Accepting Google Docs Input: 2 Minute Yahoo Pipes Demo

This video shows how to use data from Google Docs as an input into Yahoo Pipes. In a previous video, I showed how to use a list of items in a CSV file. If you haven’t already watched the CSV input demo, you should start with it, since this pipe builds on the previous one. A CSV file is a great choice when you want to fetch a bunch of feeds and change them frequently without having to update your pipe, but a Google Doc is a great choice for when you want to easily update inputs to the pipe without needing to update a file on a webserver.

This Yahoo Pipes video series is also available as a podcast on iTunes, and as a separate feed.

You can watch the embedded video above, but I recommend downloading the higher resolution Quicktime file (20 MB) to watch. The quality will be much better than the flash version above.

More Details

• The Demo Pipe. A copy of the Using Google Docs Inputs in Yahoo Pipes Demo click “View Source” to see the modules.
• Fetch CSV Module. Enter the URL of a Google Spreadsheet that has already been published as a web page and append &output=csv to the end of the URL. Here is the example we used in the video.
• Loop module with Fetch Feed. Loops through each element in the CSV file and fetches the feed associated with the item.
• Filter Module. Filter by a couple of keywords.
• Sort Module. Sort by date in descending order to make sure things are sorted in a logical manner.
• Pipe Output. The final module in every Yahoo Pipe.

I’ve created many Yahoo Pipes, and most of them have been published on my Yahoo Pipes and RSS Hacks page where you can also learn more about my Yahoo Pipes Training courses.

Related Fast Wonder Blog posts

• Yahoo Pipes and RSS Hacks
• Introduction to Yahoo Pipes: A 2 Minute Yahoo Pipes Video Demo
• Quick Vanity Feed: 2 Minute Yahoo Pipes Video Demo
• Yahoo Pipes for Social Media Monitoring and Business Benefit
• Power (and Pain) of Yahoo Pipes for RSS Aggregation