How to connect to live data sources
Please note connecting to live data sources is only available on our Business Pro and Enterprise plans.
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The Flourish Live CSV feature
Please note that downloading the HTML for self-hosting is not possible for visualizations created with the Live CSV feature. -
Our Live CSV feature allows you to point to a
web-accessible CSV file instead of manually uploading your CSV or Excel file to Flourish. This live CSV file can be hosted on your own server or on third-party services such as Google Sheets.
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Once enabled, you will receive the option to "Import from URL" alongside the "Upload data file" and "Upload and merge" options in the Data tab.
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When the "Import from URL" option is selected, you will receive the option to add a URL that links to a CSV.
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Once successfully linked, your data sheet will display greyed out and you won't be able to edit it, as it is being pulled from the live source.
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You can use the "Select columns to visualise" area to select which columns should be used for what part of the visualization. ( You can learn more about adding data and selecting columns here.)
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To edit how often your CSV is pulled through to Flourish, you need to publicly publish your visualization. You will receive the option to automatically update the URL and can supply a republishing interval in seconds. (Please note that the republishing interval settings may be dependent on your tier of pricing plan.)
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If you add your visualization to a Flourish story, you will receive the same publishing settings.
- Please note that the republishing interval settings will not appear if you are trying to publish your project behind a password. The reason for this restriction is that we don't store the plain text version of a project password for security reasons, so each time a password protected project is republished you have to re-enter the password - that means it can't be done automatically.
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- The Flourish API
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Note: the Flourish API is an enterprise-level bolt-on and not available to all customers
The Flourish API allows you dynamically create and edit Flourish visualizations. With the Flourish API you can for example:
- Connect a Flourish visualization to a database or live data feed
- Control Flourish visualizations based on inputs on your webpage
- Make a custom CMS plugin that can generate Flourish charts
- Create Flourish charts as part of R, Tableau, Jupyter or Observable notebooks
Find out how to get started or read how to make and update a visualization.