Live data from Excel, Google Sheets and REST APIs

Why sites want live data

In many organisations the information a screen should show already sits in a spreadsheet or another system: shift targets in a factory, the event programme in a hotel, the soup of the day in a restaurant, interest rates in a bank. Turning it into an image by hand after every change takes time and invites mistakes. A live data connection reads the information at its source and updates the screen by itself.

How it could work with MIA

Today MIA's server fetches the data for widgets such as weather, exchange rates and RSS, and if the internet drops, screens keep showing the last good value. A live data connection could follow the same approach: the server reads an Excel file, a Google Sheets table or a REST API at set intervals and shows the data in a zone of a program as a table, cards or a ticker. On a factory floor, for example, the shift target and actual output could refresh by themselves, and so could the day's events in a hotel lobby. Screens could take the data from the server instead of going to the source, which makes it easier to work without exposing the source system. Which fields appear, and how, would be designed around your installation.

What we need to know to scope it

• The data source: an Excel file, Google Sheets or an API, and where it lives
• How often the data changes
• Which fields to show and how they should look
• How many screens will show the data
• The access rights and security rules involved

As a first step we would suggest a trial with one table and one screen. Scope, timing and price are agreed for each project.