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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/smartsheet-cloud-appsheet.rst

⇱ Create Smartsheet-Connected Business Apps in AppSheet

Create Smartsheet-Connected Business Apps in AppSheet

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Connect to Smartsheet Data via CData Connect AI in Google AppSheet and create custom business applications with real-time access to Smartsheet data.

Google AppSheet is a no-code development platform for application software, enabling users to design mobile, tablet, and web applications. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to Smartsheet data for business applications. This article outlines the process of connecting to Smartsheet using Connect AI and constructing a basic app from Smartsheet data within AppSheet.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for Smartsheet, enabling the creation of reports directly from live Smartsheet data within AppSheet, all without the need for data replication to a native database. When you design applications that interact with data, AppSheet formulates SQL queries to retrieve the required information. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to Smartsheet. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Smartsheet data.

About Smartsheet Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Smartsheet. Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Read and write attachments, columns, comments and discussions.
  • View the data in individuals cells, report on cell history, and more.
  • Perform Smartsheet-specific actions like deleting or downloading attachments, creating, copying, deleting, or moving sheets, and moving or copying rows to another sheet.

Users frequently integrate Smartsheet with analytics tools such as Tableau, Crystal Reports, and Excel. Others leverage our tools to replicate Smartsheet data to databases or data warehouses.


Getting Started


Configure Smartsheet Connectivity for AppSheet

Connectivity to Smartsheet from AppSheet is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Smartsheet data from AppSheet, we start by creating and configuring a Smartsheet connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Smartsheet" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Smartsheet.

    Smartsheet uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, register an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties.

    However, for testing purposes you can instead use the Personal Access Token you get when you create an application; set this to the OAuthAccessToken connection property.

    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Smartsheet Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Smartsheet data from AppSheet.

Connect to Smartsheet from AppSheet

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from AppSheet to create a new Smartsheet data source.

  1. Log into AppSheet
  2. Click "My account" in the menu
  3. Click the Sources tab and add a new data source 👁 Creating a new data source
  4. Select Cloud Database and set the connection information
    • Type: Sql Server
    • Server: tds.cdata.com,14333
    • Database: the Smartsheet connection, for example, Smartsheet1
    • Username: a Connect AI user, for example, [email protected]
    • Password: the PAT for the above Connect AI user
    • SSL: Require SSL
    👁 Connecting to Connect AI
  5. Click "Test Connection"
  6. Click "Authorize Access"

Create an App

Once you create the data source for Smartsheet, you can start building apps on Smartsheet data. Start by clicking "My apps" in the menu.

  1. Click to create a new app and select "Start with your own data"
  2. Name the app and select an appropriate category, based on your data
  3. Select the newly created data source
  4. Select the table or view with the data you want 👁 Selecting a table

At this point, you can configure the design of your app, selecting which columns from the selected table to display, use as labels, and more. Preview the app in the preview panel and then publish or share it when ready.

👁 Configuring an app connected to Connect AI.

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today!