In this tutorial, you will learn how to connect the Linkedin API to Google Sheets in 7 steps:
- Install the Apipheny Add-on
- Create a Linkedin API App
- Obtain a Linkedin authorization code
- Generate a Linkedin API Access Token
- Choose a LinkedIn API Endpoint URL
- Enter the LinkedIn API Request into the Apipheny add-on
- Run the Linkedin API request
Step 1.) Install and open the Apipheny Add-on in Google Sheets
To pull data from the Linkedin API to Google Sheets easily and without writing any code, first install and open the Apipheny Google Sheets add-on.
Apipheny is a no-code API integrator for Google Sheets that you can use to make unlimited API requests, connect to unlimited APIs (including the Linkedin API), save API requests, schedule API requests, and more. Click here if you want to learn more about Apipheny.
1. Install Apipheny by clicking the Install button on this page.
2. After you’ve installed Apipheny, open a Google Sheet and then click on the Add-Ons option in the top menu. In the add-ons menu, you should see Apipheny.
Click Apipheny > Import API to open the Apipheny sidebar in your Google Sheets.
Step 2.) Create a Linkedin App
In your developer account, click the My Apps menu item, then click the +Create app button:
Complete all the required fields, such as App name, LinkedIn page and App logo:
Check the terms agreement checkbox and then click the Create app button:
Your app will then be created:
Click the Auth tab to find the Client ID and the Client Secret:
Copy and paste your Client ID and Client Secret to a safe location, because you’ll need them in the next steps.
Step 3.) Obtain a Linkedin authorization code
To get your Linkedin authorization code, copy the following link, then go to your browser’s address bar, paste it, and press Enter:
https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/authorization?response_type=code&client_id={your_client_id}&redirect_uri={your_redirect_uri}&state=abcd&scope=r_liteprofile%20r_emailaddress%20w_member_social
- Replace {your_client_id} with the client id value that you obtained in the previous step
- Replace {your_redirect_uri} with any valid URI string (you can use https://www.apipheny.io/ as your redirect uri, for example)
Next, you will be asked for a list of required permission and you will have to click the Allow button:
After you allow access to the app, your code will be displayed in the address bar, as a value for the code parameter of your API URL:
Note: This code is only valid for 20 seconds. Make sure you follow Step 4.) below, to exchange the token, within these 20 seconds.
Step 4.) Generate a Linkedin API Access Token
To generate a Linkedin API access token, you’ll need to issue an HTTP POST request to the accessToken endpoint, with both your Client ID and Client Secret values.
Open up a terminal window and compose the following curl command:
curl -X POST https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/accessToken \\
-d "grant_type=authorization_code&code={CODE}&redirect_uri={REDIRECT_URI}&
client_id={CLIENT_ID}&client_secret={CLIENT_SECRET}" \\
-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
You’ll need to replace 4 of the values in this command:
- CLIENT_ID – This should be the client ID you obtained earlier, after creating your developer application
- CLIENT_SECRET – This should be the application secret you obtained earlier, also after creating your developer application
- CODE – This should be the value of the code query parameter from the previous step
- REDIRECT_URI – This should be the redirect URI that you entered while creating your developer application
You should receive a response containing an access token, make sure to copy it and save it in a safe place.
Step 5.) Choose a LinkedIn API Endpoint URL
In this section, I’ll show you how to browse the LinkedIn API documentation to find an API endpoint URL that retrieves the specific information you need from your LinkedIn account.
If you already know your API URL, or you want to use the same example URL as us, just skip to Step 6.
First, open the LinkedIn API documentation page: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/
The menu on the left contains a list of available API solutions (Compliance, Consumer, Learning, Marketing, Sales, and Talent):
Clicking one of the available Linkedin APIs (e.g Marketing) will open a dedicated page, with more details about the concepts and operations provided by that solution.
These are organized using a menu on the left of the page, from which you can access more information about Development, Integrations or API References.
For instance, in the Marketing solution’s Integrations section, you’ll find a list of concepts used by this API:
An example Marketing integration concept is Ads. This concept’s menu lists multiple supported objects and operations, grouped under Account Structure and Advertising & Targeting.
The Ad Accounts menu item, in the Account Structure group, lists multiple supported operation endpoints. One of them is Search for Accounts, which allows the user to search for accounts by multiple criteria, such as their IDs, names, references, types and statuses:
https://api.linkedin.com/v2/adAccountsV2?q=search&search.{searchCriteria}.values[0]={searchValue}
The documentation for this endpoint contains a short description of the endpoint’s purpose, the HTTP method and URL, a table of the accepted parameters, as well as a sample request and its associated sample response:
Step 6.) Enter your LinkedIn API Request into the Apipheny add-on
Okay, we’re in the home stretch. 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) as required by your LinkedIn API endpoint. For this example, we are using the GET method.
API URL: In Step 5, I explained how you can find the LinkedIn API endpoint that you need. Now copy the complete API URL into the Apipheny add-on, where it says API URL Path (JSON / CSV), followed by any GET parameters required for your query.
For this example, we are using the “Me” endpoint, that gets information about the current user’s account. The corresponding URL for this endpoint is:
https://api.linkedin.com/v2/me
In the Headers section of the Apipheny add-on panel, add one row, with the following key and value:
Header Key: Authorization Value: Bearer <your_token>
<your_token> is the value of the token you obtained previously, in Step 4. There should be a literal space between Bearer and <your_token>. Do not include the brackets “<>” around your token.
Step 7.) Run the LinkedIn API Request in your Google Sheets
The last step is to click the Run button at the bottom of the Apipheny add-on and then your LinkedIn data will be imported into your Google Sheet.
After making a successful request to the LinkedIn API, try querying a different LinkedIn API endpoint, or try using one of the more advanced features in the Apipheny add-on, such as:
- Save and schedule your LinkedIn API request
- Make a POST request to the LinkedIn API (if available)
- Use the custom =APIPHENY() function to call the LinkedIn API request inside your spreadsheet
- Create an API request by referencing the value of a cell in your Linkedin API URL with three curly braces eg. {{{Sheet1!A1}}}
If you want to integrate your LinkedIn data with Google Data Studio, just follow the same steps above and then connect your Google Sheet to your Google Data Studio report.
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Meelad is a data analyst living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Co-founder of the Apipheny API integrator for Google Sheets.
Meelad Mashaw