Google Sheets

With Google Sheets, your app saves what its visitors send (a sign-up, an order, a message) as a new row in a spreadsheet in your Google Drive. No database to manage, no key to look for: you connect your Google account once, Highwind creates the spreadsheet, and you view, sort or share it like any Google spreadsheet.

It’s the simplest option when you want to receive data and handle it yourself: waitlists, event sign-ups, quote requests, bookings, small orders.

What you need

• A Google account (Gmail or Google Workspace).
• That’s it: the connector is free, it uses your Google account, and Highwind charges nothing beyond the credits for the agent’s work.

Set up Google Sheets

1. Ask the agent for the feature. For example:

   Add a waitlist to the home page: first name and email, saved to a Google Sheets spreadsheet.

   You can also mention the connector with @ (or + menu → Connectors → Google Sheets). If you don’t say where to store the data, the agent often shows a Your call card: pick In a Google Sheets spreadsheet.

2. The agent writes the code. It adds the app’s server if needed and the form that sends each sign-up to the spreadsheet. A Connect your Google account card appears in the chat.

3. Connect your Google account. Click Connect Google. A Google window opens (the button shows Waiting for Google…): choose your account and accept the requested access. Highwind only asks for access to the files it creates for you.

4. The spreadsheet is created. The card shows Google is connected: your app’s spreadsheet is ready. and an Open the spreadsheet link. It’s named “Project name — Highwind” and lives in your Drive.

5. Test it. Fill in the form in the preview, then open the spreadsheet: the row shows up within a few seconds. Publish your app so visitors can sign up.

Once for all your projects

Your Google account stays connected for all of Highwind. In your next projects, the spreadsheet is created as soon as the agent wires in Google Sheets, without going through Google again. Each project gets its own spreadsheet.

You can also connect Google before asking the agent anything: Project settings → Connectors, Google Sheets details, Connect Google button.

What the spreadsheet contains

• One row per entry. Each new entry is added below the previous ones.
• Columns are created automatically. The first row of the tab holds the headers (“Date”, “Email”…). If the app sends a new piece of information, a column is added on the right.
• One tab per kind of data. For example, the agent puts sign-ups in a “Sign-ups” tab and orders in an “Orders” tab. A missing tab is created automatically.
• Plain text. Values are written as is: a visitor who types a formula (=…) runs nothing, the cell stays text.
• Limits: 50 columns per row and 5,000 characters per cell at most.

Keep the first row and the column names

The app finds columns by their name, in the first row. You can move columns, sort, filter or color rows, but if you rename a header, the app will create a new column with the old name on the next entry. Don’t delete the first row.

Show rows in the app (reading)

By default, your app can only add rows: it can’t read the spreadsheet back. That’s on purpose: if the app’s key were exposed by mistake, it would only allow adding rows, not reading your data.

If your app must display rows (the latest reviews, the list of attendees on an admin page…), ask the agent: it turns reading on for this project. You can also set it yourself in Project settings → Connectors → Google Sheets, with the The app can read rows back checkbox (“only turn on if it must display this data”). The app then reads the latest rows of a tab (100 by default, 500 at most).

Show the 5 latest reviews from the Reviews tab of the spreadsheet on the home page.

Caution

Your spreadsheet’s rows often contain personal data (emails, phone numbers). The agent never shows them to visitors unless you ask: think about who should see them before turning reading on.

Manage Google Sheets in a project

In Project settings → Connectors, the Google Sheets details show the project’s status:

Status	Meaning
Not used yet	The agent hasn’t wired Google Sheets into this app.
To connect	The agent wired it in; you still need to connect your Google account so the spreadsheet gets created.
Connected	The spreadsheet exists and the app writes to it. The details show Connected as your address.

Available actions:

• Open the spreadsheet: opens it in Google Sheets.
• The app can read rows back: turns reading on or off (see above).
• Regenerate the app’s key: if you think the key linking your app to the Highwind gateway was exposed, create a new one. The old one stops working right away (“New key in place: the old one no longer works.”), and both the preview and the live app switch to the new one without republishing.
• Remove: removes the link between this project and its spreadsheet. The spreadsheet stays in your Drive. If you connect Google again afterwards, a new spreadsheet is created.

Disconnect your Google account

On the Connectors page, open the Google Sheets details, click Disconnect and confirm. What happens:

• Highwind revokes its access at Google and erases its tokens;
• your apps stop writing to their spreadsheets until you reconnect Google from a project;
• the spreadsheets stay in your Drive, with all their rows.

You can also remove access from your Google account (myaccount.google.com/permissions). Apps then get an error saying Google access was removed and must be reconnected from Highwind.

Reconnect

Click Connect Google from a project (chat card or Project settings → Connectors). If the account you pick still has access to the old spreadsheet, Highwind picks up the same spreadsheet; otherwise (another Google account, spreadsheet deleted from your Drive…), it creates a new one.

Use cases

Waitlist

“Add a waitlist form (email only) and save each sign-up to Google Sheets with the date.”

Event sign-ups

“Create the page for my March 12 workshop with a sign-up form: name, email, number of seats. Store everything in a Google Sheets spreadsheet.”

Simple orders

“Add an Order button to each product: the customer leaves their name, phone and quantity, and the order is added to the Orders tab of my spreadsheet.”

Quotes and contact

“The quote request form must save each request to Google Sheets, with the project type and the budget.”

Good to know

• Limited access. Highwind asks Google for the drive.file permission only: it only accesses the spreadsheets it created for your apps, never the rest of your Drive. That’s also why you can’t plug in a spreadsheet you created yourself: the spreadsheet is always created by Highwind.
• The agent doesn’t see your Google account. It sees neither your credentials nor your tokens: your app’s server goes through the Highwind gateway with a project key managed by Highwind (you don’t see it in the secrets).
• No edits, no deletions. The app adds rows (and reads them back if you allow it); it never edits or deletes an existing row.
• Rate. An app can make up to 300 writes or reads per minute (600 across all your projects). Occasionally, Google Sheets may be temporarily saturated: the app then gets a temporary error, to retry a minute later.
• Need more? For user accounts, data that everyone edits or large volumes, a real database is a better fit: see The database.

See also

Google Sheets pageThe connector's permissions and billing.

Data choicesGoogle Sheets, email, Slack or a database: which to pick.

ConnectorsEvery service your app can call.

SecurityHow Highwind protects your data and access.