Recently, I was asked by a few YouTube commenters on how to sync excel worksheets with a Bubble app database. Though it seems like a bit of a challenge, it’s actually fairly straight forward when you include Integromat (affiliate link), a no code platform that lets you connect apps and automate workflows in a few clicks. It’s actually a really fun tool, when it works as expected.
I’m Robert, the Founder and CEO of MVP.dev, and I’ll take you step-by-step through the process of making the sync happen. I’ll assume you have a Bubble account and app setup already. If you just want to practice, create a demo app that you can just delete later. The sample Excel file used in the guide is available for download here.
Excel File Layout
Step 1: Sign Up for Integromat
If you haven’t already, sign up for an Integromat account. Their free plan is generous and perfect for you to start out with. Login and you’ll end up on your Integromat dashboard, which will look something like the below.
Step 2: Create a New Scenario
The next thing you’ll want to do is create a new scenario by clicking the “Create a new scenario button”.
Step 3: Add the Microsoft 365 Excel Module
The first screen you’ll see after creating a new scenario allows you to select your first integration. Here, we’ll enter in Microsoft 365 Excel, click the Microsoft 365 Excel option, then click the “Continue” button. You’ll now be taking to the scenario builder screen.
Step 4: Configure the Excel Module
On the scenario builder screen, click the question mark, select “Microsoft 365 Excel” and then “Watch Worksheet Rows” under Worksheet.
Now click the “Add”, name the connection as you choose, then go through the Microsoft 365 login process.
Under Workbook click on “Click here to choose file” and select your demo Excel file in your O365 OneDrive directory. If you’re using the demo file I made available for this project, select “Sheet 1” for the Worksheet next. Now on “Choose where to start” select the “All” radio button and hit the “OK” button. This completes the setup for the Excel module.
Step 5: Add the Bubble Module
Your scenario builder screen should look similar to the image below. We need to add the Bubble module now, so click the “Add another module” [Image 1] option and type “Bubble” to filter down to the Bubble module.
Image 1
Now select “Create/Update a Data Thing”
Image 2
From here, you’ll need to connect your Bubble App. Integromat has a tutorial on how to do this here, so I’ll refer you to their guide for accomplishing it. Be certain to follow their instructions EXACTLY, or you’ll be in for a head scratching time figuring out what you did wrong.
For this demo, I created a Data Type in Bubble called “excelcemo” with “name” and “email” fields both set to text. Capitalization is important! So use lower case field names.
Then I connected my Bubble app to Integromat, with the info below.
Now connect your Bubble module to the Excel spreadsheet. See my setup below. Note that your Bubble field names are the name of the field, then an underscore, then the data type. So the email field is “email_text” and the name field is “name_text”.
Click the “Run once” button to test to make sure everything is work.
If everything goes as expected, you should now see the Excel records in your Bubble table.
At this point, you need to go ahead and schedule your workflow to run periodically.
Step 6: Test
To test, add a new row to your Excel spreadsheet to test. Note that on the free plan, the syncing only occurs every 15 minutes, so you’ll need to be patient to see it working.
Once your workflow executes again, you’ll see the new row you added to the Excel spreadsheet populate your Bubble table, like this.
And that’s it! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected], or checkout our YouTube videos. We also have many free courses to help you get started!
Need help or support with your Bubble app? Check out BubbleHelpers.com!
Best of luck!
