While searching Google for methods to possibly embed live weather conditions and forecasts into a Google Slides presentation (looping, as in a kiosk), one of the websites that I encountered was this one, which hinted that this was indeed possible with Pipedream:
Indeed, I am able to configure and run the ‘Openweather API’ portion (using my API key), but that is where my comprehension of how to complete this task ends. I imagine that the ‘Google Slides’ portion would somehow be linked into the overall workflow, but from the simple code presented on this page, I don’t see how this is nearly complete.
Another obstacle that I ran into was creating some sort of initial ‘trigger’ to start the whole thing off – I successfully created a 15-minute timer – and thought that I had prepended it to the Openweather API step – but it doesn’t appear to trigger that portion at all.
If someone has done this whole thing before, I would greatly appreciate seeing your workflow! Thanks!
First off, welcome to the Pipedream community. Happy to have you!
Very neat idea, that’s a nice way to make a real time dashboard or kiosk using a computer monitor or TV.
This is very possible, so the timer is the trigger the initiates your workflow on the schedule.
Next, you can use the Openweather API which retrieves the latest weather forecast and exports this data into your workflow.
To insert this weather data into your Google Slide, you can use step exports, which you can watch this short tutorial to show you how to do this:
This tutorial goes over using data from the trigger, but the same concepts apply when referencing data from other steps - in your case the OpenWeather API step.
Thanks for the quick reply! I will be looking at what you have suggested at my earliest opportunity
P.S. I already have a ‘timer’ trigger that preceeds my Openweather API step – but it ‘appears’ to only run on its own i.e. no evidence that it actually is triggering the Openweather API step. Perhaps I can find a way to ‘log’ the Openweather step to confirm that it actually is running via the trigger and without my forcing?
Here’s a screenshot from one of my timer based workflows that makes a tweet everyday at @LakeErieToday
When you have deployed your workflow, you’ll be able to see a history of events and clicking on a specific one. Each of the steps will show their logs and exports from that particular run you’ve selected:
Pierce: I have made a lot of progress, thanks to your tips – now being able to feed my Openweather data into a Google sheet on an automatic basis! However, I think that is where the ‘easy ride’ ends: the simple template that I can see for Google Slides appears to require a lot more before it can do something similar. It just seems to ‘authorize’ the spreadsheet, but no interaction possible to update some placeholders or something similar.
As an alternative, I was able to insert the linked Google sheet into a new Google slide, and even allow a mouse click to refresh the sheet when I want to – but so far (apparently after years of waiting by many others) Google has still not provided a facility to automate this type of table refresh – only for charts, which I am not interested in. So I return back to Pipedream as a possibility to populate a Google slide – but it looks a lot more difficult that updating a Google sheet
That’s awesome you were able to connect real time weather to a Google Sheet - well done!
You’ve probably noticed, but we’re missing pre-built actions for Google Calendar, you can use the API directly with Node.js code, but we don’t have any no-code actions.
We’re constantly building new actions and feedback on what to build next is very important to us.
Maybe Airtable is a better route? It has more customization options for displaying data and we have very robust coverage of the automations they support.
Correct, I meant to say Google Slides - so many Google products I crossed my wires
One of our teammates picked up this request, but in the meantime if you’d like me to cover this integration in a weekly Speed Run you can request it here:
Thanks for the suggestion! I have filled out a “Pipedream Speed Run” form. Also thanks for responding to Sergio on his questions, which I was a bit fuzzy on how to respond
