Is it possible to offload data into data shuttle from a report?

Alicia D

Is it possible to offload data into data shuttle from a report and not just a sheet?

Kerry St. Thomas

Unfortunately no. Not directly at least. If you have Data Mesh though, you can populate a dedicated sheet using your report as the source for DataMesh - and then use Data Shuttle to offload that sheet.

Good luck!

Alicia D

@Kerry St. Thomas does datamesh update as the report updates?

Kerry St. Thomas

Mesh does have an "Execute Immediately" cadence. I honestly don't use that cadence a lot with stuff, so I can't say I've tested it. You can update the sheet "immediately" one would assume, but I would suggest an hourly cadence (or longer if possible) to offload the sheet. Otherwise, you might get overwhelmed in how many Excel docs you create - and the possibility of the Shuttle offload triggering BEFORE a Mesh config does always does exist; technology isn't perfect.

Alicia D

@Kerry St. Thomas so the excel sheet doesn't update, it creates a new one and you have to re-link that one?

Kerry St. Thomas

As I understand it, each instance of Data Shuttle config run will create a new file. In terms of "relink" …if you create your Shuttle offload so that it offloads to an attachment of a Smartsheet sheet, you can set it up so that you have the version control (and can choose "most recent" for other premium app configs).

Shuttle will create a new version of offloaded data, because it's basically exporting the sheet. (Think about it - Shuttle won't know if you deleted that Excel file between the last time it ran and the next time it's about to run. So it won't know if there's anything that can be updated.)

If you want to create a bidirectional update link between Smartsheet and Excel, perhaps you should investigate other options like Bridge or an API. I don't know about either of those though.

Danielle Wilson

Totally agree with @Kerry St. Thomas and would recommend you vote for being able to offload a report as a product enhancement in "Product Ideas" @Alicia D!

Alicia D

@Kerry St. Thomas thank you for the information! Would you be able to explain how I would do this with Data Mesh a little bit more?

Kerry St. Thomas

When I mentioned Data Mesh, I was thinking you're using a report to pull together multiple sheets. However you'd pull those sheets together, you'll also want to think about how you can get a unique identifier column shared across those sheets. (For example, if you have 5 sheets of 100 rows each, you could create Sheet-Row numbering like 4-238 …something that WILL NOT duplicate across the sheets.) You'll need to add that unique index to some destination sheet. You can then leverage Data Mesh to copy individual fields from the report to this destination sheet - and then schedule a Data Shuttle offload for later down the line.

Again, this is a convoluted process; for scalability you may need to investigate Bridge or API connections.

A few resources to reference:

https://www.smartsheet.com/marketplace/premium-apps/datamesh
https://www.smartsheet.com/marketplace/premium-apps/data-shuttle
https://www.smartsheet.com/platform/bridge

Good luck!

Danielle Wilson

@Alicia D You would use your report as a source for the DataMesh and point it toward a new sheet you'd have to have already created with the columns you want, as the target. You'd want to make sure you're picking "Copy and Add Rows" when building your DataMesh and then it should pull in all the rows from your report and you can then offload from that new sheet.