Actions

The first step of our automation is to check the Google Sheets file daily. Since we’ve set the automation to run every day, we can now proceed with retrieving the file’s contents.

To perform actions within an automation, we use Action Components. To start, click on the Action category in the component panel and search for Google Sheets, as shown below. You will see a list of components related to Google Sheets.

You can either directly select a component from this list or click the Google Sheets category at the top to narrow down the search to Google Sheets-specific components. Since we want to retrieve the contents of a file, we will use the Get Values component. After clicking it, drag and place it next to the Schedule Trigger. The Info Panel for the Get Values component will appear, as shown below.

Now, let’s go through each input for this component and set them one by one. You’ll find descriptions for each input just below their respective input boxes.

1. Google Sheets Connection: Select an existing connection or connect your Google account by clicking the button.

2. Spreadsheet: This input specifies which file to read. Create a Google Sheets file with example content (as shown earlier in the tutorial) and select it here. You can copy the example content from here. Do not forget to update the dates.

3. Sheet Name: A spreadsheet can contain multiple sheets. Select the sheet you wish to use. This option becomes available only after you’ve selected a spreadsheet file. This behavior is common across many components—some inputs depend on previous ones being set.

4. Has Header Row: This input indicates whether the first row contains data or is used as a header. If it’s a header, the first row will be excluded from the results. You’ll notice a blue switch next to this input, showing that the value is being provided from the automation flow, which is why you don’t see an option to set it in the Info Panel. Instead, it has an input port on the left side of the component block.

Providing values from the automation flow is useful for dynamic values that aren’t known when building the automation. However, in this case, we know the table has a header row (as shown earlier), so we can set this input manually in the Info Panel. To do this, toggle the switch off, which removes the input port from the component block and allows you to set the value directly in the panel. Select Yes to indicate the table has a header row.

Now that we’ve configured all the inputs, you’ll notice the Run button on the component block has turned blue, indicating the component is ready to execute. Click the Run button to see the output. The Info Panel will display the results, which in this case is the file’s content in a table format. You can click the Expand Table button to view all the data in a larger window.

What’s Next?

Our automation now has 2 components. We will learn about connecting them to each other to create the automation flow.