Shipstation API to Google Sheets: Import Shipstation Data [Tutorial]

How to connect Shipstation to Google Sheets

Shipstation is a popular shipping software. We can use the Shipstation API to import data from Shipstation into Google Sheets. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to connect the Shipstation API to Google Sheets in 5 steps:

1. Install the Apipheny add-on
2. Obtain an API Key
3. Choose a Shipstation endpoint
4. Enter your Shipstation API request into Apipheny
5. Run the Shipstation API request in your Google Sheet

Step 1.) Install and open the Apipheny Add-on in Google Sheets

To pull data from the Shipstation API to Google Sheets, 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, save API requests, schedule API requests, and more.

1. Install Apipheny by opening the following link in on desktop and then clicking the Install button on the page: https://gsuite.google.com/marketplace/app/apipheny/966163326746

2. After you’ve installed Apipheny, open a Google Sheet and then click on the Add-Ons or Extensions 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.) Obtain an API key

After logging into your Shipstation account, click the Settings icon from the top-right corner:

In the menu on the left, click the Account item, then click API Settings option:

On the API Settings section click the Generate API Keys button:

Your API Key and API Secret are now visible. Copy and paste these values to a safe location because you will need them in the next steps.

Step 3.) Choose a Shipstation Endpoint

In this section, we’ll show you how to browse the Shipstation API documentation to find the Shipstation API URL that retrieves the information you need from your Shipstation account. If you already know your API URL and endpoint, or you want to use the same example URL as us, just skip to Step 4.

First, open the Shipstation API documentation page: https://www.shipstation.com/docs/api/

The menu on the left contains a START HERE section and a list of categories, each with it’s own endpoints:

An example endpoint is List Customers, which obtains a list of customers that match a set of specified criteria:

https://ssapi.shipstation.com/customers

The documentation for each endpoint contains a short description of the endpoint’s purpose, a table with the accepted parameters’ names, types and descriptions, an example request as a cURL command and its associated example response:

All API calls for Shipstation should be made to the https://ssapi.shipstation.com/ base domain.

Step 4.) Enter your Shipstation 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 3, we explained how you can find the Shipstation REST API endpoint that you need. Now copy and paste your complete Shipstation 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 List Carriers endpoint which list all shipping providers connected to this account. This is what the whole URL looks like:

https://ssapi.shipstation.com/carriers

Headers: In the Headers section of Apipheny, add one row with the following key and value:

Header
Key:
Authorization
Value:
Basic <your_auth>

• <your_auth> is the value/string obtained by base64-encoding the string containing the API Key and API Secret you generated previously, in Step 2, separated by a colon (“:”)
• So enter APIkey:APIsecret into a base-64 encoder to get the <your_auth> value
• You can use the base64 terminal command on Linux-type systems, or search “base64 encoder” on Google to find web-based encoders

Step 5.) Run the Shipstation 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 Shipstation API data to be imported into your Google Sheet. Here’s what our request looked like when completed:

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

After making a successful request to the Shipstation API, try querying a different Shipstation API endpoint, or try using one of the more advanced features in the Apipheny add-on, such as:

• Save and schedule your Shipstation API request
• Make a POST request to the Shipstation API (if available)
• Use the custom =APIPHENY() function to call the Shipstation API request inside your spreadsheet
• Create an API request by referencing the value of a cell in your Shipstation API URL with three curly braces eg. {{{Sheet1!A1}}}

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