Welcome to CollectionBuilder-Sheets!
Using the options below you can select demo metadata to explore a pre-built collection, or load your own metadata from the web or your local computer. The configurations are temporarily stored in your browser's session storage, so will remain only until you close this window!
Metadata Tips
Set up your metadata carefully following the template guidelines.
Be especially careful with column names in the first row–they need to exactly match the template, with no spaces and no extra white space at the end of the value. Records without an “objectid” will be skipped.
Note: no information is sent to the server, the metadata and configuration change is only on your computer.
How to Publish Your Google Sheet
- In your Google Sheet, ensure that your metadata is the first sheet in the spreadsheet (by default named "Sheet1"). The tabs can be dragged to reorder if necessary.
- Click “File”, “Share”, and select “Publish to the Web”.
- On the popup modal, use the dropdowns in “Link” tab to select “Entire Document” and “Comma-separated values (.csv)” options, then click “Publish” button.
- Copy the link that is provided.
- In the "Use Metadata CSV Link" form above, paste the link and click "Submit".
For example, a published link looks like:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSn7AA-cbsXT3_nNUGftc1ab-CKXOJHMQCIENeR9NHElbyI9_qA99o0-HNZdG04v-M2_N21bUe_krQQ/pub?output=csv
How to Download Your Google Sheet as CSV
- On your Google Sheet, switch to the sheet tab that contains your metadata (by default "Sheet1").
- Click “File”, “Download”, and select as "Comma Separated Values (.csv)”
- The file should download to your computer’s Downloads folder
- In the "Use Metadata CSV from your Computer" form above, click “Choose file” and navigate in your file explorer to select the downloaded CSV, then click "Submit".
Other Web CSV
If you have a CSV available anywhere on the web, you can use it by referencing the full URL.
However, depending on where your CSV is hosted, you may encounter CORS errors.
For example, to use a CSV hosted in a GitHub repository, use the “raw” link:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CollectionBuilder/collectionbuilder-sample-data/main/psychiana_cbdemo_gh.csv
Paste the link into the "Use Metadata CSV Link" form above and click Submit.
Share via URL
To share your work with others, the default template can also load web CSV metadata specified as a parameter in the URL.
Add your full metadata link to the end of the CB-Sheets instance’s URL as the “csv” option, like:
https://collectionbuilder.github.io/collectionbuilder-sheets/?csv=<your metadata url here>
For example:
https://collectionbuilder.github.io/collectionbuilder-sheets/?csv=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CollectionBuilder/collectionbuilder-sample-data/main/psychiana_cbdemo_gh.csv
or
https://collectionbuilder.github.io/collectionbuilder-sheets/?csv=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSn7AA-cbsXT3_nNUGftc1ab-CKXOJHMQCIENeR9NHElbyI9_qA99o0-HNZdG04v-M2_N21bUe_krQQ/pub?output=csv
Note: the metadata URL can not have any & (i.e. additional query string parameters).
Having a & in the URL will cause the parsing to fail.
