Excel Online as a REST API

In this guide, we'll cover how to convert an existing Excel Online spreadsheet into a restful JSON API. This can be useful for powering simple web pages using the spreadsheet as a CMS, creating mock-up Apps, or sharing data with another organisation without spending weeks deploying a custom solution.

You'll be able to search for records, add new records, update and delete existing records.

This will take under two minutes to do, giving you more time to focus on your product.

After you've finished this short tutorial, you'll be able to join new teams and say,

"I can help out with the back-end 👍".

Let's get started.

1. Prepare your Spreadsheet

For the Spreadsheet you're going to connect to sheet2api, the first row (1) must only contain column names.
All the other rows may contain data, in whatever format you'd like (symbols, numbers, dates, words, etc).

For example:

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Name	Favourite Thing	Image
2	Bugs Bunny	Carrots	Bugs.png
3	Elmer Fudd	Chasing Rabbits	Elmer.png
4

You may add multiple worksheets such as 'Looney Tunes', 'The Simpsons' to seperate different categories of data.
sheet2api will create an API endpoint for each of these automatically.

2. Create Spreadsheet API

As per the video below:

1. Share & Copy the link to your Excel Online.
2. Create a Spreadsheet API using that link.
3. Proceed to the next step.

3. Try out your new REST API

Within Your Account click the "Go to JSON API Docs" link to view documentation for your Spreadsheet API.

On the next page you'll see full API documentation for all functions of your API, e.g. GET, POST, PUT, etc.

This page will allow you to make real requests to your API, watch the example video below and give it a try for yourself!

You've reached the end, great!

Now you can share your sheet2api API URL with anyone.
When your Spreadsheet gets updated, so will your API, automatically! 🤖

Useful Links

• JavaScript Client Documentation
• Python Client Documentation
• Full Documentation