick. If it's live at a JSON endpoint, Private Plugins with a Polling URL work great. If it lives in a spreadsheet, Google Sheets are great.

But what if you don't code, or don't want to code, and it's easier to put the content inside a Google Document?

If you know what you're doing, skip to Step 2.

Otherwise, download our demo plugin zip file and import it to your account via Plugins > Private Plugin > View All > Import new.

Note, you need at least 1x Private Plugin to exist before this screen will appear.

After importing, click Edit Markup in the top right corner to open the live preview.

Scroll down inside the code editor to see how it works. The raw data is visible here.

The trick with Google Docs as a data source is that the content will arrive inside TRMNL as plain text, and you'll need to use Liquid syntax to manipulate it into structured data.

Read our guides to Liquid plugin development here and here.

From your Google Doc, click Share and add the "Anyone with a link can view" permission.

Next, adjust the spreadsheet URL like so:

Inside TRMNL > Plugins, create a new Private Plugin. Input your modified Doc URL into the "Polling URL" field and leave all other settings alone.

Click to Save in the top right, then click "Force Refresh" to expedite TRMNL's data fetch.

Navigate to the Markup Editor, and find your spreadsheet data inside Your Variables > Data.

Now you may iterate through data with Liquid's split and for X in Y features to structure, parse, and manipulate plain text into a functional plugin.

Import the demo plugin for a live example.