Data Studio is Google's free next gen business intelligence and data visualization platform. Community Connectors for Data Studio let you build connectors to any internet-accessible data source using Google Apps Script. You can build Community Connectors for commercial, enterprise, and personal use. Learn how to build Community Connectors using the Data Studio Community Connector Codelab.
The Community Connector Codelab explains how Community Connectors work and provides a step by step tutorial for creating your first Community Connector. You can get started if you have a basic understanding of Javascript and web APIs. You should be able to build your first connector in 30 mins using the Codelab.
If you have previously imported data into Google Sheets using Apps Script, you can use this Codelab to get familiar with the Community Connectors and quickly port your code to fetch your data directly into Data Studio.
Community Connectors can help you to quickly deliver an end-to-end visualization solution that is user-friendly and delivers high user value with low development efforts. Community Connectors can help you build a reporting solution for personal, public, enterprise, or commercial data, and also do explanatory visualizations.
By building a Community Connector, you can go from scratch to a push button customized dashboard solution for your service in a matter of hours.
The following dashboard uses Community Connectors to fetch data from Stack Overflow, GitHub, and Twitter. Try using the date filter to view changes across all sources:
This dashboard uses the following Community Connectors:
You can build your own connector to any preferred service and publish it in the Community Connector gallery. The Community Connector gallery now has over 90 Partner Connectors connecting to more than 450 data sources.
Once you have completed the Codelab, view the Community Connector documentation and sample code on the Data Studio open source repository to build your own connector.
Google Data Studio lets users build live, interactive dashboards with beautiful data visualizations, for free. Users can fetch their data from a variety of sources and create unlimited reports in Data Studio, with full editing and sharing capabilities.
Community Connectors is a new feature for Data Studio that lets you use Apps Script to build connectors to any internet accessible data source. You can share Community Connectors with other people so they can access their own data from within Data Studio.
For example, if you are providing a web-based service to your customers, you can create a Community Connector with a template dashboard to fetch data from your API. In just 3 to 4 clicks, your customers can log into your web app, authenticate with Data Studio, and see their individualized data displayed in a beautiful interactive dashboard.
Here's an example Data Studio dashboard that uses a Community Connector to show live data using the Stack Overflow API:
Try out this Stack Overflow Community Connector yourself or view the code.
Leverage Data Studio as a reporting platform for your customers. Provide significant value to your customers by providing them with a ready-made reporting platform. With a minimal development investment, you can rely on Data Studio as a free and powerful dashboarding and analysis solution for your customers.
Reach a larger audience and also monetize your connector. Publish and promote your Community Connector in the Data Studio Community Connector gallery that is visible to all Data Studio users. Published connectors are also directly accessible from the public Community Connector Gallery. There are also multiple approaches if you want to monetize your connector.
Develop customized enterprise solutions for your business. Fetch your business data from a variety of sources (e.g. BigQuery, CloudSQL, web API etc.) and create a customized solution specifically for your business. By providing templates with your connectors, you can significantly cut down dashboard building time.
Benefit from Apps Script features and use your existing code. Since Community Connectors are developed using Google Apps Script, you can benefit from features such as caching, storage, translation, authentication etc. If you already have a Google Sheets connector, it is easy to reuse that same code for a Community Connector.
Did we mention it's free? Data Studio is completely free to use. And there is no cost for developing or publishing Community Connectors.
The Get Started Guide can help you to build your first Community Connector. Since Apps Script is a subset of Javascript, you can easily build a connector even if you have not worked with Apps Script before.
You can also jump ahead and view specific steps of the typical development life cycle of a Community Connector:
You can keep your connector private or share them with other users. You also have the option to publish your connector. Publishing will feature your connector both in Data Studio as well as in the public Community Connector gallery. This enables you to reach all Data Studio users and showcase your service. Furthermore, we encourage you to submit your connector to our Open Source repo so that the community can benefit from it.
If you have any interesting connector stories, ideas, or if you'd like to share some amazing reports you've created using Community Connectors, give us a shout or send us your story at community-connector-feedback@google.com.
