An app keeps a data set up to date for you, so you don't type the rows in. None of them needs an account or a password. Each one reads something public, or something you've published for it.
The same apps are also in Apps, under Live data, each with its own page. Installing one there adds the same data set.
Add an app
- Go to Data and click New data set.
- Find the app in the list, or search for it. Each one says what you'll get and how often it updates.
- Click Add.
- If the app needs a web address or a country, a box asks for it. Fill it in and click Connect.
The new set opens. If it still needs something, such as the towns for a weather forecast, a box under Right now asks for it.
Weather
Weather gives a daily forecast for the week ahead for the towns you choose, up to 12 of them. Each row is one town on one day. It holds the forecast, the high, the low and the rain, with temperatures in °C and rain in millimetres. Warm enough for summer stock is yes when the high is 18°C or more. The forecast comes from MET Norway and updates once a day.
Public holidays
Public holidays gives you a country's public holidays as dated rows, for this year and the two years after. It covers 204 countries, and you pick the country when you add it. A holiday marked Only part of the country is a regional one, such as a holiday in Scotland only.
Spreadsheet
Spreadsheet reads a spreadsheet you've published to the web. In Google Sheets, choose File, then Share, then Publish to web, pick the tab, choose CSV and copy the link. Paste it into SplashSend. The first row of the sheet gives the field names, and the sheet is read again every hour.
Blog feed
Blog feed gives your latest blog posts, newest first, with each post's title, link, date and summary. Paste your blog's feed address. It's usually the blog's address with /feed, /rss or /atom.xml on the end, and it works for blogs on Shopify, WordPress, Squarespace, Ghost and Substack.
Calendar
Calendar turns events from a calendar you already keep, such as classes or closures, into dated rows. Paste the calendar's secret address. In Google Calendar it's in the calendar's settings, under “Secret address in iCal format”. Outlook, Calendly, Eventbrite and most booking systems have their own version. A weekly class appears as a row for each date.
Web address
Web address reads any address that returns its data as JSON, for example from a till or a booking system. Its fields are whatever the address returns. It can't read an address that needs a password. For that, have the system send its rows to the API instead. For a CSV file, use Spreadsheet.
Product feed
Product feed reads the feed your shop publishes for Google Shopping, with each product's name, price, picture and link. It works for shops on any platform, without connecting the shop.
Shopify
Shopify is in the list too. Clicking Connect takes you to Shopify's page in Apps, and once your store is connected its data sets appear by themselves.
Keeping an app up to date
Each set says how often it's read again. SplashSend reads a web address or a feed at most once an hour, so a change at the source can take up to an hour to appear. To read it straight away, open the set and click Refresh. If a spreadsheet gains a column, or the data at a web address changes shape, open the set and click Save beside the address to pick up the new fields.
Removing an app
Open its set, click the ⋯ button and choose Disconnect and remove. Nothing is deleted at the source. First take the set's values out of any designs listed under Where it's used, or those emails have a blank where each value was.
Something that isn't listed
Any system that can send a web request, such as a till or a footfall counter, can keep a set up to date. Make a set with Type it in yourself, then have the system send its rows to the API. See Using the API.