Google Sheets Addon

Would you like to automatically send form entry data to Google Sheets? The Google Sheets addon for WPForms provides a simple method for sending your form entries directly to a Google spreadsheet.

This tutorial will show you how to install and use the Google Sheets addon in WPForms.

Requirements:


Before getting started, you’ll first need to make sure WPForms is installed and activated on your WordPress site and that you’ve verified your license. You will also need to sign up for a Google account if you don’t already have one.

Accessing Google Sheets Integration Settings

Once you’ve installed WPForms and your license is verified, go ahead and install and activate the Google Sheets addon.

After installing the Google Sheets addon, you’ll need to access the Google Sheets integration settings. To do this from the WordPress dashboard, go to WPForms » Settings and click on the Integrations tab.

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Next, click on the Google Sheets integration to expand its settings.

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Connecting WPForms to Google Sheets

To connect WPForms to your Google account, go ahead and click the Add New Account button.

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You’ll then be redirected to a Google authentication page where you’ll need to select a Google account to use with WPForms.

Once you’ve selected a Google account, be sure to grant WPForms access to your account by clicking the Allow button.

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Note: To learn more about the Google permissions needed for WPForms, check out our documentation on Google permissions for the Google Sheets addon. If you prefer not to share your Google data with WPForms, you can connect via a custom Google application instead.

Now when you return to WPForms » Settings » Integrations, you should see the green Connected status along with your connection details.

google-sheets-connected-status

Note: The Google Sheets addon only supports one Google account connection at a time.

Connecting via a Custom Google Application

Note: Connecting WPForms to a custom Google application is only recommended for developers or advanced users. If you don’t need a custom application, please feel free to skip this section and proceed to learn how to add a Google Sheets integration to your form.

To get started with your Google application connection, click Enable Advanced Mode located in your Google Sheets integration settings.

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You’ll now see additional settings where you’ll need to enter information from the Google Cloud Platform.

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We’ll skip this step for now, as you’ll first need to log in to the Google Cloud Platform to create a custom application. However, we recommend leaving your WPForms settings open in a separate browser tab while you create your application, as you’ll need to access them later.

Adding a New Project

Once you’ve logged in to the Google Cloud Platform, click APIs & Services.

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On the next screen, click the projects dropdown menu.

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After that, an overlay will appear that shows your projects. Go ahead and click NEW PROJECT.

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Next, you’ll need to add a name to the Project name field. We recommend using a name that will help you remember what you’re using the project for; however, you can use whatever name you’d like.

After adding a name, click the CREATE button.

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Once you’ve created your project, click the project dropdown again.

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Now, click on the name of your new project in the overlay that appears.

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Enabling Google APIs

Now that your project is created, it’s time to enable some Google APIs. To start, click Library in the left side menu.

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This will take you to the API Library where you’ll need to locate and enable 2 different APIs: Google Drive API and Google Sheets API.

Type “Google Drive API” in the search bar to locate the Google Drive API.

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Once you’ve located the Google Drive API, click the ENABLE button.

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Next, head back to Google’s API library and type “Google Sheets API” in the search bar.

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After locating the Google Sheets API, click the ENABLE button.

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Selecting a User Type

Now that you’ve enabled the required APIs, click OAuth consent screen in the left side menu.

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On the next screen, you’ll need to select a User Type for your application. You can select either Internal or External, depending on who you’d like to share your app with.

For our example, we’ll select External. Once you’ve made your selection, click the CREATE button to proceed.

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Note: Be sure to check out Google’s documentation on user types to learn more about External and Internal users.

Registering Your App

After you’ve selected a User Type for your app, you’ll redirect to a page to complete your app registration. You’ll need to complete a series of steps to register your app, which we’ll cover in the following sections.

Adding App Information

Adding information about your app is required and allows users to know who you are and how to contact you.

In the required fields, be sure to add an App name and User support email.

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Adding an App Domain

Scroll down to the App domain section and locate the Authorized domains section. From here, click the ADD DOMAIN button.

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In the Authorized domain 1 field, you’ll need to add wpforms.com as your domain.

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Note: You must add wpforms.com as your authorized domain, or your app will fail to connect to WPForms.

Adding Developer Contact Information

Next, add your preferred email address in the Developer contact information section. Google will contact you at this email address if there are any changes to your project.

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Finally, click the SAVE AND CONTINUE button to proceed to the next step.

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Adding Scopes

On the next screen, click the ADD OR REMOVE SCOPES button.

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In the side modal that appears, click on the search bar labeled Enter property name or value.

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Then, go ahead and search for each of the following scopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.profile
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.metadata.readonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets

You’ll need to enable each of the above scopes by clicking the checkbox on the left side.

