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Google Docs

Google Docs is a cloud-based word processing application developed by Google that enables users to create, edit, format, and collaborate on documents in real time from any device. Part of Google Workspace, Google Docs supports rich text formatting, comments, suggestions, version history, and seamless sharing with granular permission controls. Its REST API provides programmatic access to document content and structure, allowing applications to read document text, create new documents, apply formatting changes through batch updates, and manage named ranges — making it a powerful platform for document automation, content extraction, and data-driven document generation workflows.

Google Docs icon

Power end-to-end data operations for your Google Docs API with Nexla. Our bi-directional Google Docs connector is purpose-built for Google Docs, making it simple to ingest data, sync it across systems, and deliver it anywhere — all with no coding required. Nexla turns API-sourced data into ready-to-use, reusable data products and makes it easy to send data to Google Docs or any other destination. With comprehensive monitoring, lineage tracking, and access controls, Nexla keeps your Google Docs workflows fast, secure, and fully governed.

Features

Type: API

SourceDestination

  • Seamless API Integration: Connect to any endpoint as source or destination without coding, with automatic data product creation
  • Visual Composition & Chaining: Build complex integrations using visual templates, chain API calls, and compose workflows with data validation and filtering
  • API Proxy: Expose curated slices of your data securely with a secure and customizable API proxy that validates and transforms data on the fly
  • Request optimization with intelligent batching, retry, and caching to minimize API calls and costs

Prerequisites​

The Google Docs API connector authenticates using OAuth 2.0 with Nexla's public application, so there is no need to register your own Google Cloud project or OAuth client. Before creating a credential in Nexla, you need a Google account with access to the Google Docs documents you want Nexla to read from or write to.

When you authorize the credential, Google's consent screen will request one of the following scopes on Nexla's behalf:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents — full read/write access to Google Docs documents.
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.readonly — read-only access to Google Docs documents.

Ensure the Google account you authorize with has at least Viewer access to any document you intend to use as a data source, or Editor access to any document you intend to use as a destination.

Authenticate​

Create a credential in Nexla​

  1. After selecting the data source/destination type, click the Add Credential tile to open the Add New Credential overlay.

  2. Enter a name for the credential in the Credential Name field and a short, meaningful description in the Credential Description field.

    Google Docs API credentials in Nexla use OAuth 2.0 authentication with Nexla's public application. The OAuth 2.0 authorization flow is handled automatically by Nexla, and all OAuth settings are pre-configured.

  3. Click the Authorize button to start the OAuth 2.0 authorization flow. You will be redirected to Google's sign-in and consent screen.

  4. Sign in with the Google account whose document data Nexla should access, review the requested permissions, and click Allow to grant Nexla access. You will be redirected back to Nexla, and the credential will be marked as authorized.

    The authorized Google account determines which documents are accessible through this credential. If you need to access documents owned by multiple Google accounts, create a separate credential for each account.

  5. Click the Save button at the bottom of the overlay to save the configured credential. The newly added credential will now appear in a tile on the Authenticate screen during data source/destination creation and can be selected for use with a new data source or destination.

Use as a data source​

To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Select the Google Docs API connector tile, then select the credential that will be used to connect to the Google Docs API instance, and click Next; or, create a new Google Docs API credential for use in this flow.

Endpoint templates​

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common Google Docs API endpoints. Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below. Click on an endpoint to see more information about it and how to configure your data source for this endpoint.

Get Document

Retrieves the full contents and metadata of a specific Google Docs document by its document ID. This is the primary endpoint for extracting the complete structure and content of a document, including body text, inline images, tables, lists, headers, footers, and named ranges. Use this endpoint when you need a comprehensive snapshot of a document for analysis, archiving, or downstream processing.

  • In the Document ID field, enter the unique identifier of the Google Docs document to retrieve. The document ID can be found in the document's URL:

    • For a URL such as https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BxiMVs0XRA5nFMdKvBdBZjgmUUqptlbs74OgVE2upms/edit, the document ID is the string between /d/ and /edit — in this example, 1BxiMVs0XRA5nFMdKvBdBZjgmUUqptlbs74OgVE2upms.
  • The document must be accessible to the Google account used in the credential. Ensure the authenticated account has at least Viewer access to the document, or that the document is shared with the account's organization.

The Get Document endpoint returns the entire document structure as a JSON object. The document body is located at body.content within the response. Use the Path to Data field in manual configuration, or specify $.body.content[*] to extract the structural elements of the document body. For complete response schema details, refer to the Google Docs API documents.get reference.

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu to retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched. Sample data will be displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right, allowing you to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

Manual configuration​

Google Docs API data sources can also be manually configured to ingest data from any valid Google Docs API endpoint, including endpoints not covered by the pre-built template, chained API calls, or custom request parameters. Select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen, and follow the instructions in Connect to Any API to configure the API method, endpoint URL, date/time and lookup macros, path to data, metadata, and request headers.

The base URL for the Google Docs API v1 is https://docs.googleapis.com/v1. Common endpoint paths include getting a specific document (https://docs.googleapis.com/v1/documents/{'{documentId}'}, GET) and creating a new document (https://docs.googleapis.com/v1/documents, POST). Document responses have deeply nested structures — for the documents.get endpoint, set Set Path to Data in Response to $.body.content[*] to extract the document body's structural elements as individual records, and set Path to Metadata in Response to include top-level properties such as title, documentId, revisionId, and documentStyle with each record. The Authorization header is managed automatically by the Google Docs API credential.

Once all of the relevant settings have been configured, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new Google Docs API data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.

Use as a destination​

Click the + icon on the Nexset that will be sent to the Google Docs API destination, and select the Send to Destination option from the menu. Select the Google Docs API connector from the list of available destination connectors, then select the credential that will be used to connect to the Google Docs API account, and click Next; or, create a new Google Docs API credential for use in this flow.

Manual configuration​

Google Docs API destinations are manually configured to send data to any valid Google Docs API endpoint. Select the API method — POST to create new documents or submit batchUpdate requests, or PUT to replace or overwrite document content — and follow the instructions in Connect to Any API to configure the data format, endpoint URL, request headers, attribute exclusions, record batching, and response webhooks.

The Google Docs API uses JSON for all request and response bodies; select JSON as the content format. Common write endpoints include creating a new document (https://docs.googleapis.com/v1/documents, POST) and applying batch updates to an existing document (https://docs.googleapis.com/v1/documents/{'{documentId}'}:batchUpdate, POST) — the batchUpdate endpoint expects a JSON body containing a requests array with one or more request objects describing the changes to apply. When batching records for batchUpdate, use the Property Inside JSON Object batching algorithm with the property name set to requests to assemble individual request objects into the required array format. Replace {'{documentId}'} in the URL with the target document's ID (the string between /d/ and /edit in the document's URL), and ensure the authenticated account has at least Editor access to that document.

Save & activate​

Once all endpoint settings have been configured, click the Done button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the destination. To send the data to the configured Google Docs API endpoint, open the destination resource menu, and select Activate.

The Nexset data will not be sent to the Google Docs API endpoint until the destination is activated. Destinations can be activated immediately or at a later time, providing full control over data movement.