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Google Slides API Data Source

The Google Slides API connector enables you to ingest presentation content, slide structure, and metadata from Google Slides, including slide elements, speaker notes, page properties, and embedded object details. This connector is particularly useful for applications that need to extract presentation content for analysis, archive slide data to a data warehouse, monitor changes to key presentations, or build automated content processing pipelines. Follow the instructions below to create a new data flow that ingests data from a Google Slides API source in Nexla.
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Google Slides API

Create a New Data Flow​

  1. To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Then, select the desired flow type from the list, and click the Create button.

  2. Select the Google Slides API connector tile from the list of available connectors. Then, select the credential that will be used to connect to the Google Slides API instance, and click Next; or, create a new Google Slides API credential for use in this flow.

  3. In Nexla, Google Slides API data sources can be created using pre-built endpoint templates, which expedite source setup for common Google Slides API endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Google Slides API endpoint, making source configuration easy and efficient.
    • To configure this source using a template, follow the instructions in Configure Using a Template.

    Google Slides API sources can also be configured manually, allowing you to ingest data from Google Slides API endpoints not included in the pre-built templates or apply further customizations to exactly suit your needs.
    • To configure this source manually, follow the instructions in Configure Manually.

Configure Using a Template​

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common Google Slides API endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Google Slides API endpoint, making data source setup easy and efficient.

Endpoint Settings​

  • 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 Presentation

    Retrieves the full contents and metadata of a specific Google Slides presentation by its presentation ID. This is the primary endpoint for extracting the complete structure of a presentation, including all slides, their elements (text boxes, shapes, images, tables, and videos), speaker notes, page properties, and slide layout information. Use this endpoint when you need a comprehensive snapshot of a presentation for analysis, archiving, or downstream processing.

    • In the Presentation ID field, enter the unique identifier of the Google Slides presentation to retrieve. The presentation ID can be found in the presentation's URL:

      • For a URL such as https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BxiMVs0XRA5nFMdKvBdBZjgmUUqptlbs74OgVE2upms/edit, the presentation ID is the string between /d/ and /edit — in this example, 1BxiMVs0XRA5nFMdKvBdBZjgmUUqptlbs74OgVE2upms.
    • The presentation must be accessible to the Google account used in the credential. Ensure the authenticated account has at least Viewer access to the presentation, or that the presentation is shared with the account's organization.
    • The response includes a slides array where each element represents one slide. To extract the slides as individual records, set the Path to Data field to $.slides[*] in the manual configuration, or rely on the template's default data path configuration.

    The Get Presentation endpoint returns the entire presentation structure as a JSON object. The slides array is located at slides within the response, and each slide contains pageElements that describe the content on that slide. For complete response schema details, refer to the Google Slides API presentations.get reference.

    Get Page

    Retrieves the properties and content of a specific page (slide) within a presentation by its presentation ID and page object ID. Use this endpoint when you need detailed data about a single slide, including all of its page elements, layout, background, and notes page, without fetching the entire presentation.

    • Configure the following required parameters:

      • Presentation ID — The unique identifier of the Google Slides presentation. This can be found in the presentation URL between /d/ and /edit.
      • Page Object ID — The unique object ID of the specific slide (page) to retrieve. Page object IDs can be obtained by first calling the Get Presentation endpoint and extracting the objectId field from each entry in the slides array.
    • The endpoint returns a single page object containing all pageElements on that slide, such as text boxes, shapes, images, tables, and videos.
    • Speaker notes associated with the slide are available in the slideProperties.notesPage property of the response.

    This endpoint is useful for targeted extraction of a specific slide when you already know its object ID. For retrieving all slides from a presentation at once, use the Get Presentation endpoint instead. Additional details are available in the Google Slides API presentations.pages.get reference.

Endpoint Testing​

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current settings. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

  • To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.

  • If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.

Configure Manually​

Google Slides API data sources can be manually configured to ingest data from any valid Google Slides API endpoint. Manual configuration provides maximum flexibility for accessing endpoints not covered by pre-built templates or when you need custom API configurations.

With manual configuration, you can also create more complex Google Slides API sources, such as sources that use chained API calls to fetch data across multiple presentations or that apply custom filtering based on presentation metadata.

API Method​

  1. To manually configure this source, select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen.

  2. Select the API method that will be used for calls to the Google Slides API from the Method pulldown menu. The most common methods are:

    • GET: For retrieving presentation data, slide content, and metadata
    • POST: For creating new presentations or triggering batch update operations

API Endpoint URL​

  1. Enter the URL of the Google Slides API endpoint from which this source will fetch data in the Set API URL field. This should be the complete URL including the protocol (https://) and any required path parameters.

    Common Google Slides API base URLs include:

    • Retrieve a full presentation: https://slides.googleapis.com/v1/presentations/{presentationId}
    • Retrieve a specific page: https://slides.googleapis.com/v1/presentations/{presentationId}/pages/{pageObjectId}

Replace {presentationId} with the actual presentation ID from the presentation URL, and {pageObjectId} with the specific slide's object ID. Ensure the API endpoint URL is correct and accessible with your current credentials. You can test the endpoint using the Test button after configuring the URL.

