PHP Google Spreadsheets

Saving Form Data to Google Spreadsheets Using PHP and the Google Docs API

The general idea is to read a Google Spreadsheet through PHP and save user submitted form data via the Google Documents List Data API. By doing this, you can quickly view all the submissions at a glance and you are also able to export CSV files of the data. Using Google Docs gives you and your clients a quick and easy interface to interact with form data.

I've written a small PHP helper class to assist with the whole process (PHP5). You are going to need the following:

• A working copy of the Zend GData Client Library (1.0.3+)
• A copy of the PHP Google Spreadsheet Helper Class
• A Google account, in order to be able to create a spreadsheet document using Google Docs.

First you should login to Google Docs using your existing Google account. Once logged in you will want to create a new spreadsheet document, you will be immediately taken to a spreadsheet interface. Lets start off by creating some column field names on row #1:

1. name
2. email
3. comments

Make sure to save your spreadsheet and give it a name, you will need to use the spreadsheet name in the code below.

The following is a basic example of using the Google_Spreadsheet PHP helper class. // Zend library include path

set_include_path(get_include_path() . PATH_SEPARATOR . "$_SERVER[DOCUMENT_ROOT]/ZendGdata-1.8.1/library");

include_once("Google_Spreadsheet.php");   

$u = "username@gmail.com"; $p = "password";   

$ss = new Google_Spreadsheet($u,$p); 

$ss->useSpreadsheet("My Spreadsheet");   

// if not setting worksheet, "Sheet1" is assumed // $ss->useWorksheet("worksheetName");   

$row = array  (  "name" => "John Doe"  , "email" => "john@example.com"  , "comments" => "Hello world" );   

if ($ss->addRow($row)) 

 echo "Form data successfully stored using Google Spreadsheet"; 

else 

 echo "Error, unable to store spreadsheet data";   

?>

Download
Google Spreadsheet PHP Helper Class, this project is on github.