Add a Google Sheet
You can add a Google Sheet for your TaskBot to pull data from, update it or append new data to it.
FAQ
After I added a Google Sheet to a TaskBot, can I create new columns?
Yes. Simply add new columns directly in your Google Sheet, and then click on Refetch columns from Google Sheet on your TaskBot page, as shown here: Adding New Columns to a Google Sheet.
What happens if I delete or change some of the columns in my Google Sheet?
If you change column names or delete some of the columns in your Google Sheet, those table references that refer to them in your building blocks will no longer be valid. If you click on Refetch columns from Google Sheet, the columns that are no longer present in your Google Sheet will be removed automatically from all the building block references. If you rename or delete columns that are not referenced in any of your building blocks, then nothing happens and no action is needed.
Column matching is not case-sensitive. This means that if you change the case of your column names in your Google Sheet (for example, from "column one" to "Column One"), this will have no impact on your references.
How does ZeroWork handle Sheet usage limits?
Your TaskBot works with the data in your Google Sheets in batches of 100 rows.
For example, assume you have a Google Sheet with 1,000 rows and you built a TaskBot that updates each row in a loop. The TaskBot will update your Google Sheet after every 100 rows. This means during its run, your TaskBot will update your Google Sheet 10 times in total.
This drastically reduces any risk of hitting your Sheets usage limits. (Official Google Sheets documentation page on usage limits: here.)
In case the usage limit happens to be exceeded during a TaskBot run, your TaskBot will wait for a minute and retry. In case the new attempt was not successful it will repeat this wait-and-retry process a few more times. If, after multiple attempts, Google Sheets still returns the error that the rate limit was exceeded, TaskBot will terminate its run and you will see an error message in your Run Reports (see Using Run Reports).
What if I (accidentally) delete a Google Sheet that one of my TaskBots is using?
Your TaskBot will check if the Google Sheet link is valid at the start of its run. If it's not valid or your authentication session has expired, it will not proceed with the run and you will see an error message in your Run Reports.
I'm using a native table. What happens if I convert it to a Google Sheet?
There is an option Convert to a Google Sheet available in More Actions of your native tables.
This action is not reversible. Once your table converts to a Google Sheet, you cannot convert it back to a native table.
You might wonder what happens to the existing table references in your building blocks if you convert your table to a Google Sheet. The good news is that the table references can stay unchanged since the table id does not change on converting the table to a Google Sheet. You only need to ensure that the column names are the same. Case-sensitivity does not matter: If the column is named "column one" in your native table and "COLUMN One" in your Google Sheet, this will not break any references. If some of the column names that building blocks refer to are not the same, simply rename the column names either in your Google Sheet or in your native table before converting. Otherwise those columns that are not present in your Google Sheet will be removed and all the references to them in your building blocks will be automatically removed, too.
Beware that all rows in your native table will be permanently deleted once your table is converted to a Google Sheet. You can secure your data by using the export option (Export Data as CSV) before converting.
When TaskBot is duplicated, table is also duplicated. How does it impact the sheets?
Let's go over an example.
You have TaskBot A with table id 123 pointing to Google Sheet A.
Then you duplicate your TaskBot A. Now TaskBot B is created with a different table id 456 still pointing to Google Sheet A.
First, the Google Sheet is not re-created in your Google Drive. Both tables point to the same Sheet. Now you might want to do either of the two:
Keep the new TaskBot B’s table as it is. It will update/use data in the same sheet as TaskBot A.
Link TaskBot B to a different sheet. You can simply click on "Edit Google Sheet link" and add a new Google Sheet in your TaskBot B without having to remap any of the table references in your building blocks. That's because the reference used is only the table id, the column names do not need to be re-mapped (unless of course your column names in your other Sheet are different).
Last updated