Date/Time Macros (API URL)​

Optional

Optionally, the API URL can be customized using macros—all macros added to the API URL will be converted into values when Nexla executes the API call. Macros are dynamic placeholders that allow you to create flexible API endpoints that can adapt to different time periods or data requirements.

Macros are particularly useful for APIs that require date ranges, pagination parameters, or other dynamic values that change between data ingestion runs.

  1. To add a macro, type { at the appropriate position in the API URL (within the Set API URL field), and select the desired macro from the dropdown list.

    • {now} – The current datetime
    • {now-1} – The datetime one time unit before the current datetime
    • {now+1} – The datetime one time unit after the current datetime
    • custom – Datetime macros can reference any number of time units before or after the current datetime—for example, enter (now-4) to indicate the datetime four time units before the current datetime

  2. Select the format that will be applied to datetime macros from the Date Format for Date/Time Macro pulldown menu. This format will be applied to the base datetime value of the macro—i.e., the value of {now} in {now-1}.

  3. Select the datetime unit that will be used to perform mathematical operations in the included macro(s) from the Time Unit for Operations pulldown menu—for example, for the macro {now-1}, when Day is selected, {now-1} will be converted to the datetime one day before the current datetime.

Lookup-Based Macros (API URL)​

Optional

Column values from existing lookups can also be included as macros in the API URL. Lookup-based macros allow you to reference data from previously configured data sources or lookups, enabling dynamic API endpoints that can adapt based on existing data.

Lookup-based macros are useful when you need to create API endpoints that reference specific presentation IDs, page object IDs, or other parameters from data already available in your Nexla environment.

  1. To include a lookup column value macro, select the relevant lookup from the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.

  2. Type { at the appropriate position in the API URL, and select the lookup column-based macro from the dropdown list. Lookup-based macros are automatically populated into the macro list when a lookup is selected in the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.

Path to Data​

Optional

If only a subset of the data returned by the API endpoint is needed, you can designate the part(s) of the response that should be included in the Nexset(s) produced from this source by specifying the path to the relevant data within the response. This is particularly useful when API responses contain metadata, pagination information, or other data that you do not need for your analysis.

For example, when retrieving a presentation, the Google Slides API returns the full presentation object including metadata, masters, layouts, and slides. By specifying a path to the relevant data, you can configure Nexla to treat each element of the slides array as an individual record.

Path to Data is essential when API responses have nested structures. Without specifying the correct path, Nexla might not be able to properly parse and organize your data into usable records.

  • To specify which data should be treated as relevant in responses from this source, enter the path to the relevant data in the Set Path to Data in Response field.

    • For responses in JSON format enter the JSON path that points to the object or array that should be treated as relevant data. JSON paths use dot notation (e.g., $.slides[*] to access the array of slides within a presentation response).

    • For responses in XML format, enter the XPath that points to the object/array containing relevant data. XPath uses slash notation (e.g., /response/data/item to access item elements within a data element).

    Path to Data Example:

    For the Get Presentation endpoint, the response includes a top-level array named slides containing all slides in the presentation. To extract individual slides as records, set the path to data to $.slides[*].

Autogenerate Path Suggestions​

Nexla can also autogenerate data path suggestions based on the response from the API endpoint. These suggested paths can be used as-is or modified to exactly suit your needs.

  • To use this feature, click the Test button next to the Set API URL field to fetch a sample response from the API endpoint. Suggested data paths generated based on the content & format of the response will be displayed in the Suggestions box below the Set Path to Data in Response field.

  • Click on a suggestion to automatically populate the Set Path to Data in Response field with the corresponding path. The populated path can be modified directly within the field if further customization is needed.

    PathSuggestions.png

Metadata​

If metadata is included in the response but is located outside of the defined path to relevant data, you can configure Nexla to include this data as common metadata in each record. This is useful when you want to preserve important contextual information that applies to all records but is not part of the main data array.

For example, when retrieving slides from a presentation, the top-level presentation object contains metadata such as the presentationId, title, pageSize, and locale. If you have specified $.slides[*] as the path to relevant data, you can also specify a metadata path to include presentation-level properties with each slide record.

Metadata paths are particularly useful for preserving presentation-level context like the presentation ID, title, or locale that applies to all slide records in the response.

  • To specify the location of metadata that should be included with each record, enter the path to the relevant metadata in the Path to Metadata in Response field.

    • For responses in JSON format, enter the JSON path to the object or array that contains the metadata, and for responses in XML format, enter the XPath.

Request Headers​

Optional

  • If Nexla should include any additional request headers in API calls to this source, enter the headers & corresponding values as comma-separated pairs in the Request Headers field (e.g., header1:value1,header2:value2). Additional headers are sometimes required for API versioning, content type specifications, or custom requirements.

    You do not need to include any headers already present in the credentials. The Authorization header containing the OAuth 2.0 access token is handled automatically by Nexla based on your credential configuration.

Endpoint Testing​

After configuring all settings for the selected endpoint, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current configuration. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

  • To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.

  • If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.

Save & Activate the Source​

  1. Once all of the relevant steps in the above sections have been completed, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new Google Slides 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.