Data-Pulls from Google Sheets

As posted here:&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/6067654/allow-data-to-be-pulled-from-a-google-sheet-into-the-attributes-section-of-a-roll20-character-sheet" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/6067654/allow-data-to-be-pulled-from-a-google-sheet-into-the-attributes-section-of-a-roll20-character-sheet</a> I'll quote that post since I'm essentially in the same exact same situation (aside from the "willing to subscribe to Pro" part). "I am an indie rpg designer and I am trying to test my new system using Roll20, but I don't know enough about scripting to make a good character sheet on Roll20 itself.&nbsp; I have a well designed character sheet on Google Sheets that works well, but I wish that I could reference cell values from the Google Sheet into the Attributes section on the vanilla Roll20 character sheet. If the ability to pull cell data from a Google Sheet into the Roll20 character sheet Attributes section were added, I would absolutely be willing to become a pro subscriber to get access to that functionality, and I don't think I would be the only one, it would be great for us indie rpg gamers who are not programmers."

This would geometrically increase the stuff that can be done in Roll20. Roleplaying games are intensely house-ruled games, and asking the developer team to cover every possible angle is impossible. Allowing folks to integrate google docs, including spreadsheets, would allow users with spreadsheet expertise to contribute a lot more. Further, it makes it possible for users to "publish" their work and allow others to copy it, which would insure that less talented folks can benefit from that expertise with little effort. Further, it's far from impossible. The Google docs API is very well documented, and could probably be implemented very easily. OAuth guarantees that people are only connecting to things they have access to. This suggestion has been made several times over the course of the past few years, and I'm not sure the amount of potential benefit it has registers. For example, not only could I code up my own character sheet in Google Sheets and have it ported over to multiple games very easily, but I could even break down the code that roll20 uses into discrete cells, making it much easier to read, understand, and update. Cells can be expanded and separated out in a way that makes them MUCH more legible than trying to parse out the multitudes of brackets and parenthesis in Roll20. It's basically a significant step towards having an IDE for Roll20.

Thank you for your input! I feel about the same on this subject. I already have a spreadsheet compendium of items and rules for my 100% homebrewed game system. Problem is, I've had to compromise the functionality of the rules and put my players through hours of "macro-class" to insert data into character sheets, that's already in the Googles Docs. Implementing data-pulls would allow me to automate the entire process and streamline the entire thing. Nazim K. said: This would geometrically increase the stuff that can be done in Roll20. Roleplaying games are intensely house-ruled games, and asking the developer team to cover every possible angle is impossible. Allowing folks to integrate google docs, including spreadsheets, would allow users with spreadsheet expertise to contribute a lot more. Further, it makes it possible for users to "publish" their work and allow others to copy it, which would insure that less talented folks can benefit from that expertise with little effort. Further, it's far from impossible. The Google docs API is very well documented, and could probably be implemented very easily. OAuth guarantees that people are only connecting to things they have access to. This suggestion has been made several times over the course of the past few years, and I'm not sure the amount of potential benefit it has registers. For example, not only could I code up my own character sheet in Google Sheets and have it ported over to multiple games very easily, but I could even break down the code that roll20 uses into discrete cells, making it much easier to read, understand, and update. Cells can be expanded and separated out in a way that makes them MUCH more legible than trying to parse out the multitudes of brackets and parenthesis in Roll20. It's basically a significant step towards having an IDE for Roll20.

Another way to implement this would be to use the Google Sheets API to implement one-way communication to the sheet, and get information from the sheet to show up in a tooltip when the mouse pointer is over a specified location on the VTT. For example, if I had a player or NPC character sheet developed in Google Sheets (which, let's be honest, is WAY more customizable than Roll20's character sheets), I could have their most relevant traits be displayed in a tooltip on Roll20 by mouse-over-ing the appropriate token. Similarly, if I had a map with several locations on it, I could have tooltips display the relevant text drawn from another Google document. This seems like an amazingly easy way to let folks develop those Google docs to suit their preferences, and allow them to use those in Roll20.

Interesting time for you reply to this. I'd actually taken a break from this project, for personal reasons and I'm just recently getting back into it.

this browser plugin can do it, with some tinkering: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Browser#Atom20" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Browser#Atom20</a>

Andreas J. said: this browser plugin can do it, with some tinkering: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Browser#Atom20" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Browser#Atom20</a> This seems very functional, but I have not tested it yet. Thank you for sharing it.&nbsp; I have to note that I would still prefer a native Roll20 implementation of this feature for several reasons, and would consider it the feature that would most draw me to paying for a premium subscription. Here are some of the reasons: Plugins with a small user base tend to break and stay broken whenever software they interact with is updated, because their developers have to react to those changes (which, in this case, would be the Chrome browser, Google Drive, and Roll20), and these tend to be pet projects that developers in their spare time. So, I'm less inclined to start a campaign that relies on this plugin. Plugins with a small number of reviews (like the one linked above) are less trusted because they have less scrutiny, and the potential impact of a security breach of a plugin that can access your Google Drive information is significant. I'm more inclined to trust a product that is either well-used open source or that I pay for, and this feature is more likely to induce people like me to pay for a premium Roll20 subscription, because: When I use well-known roleplaying rulesets (e.g. Call of Cthulhu, D&amp;D, Pathfinder) I find that the games I'm in as both a player and a DM almost always use some house rules. These would be much easier to integrate and reference via this feature. When I use less-known roleplaying rulesets (an intensely growing category), I will find inevitably those games have less support in Roll20. Implementing this feature would change that dramatically, because it would allow authors and players of indie RPGs to be well-supported by Roll20 by authoring their own data sources in Google Drive.

Aw, was hoping this was a thing already... guess not. The browser plugin seems like a reasonable alternate resolution... but I can't try it as I am a Firefox user. Would be awesome to be able to data call from Google sheets, or even from an Open Office Calc sheet (be it on GM's, or calls from the person clicking's computer).