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Once you’ve enabled the required scopes, click the UPDATE button located at the bottom of the screen.

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You’ll then return to the Scopes screen where you can view and manage your enabled scopes. From here, go ahead and click the SAVE AND CONTINUE button to save your changes.

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Adding Test Users

Google will need to complete the verification process before users can interact with your app. However, you can allow specific users to test your app before it’s verified. This step isn’t required for our setup, so we’ll go ahead and move to the next step by clicking the SAVE AND CONTINUE button.

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Reviewing Your App Registration

The last step of the app registration is to review your configuration on the Summary screen. If everything looks correct and corresponds with the steps in this tutorial, click the BACK TO DASHBOARD button at the bottom of the screen.

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Publishing Your App

Now that you’ve completed the app registration, you’ll need to publish your app. You can do this directly from the Oauth consent screen by clicking on the PUBLISH APP button.

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After clicking the button, a modal will with some further steps for completing Google’s app verification process. To confirm, click CONFIRM.

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Creating Credentials for Your Application

The next step is to create credentials for your application. To get started, click Credentials in the left side menu.

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Then, click the CREATE CREDENTIALS dropdown at the top of the Credentials screen.

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After that, click OAuth client ID.

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Next, click the Application type dropdown and select Web application.

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After that, be sure to enter a name for your Oauth 2.0 client in the Name field. This won’t be visible to end users, so feel free to name it whatever you’d like.

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Next, scroll to the Authorized redirect URIs section and click ADD URI.

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Now you’ll need to head back to your WPForms integration settings and copy the first Callback URL by clicking the copy icon.

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Then, switch back to your Google application settings and paste the Callback URL into the URIs 1 field.

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After that, click the ADD URI button again so you can add your 2nd URI.

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Switch back to your WPForms settings and click the copy icon next to the 2nd Callback URL.

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Now you can navigate back to your Google settings and paste the 2nd Callback URL into the URIs 2 field.

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Next, click the CREATE button.

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A modal window will then appear with your OAuth client credentials. From here, copy the Client ID by clicking the copy icon.

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Then, switch over to your WPForms integration settings and paste the Client ID into the Google Client ID field.

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Next, navigate back to your Google application settings and copy the Client Secret.

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Switch over to your WPForms integration settings once more and paste the Client Secret into the Google Client Secret field.

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Completing the Connection

Now that you have your Client ID and Client Secret in place, it’s time to complete the connection. To do this, click the Connect to Google Sheets button.

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Next, you’ll redirect to a Google authentication page. Here you’ll need to grant WPForms access to your Google account.

Once you’ve selected a Google account, check the boxes next to See information about your Google Drive files and See, edit, create, and delete all your Google Sheets spreadsheets.

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Finally, click Continue to complete the connection.

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Now when you return to WPForms » Settings » Integrations, you should see the green Connected status along with your connection details.

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Adding a Google Sheets Integration to Your Form

Now that you’ve successfully connected WPForms to your Google account, it’s time to add a Google Sheets integration to your form. To do this, you’ll need to create a new form or edit an existing one to open the form builder.

Once you’ve accessed the form builder, go to Settings » Google Sheets and click the Add New Connection button.

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Next, an overlay will appear where you can enter a connection nickname. Feel free to use any nickname you’d like, as this won’t be visible to your users. Once you’ve added a nickname, click the OK button.

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After you add a connection nickname, additional settings will appear, which we’ll cover in the next section.

Configuring Connection Settings

First, click the Spreadsheet dropdown to select a spreadsheet.

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When you click on the dropdown, you’ll see options to create a new spreadsheet or select an existing spreadsheet that you already have in your Google account. You can also use the search bar to search for a specific spreadsheet you’ve already created in your Google account.

Note: Only Google spreadsheets you have permission to edit will appear in the list of available spreadsheets. Check out Google’s documentation on sharing files from Google Drive to learn more about access permissions.

For this example, we’ll create a new spreadsheet by selecting the Create a New Spreadsheet option.

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Additional settings will appear after you select a spreadsheet. Although it’s optional, we recommend adding a name to the Spreadsheet Name and Sheet Name fields to help you keep track of your spreadsheet.

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Once you’ve connected your form to a Google spreadsheet, a link icon will appear under the Spreadsheet section of your connection settings.

Go ahead and click the link icon to open your Google spreadsheet in a new browser tab.

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Mapping Form Fields to Google Sheets

Under the Field Mapping option, you’ll see two columns for mapping your form fields to your spreadsheet: Column Name and Form Field Value.

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By default, WPForms maps the Entry ID to Column A of your spreadsheet.

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When the form submission is added to your spreadsheet, the Entry ID will appear as a link in Column A. Clicking the Entry ID link will take you to the individual entry page for that particular form submission.

