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How to get data from Orca Scan in real-time

You can set up a Live Data URL for each sheet using the Web Application. A Live Data URL allows you to pull data from an Orca Scan sheet into your system using a simple HTTP GET request, for example, https://api.orcascan.com/sheets/sJ0KYsnp-9b7Rl7i


Works with your favourite tools

Connect Orca Scan to the systems you love without any code:


Data Format

You can change the format of the data by appending a file extension, for example, https://api.orcascan.com/sheets/sJ0KYsnp-9b7Rl7i.json. The available formats are:

Extension Format Content/Type
.csv CSV (Comma-separated values) text/plain
.html HTML (default when no extension provided) text/html
.xml XML (Extensible Markup Language) text/xml
.json JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) application/json

History Log

You can request all historical changes by appending history=true to your Live Data URL, for example, https://api.orcascan.com/sheets/sJ0KYsnp-9b7Rl7i?history=true.

Notice: Revision history beyond the time limit of your subscription will not be accessible. See your plan for more details.

Changed By Changed On Changed Using
user@email.com 19/05/2019, 17:25:09 Chrome 74 (Mac OS)
user@email.com 08/06/2019, 14:19:04 Thomas’s iPhone
user@email.com 07/06/2019, 15:31:07 Samsung Galaxy S9

An additional row will be added for every change, along with the three columns above to help you identify who made that change.


Limit Data

You can reduce the amount of data returned by appending the following parameters to your Live Data URL:

Parameter Example Description
barcode barcode=5740351198754 Returns items matching the specified barcode
columns columns=barcode,name,data Returns the columns listed, in the order specified
limit limit=2 Returns only specified number of records
from from=2019-06-12T00:00:00 Returns data changed on or after the specified date in ISO format (must be used in conjunction with history=true).

For example https://api.orcascan.com/sheets/sJ0KYsnp-9b7Rl7i?barcode=5740351198754&columns=barcode,name


Sort Data

You can sort data returned by appending the following parameters to your Live Data URL:

Parameter Example Description
sortby sortby=barcode Sort rows by the defined column
sortorder sortorder=desc Sort rows by the defined column in either asc (ascending) or desc (descending) order.

For example https://api.orcascan.com/sheets/sJ0KYsnp-9b7Rl7i?sortby=barcode&sortorder=desc


Numeric Deltas

Appending deltas=true to the Live Data URL along with history=true will add a column containing the delta for each numerical column change, for example:

https://api.orcascan.com/sheets/sJ0KYsnp-9b7Rl7i?history=true&deltas=true

Barcode Quantity Quantity (delta)
6344554293308 96 96
6344554293308 20 10
6344554293308 10 -86

By default, the first delta value always matches the first numeric value. You can change this to 0 by appending zerodeltabase=true to the URL.


Date Formatting

Dates are returned in ISO 8601 format, you can change the format by passing a ?datetimeformat=TOKENS query string parameter.

Date formats are a combination of tokens below, for example, https://api.orcascan.com/sheets/sJ0KYsnp-9b7Rl7i?datetimeformat=DD MMM YYYY

Token Description Example
MM Month in double-digit format 03
YYYY 4 digit year 2019
D Day in single-digit format 2
YY 2 digit year 19
DD Day in double-digit format 02
MMM Month in 3 character format Jan, Feb
M Month in single-digit format 3
HH 2 digit minute 02
MMMM Full name of the month January, February
HH 2 digit hour 03
H 1 digit hour 3
m m digit minute 3

Time Zones

The date and times are returned in UTC (timezone 00:00) format. You can adjust the time zone by providing a timezone offset along with datetimeformat parameter, for example, https://api.orcascan.com/sheets/sJ0KYsnp-9b7Rl7i?datetimeformat=DD/MM/YY HH:mm&timezone=-10:00

The available offsets are:

Offset Region
+12:00 Auckland, Wellington, Fiji, Kamchatka
-09:00 Alaska
+07:00 Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta
+08:00 Beijing, Perth, Singapore, Hong Kong
+11:00 Magadan, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia
+02:00 Kaliningrad, South Africa
-11:00 Midway Island, Samoa
+04:30 Kabul
+03:30 Tehran
-07:00 Mountain Time (US & Canada)
-05:00 Eastern Time (US & Canada), Bogota, Lima
+10:00 Eastern Australia, Guam, Vladivostok
-02:00 Mid-Atlantic
+12:45 Chatham Islands
+09:00 Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Sapporo, Yakutsk
+11:30 Norfolk Island
+01:00 Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris
+05:45 Kathmandu, Pokhara
+06:30 Yangon, Mandalay
+05:00 Ekaterinburg, Islamabad, Karachi, Tashkent
+03:00 Baghdad, Riyadh, Moscow, St. Petersburg
-09:30 Taiohae
-03:30 Newfoundland
+04:00 Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Baku, Tbilisi
+05:30 Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, New Delhi
-04:00 Atlantic Time (Canada), Caracas, La Paz
+09:30 Adelaide, Darwin
+13:00 Apia, Nukualofa
+10:30 Lord Howe Island
-04:30 Caracas
-01:00 Azores, Cape Verde Islands
+08:45 Eucla
-08:00 Pacific Time (US & Canada)
+06:00 Almaty, Dhaka, Colombo
+14:00 Line Islands, Tokelau
-03:00 Brazil, Buenos Aires, Georgetown
-06:00 Central Time (US & Canada), Mexico City
-12:00 Eniwetok, Kwajalein
-10:00 Hawaii

GPS Format

GPS values are returned in Decimal degrees format (latitude, longitude). You can change the format by passing a combination of the tokens below as ?gps=TOKENS query string parameter.

https://api.orcascan.com/sheets/sJ0KYsnp-9b7Rl7i?gps=city, country

Token Description
city City name of the GPS location
country Country name of the GPS location
code 2 digit country code of GPS location
lng GPS longitude
lat GPS latitude

Force Download

By default, data is returned inline so it can be viewed in a browser. However, some Data Warehousing / ETL tools require data imported from a URL to trigger a download. You can enable this behaviour by appending download=true to the URL:

https://api.orcascan.com/sheets/sJ0KYsnp-9b7Rl7i.xml?download=true


Setup Live Data Url

You can find the data URL on any of your sheets.

1. Go to Integrations settings

Click integrations in the top menu
Click integrations in the top menu
Activate the URL by turning it to 'on'
Activate the URL by turning it to 'on'

3. Save the updates

Click 'save' to confirm the changes
Click 'save' to confirm the changes

Next steps


What is the rate limit?

You can send a maximum of 15 requests per second, exceeding this limit will result in a HTTP 503 Service Unavailable response.

Questions about the Live Data URL?

We’re happy to help you troubleshoot any issues, chat with us live or drop us an email.


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