Animal Crossing API & Google Sheets Integration [Tutorial]

Animal Crossing is a popular video game. In this tutorial, you will learn how to connect the Animal Crossing REST API to Google Sheets in 4 steps:

Install the Apipheny Add-on
Choose an Animal Crossing Endpoint
Enter your Animal Crossing API request into Apipheny
Run the Animal Crossing API request in your Google Sheet

Step 1.) Install and open the Apipheny add-on for Google Sheets

Apipheny is a free API connector for Google Sheets. You can use Apipheny to connect your Google Sheets to API data sources, easily.

1.) Install Apipheny by opening the following link on desktop and then clicking the Install button in the Google Marketplace: https://apipheny.io/install

2.) After you’ve installed Apipheny, open a Google Sheet and then click on the Extensions dropdown in the menu at the top.

In the dropdown list you should see Apipheny. Click Apipheny then click Import API to open the Apipheny sidebar in your Google Sheet.

Tip: you can open a new Google Sheet by entering this URL in your browser: sheet.new

Step 2.) Choose an Animal Crossing Endpoint

First, log in to your Animal Crossing account, then follow these steps.

In this section, we’ll show you how to browse the Animal Crossing API documentation to find the API endpoint URL that retrieves the information you need from your Animal Crossing account. Every API has a URL, and every URL has an endpoint which is the last part of the URL that tells the API what data to return back to you.

If you already know your URL and endpoint, or you want to use the same example as us, just skip to Step 3.

To look through available endpoints, first open the Animal Crossing API documentation page: http://acnhapi.com/doc

The menu on the left contains a list of categories, each with its own endpoints:

Clicking on a category, such as Icons, will scroll to that category’s section and show you a list of the associated endpoints:

If you want to check whether certain data is available via the Animal Crossing API, the API documentation is where you go to find all the available endpoints that you can query.

This API is free and doesn’t require authentication.

Each endpoint’s documentation contains descriptions of the endpoint’s purpose, a description of its parameters and a list of possible responses.

Below these, you can find the endpoint’s HTTP method (GET) and URL:

Example Animal Crossing API endpoint documentation

Step 3.) Enter your Animal Crossing API request into Apipheny

Now go back to your Google Sheet and make sure that the Apipheny add-on is open on the “Import” tab. With the Import tab open, enter these details into the add-on:

Method: At the top of the Apipheny sidebar, select the HTTP method (GET or POST) required by your API endpoint. For this example, we are using the GET method.

API URL: In Step 2, we explained how you can find the Animal Crossing REST API endpoint that you need. Now copy and paste your complete Animal Crossing API URL into the Apipheny add-on, where it says API URL Path, followed by any parameters required for your query (if applicable).

For this example, we are using the GET Fish endpoint that returns the fish data in JSON format. The {fishID} parameter is optional and can be removed to get all the fish data. This is what the whole API URL looks like:

https://acnhapi.com/v1/fish/fishID

If you use this URL, don’t forget to replace fishID with the real value.

In the following example I didn’t use the fishID parameter and I still obtained all the fish data.

Headers: Headers aren’t required for this API request, so you can leave this section blank in the Apipheny add-on.

Here’s what your API request should look like when entered into Apipheny, if you’re following the same example as us, or using a similar endpoint:

Animal Crossing API request entered into the Apipheny add-on in Google Sheets

Step 4.) Run the Animal Crossing API request in your Google Sheet

Finally, the last step is to click the Run button at the bottom of the Apipheny add-on and then wait for the Animal Crossing API data to be imported into your Google Sheet.

Here’s what our request looked like when completed:

Animal Crossing data imported into Google Sheets using Apipheny

That’s it! You’ve successfully connected your Animal Crossing account to Google Sheets using the Animal Crossing API, Google Sheets API, and the Apipheny add-on.

After making a successful request to the Animal Crossing API, try querying a different Animal Crossing API endpoint, or try using one of the more advanced features in the Apipheny add-on.