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If you’d like to map form data to a new column, simply click the Column Name dropdown and select your desired column.

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Then, you’ll need to select a form field you’d like to map to the column in your Google spreadsheet. To select a form field, click the Form Field Value dropdown and click on the form field you’d like to use.

For our example, we’ll select the Name field.

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In our Google spreadsheet, we’ll now have a column where we can see the names of users who submit our form.

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Adding a Custom Value

Instead of selecting a field from your form to map to your spreadsheet, you can use a Custom Value, such as a Smart Tag or Google Sheets formula.

To add a custom value, click the Form Field Value dropdown and select Custom Value.

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Then, a new field will appear where you can insert your custom value.

If you’d like to use a Smart Tag for the custom value, go ahead and click the Smart Tag.

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You’ll then see a list of available Smart Tags. For our example, we’ll select the Entry Date Smart Tag so we can quickly see the date of the form submission in our spreadsheet.

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Note: Want to learn more about Smart Tags? Be sure to check out our guide to using Smart Tags in WPForms.

Now when a user submits our form, we’ll see the date of the form submission will appear in our Google spreadsheet.

entry-date-mapped-to-google-sheet.png

Note: The Google Sheets addon also supports conditional logic. Be sure to check out our guide to using conditional logic to learn more.

Once you’re finished configuring your connection settings, be sure to save your form by clicking the Save button.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Below are some of the most common questions we receive about using the Google Sheets addon with WPForms.

I have a lot of spreadsheets in my Google account. Why don’t I see all of my spreadsheets when I try to select one to use with WPForms?

Please double-check your access permissions for the specific Google spreadsheet you’d like to use. Only Google spreadsheets you have permission to edit will appear in the list of available spreadsheets to select. To learn how to request Editor access, check out Google’s documentation on sharing files from Google Drive.

Once you have Editor access, the list of available spreadsheets may take a few minutes to update in your WPForms settings.

How do I disconnect the Google Sheets addon in WPForms?

If you’d like to disconnect the Google Sheets addon from your WordPress site, go to WPForms » Settings. Then select the Integrations tab.

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Next, click on the Google Sheets addon to open its options. To remove your connection, click the Disconnect link.

Disconnect Google Sheets connnection

An overlay will appear, prompting you to confirm your selection. Go ahead and click OK to disconnect your account.

Confirm disconnection

Note: After disconnecting your account from the Google Sheets addon, all connections you’ve set up on individual forms will also be deleted.

If you’d like to disable Google Sheets connection for a single form without disconnecting your account, you can do so from the form builder.

For this, open the form you wish to remove its connection. In the form builder, go to Settings » Google Sheets to access the addon’s settings page.

Google Sheets settings

To remove a connection, click on the trash icon next to the connection name.

Remove connection for single form

An overlay will appear, prompting you to confirm your selection. Click OK to continue and delete the connection.

Confirm selection

I have more than 26 fields in my form. How do I add extra columns in Google Sheets?

By default, Google Sheets has 26 columns representing the 26 letters of the alphabet (A-Z). If you require more than 26 columns when setting up Google Sheets on your form, you’ll need to create the new columns from the Google Sheets doc.

For this, open the Google Sheets doc you’d like to add new columns to. Then right-click on any cell and select + Insert one column left.

Add a new column

This would insert a new column at the end of your sheet.

Newly added column

Note: If you need to add more columns, follow the same procedure to add new columns.

After adding the columns you need, return to your WordPress site and open the form builder to access the form you linked with Google Sheets.

Then go to Settings » Google Sheets to access the settings page.

Google sheets addon settings

To select a new column, click the Column Name dropdown.

Select a column

The new column(s) you created will be added to the available options. Choose the new column you created to continue.

Choose newly added column

Next, choose the field you’d like to map to your selected Google Sheets column.

Select form field

Be sure to save your form after making your changes.

Now when users fill out your form, the value will be populated in the new column you created in the Google Sheets doc.

Populated Extended Column

Why can’t I see a shared corporate spreadsheet in the available options for form connection?

If you can’t see a corporate spreadsheet shared via email groups, it’s likely due to the connected Google Sheets addon account not having direct Editor access. To fix this, ensure the connected account email has Editor access to the spreadsheet, even if you already have group access.

Keep in mind that the list of available spreadsheets is cached and updates every 10 minutes. You may need to wait or clear your cache to see the updated list.

For more details on sharing files and managing access permissions in Google Drive, check out Google’s documentation for sharing files from Google Drive

That’s it! Now you know how to set up and use the Google Sheets addon for WPForms.

Next, would you like to learn more about what you can do with user-submitted information in WPForms? Be sure to check out our complete guide to form entries to learn more.