New Data Studio Developer Tools Make Building Connectors and Viz Easier

Data Studio, Google’s data visualization platform, includes developer features that expand the flexibility and functionality of your dashboards. Using Data Studio community connectors and community visualizations, you can connect to any internet-connected data source, and create custom visualizations tailored to your data and storytelling needs.

Recently, we created the Data Studio Community Component generator (dscc-gen), a command-line tool that streamlines building community connectors and community visualizations. dscc-gen provides working templates and opinionated workflows that make it quick and easy to create and deploy your projects.

Community Connectors tooling

Typically, developing a community connector means using the online Apps Scripts environment. The online editor is an excellent tool that can be used for all online tasks, but it doesn't support automating repetitive (and error-prone) tasks. By using a project generated from dscc-gen, updating a deployment becomes as easy as running npm run update_production and trying out your latest changes is just npm run open_latest.

To create a new community connector with dscc-gen, just run this command:

npx @google/dscc-gen connector

After the command finishes, you will have a working connector with a production deployment and best-practice deployment scripts. If you have an existing connector, you can still use dscc-gen to get the best-practice deployment scripts. See existing connectors for details.

For more information on commands that are available, see the local development developer documentation.  

Community Visualization tooling

Typically, developing a community visualization means editing local files, re-uploading the changes, and reloading a Data Studio report. This template provides a local development cycle and scripts that make bundling and deploying your code a breeze. By using a project generated by dscc-gen, deploying a visualization with caching enabled becomes as easy as running npm run build:prod && npm run push:prod.

To create a new community visualization with dscc-gen, just run this command:

npx @google/dscc-gen viz

After the command finishes, you will have a working visualization with a lightning-fast local workflow and best-practice build/deployment scripts.

For a rundown of how to best use this tool, visit the local development developer documentation.

Templates and use cases

Our tooling supports the most common use-cases for connectors and visualizations. We’ve open sourced the library and code on GitHub, where you can make and request improvements.

Looking forward