I need help with automating form submissions using data from Google Sheets. My goal is to extract contact details like names and emails from a spreadsheet and automatically submit them to contest websites.
The challenge is that I get different databases every few weeks and need to submit to different contest sites each time. I want to create a script that can read through each row in my sheet and fill out the web forms automatically.
I’ve heard about using Google APIs and converting sheet data to JSON but I’m not sure how to approach this. My background is mainly in Google Apps Script so I’m looking for guidance on the best way to connect sheets data to external websites.
Has anyone done something similar? What tools or methods would work best for this kind of automation?
I’ve built similar automation for data entry - Google Apps Script paired with a headless browser works great. Since you know Apps Script already, use it for the Sheets integration and trigger external automation tools from there. I set up a webhook system where Apps Script processes the sheet data and sends it to a Python script running Playwright or Puppeteer. Way more control over complex forms than basic HTTP requests. The biggest pain will be different form structures across contest sites. Build a config system that maps form field selectors for each site. When you get new databases or sites, just update the field mappings instead of rewriting everything. Fair warning - most contest sites have rate limiting and bot detection. Add delays between submissions and rotate user agents or you’ll get blocked fast during bulk runs.
hey, selenium’s def the way to go! since you know apps script, you can grab data from sheets, format it for selenium, and automate those forms. just keep an eye on the site’s terms of service!
Zapier’s probably overkill, but it’s worth a look if you don’t want to deal with custom scripts. Since you already know Apps Script though, I’d stick with UrlFetchApp for simple forms that take POST requests directly. Most contest forms are just basic HTML submissions - no browser automation needed. Just inspect the network tab when you submit a form manually. You’ll probably find it’s sending form data to a simple endpoint. Way faster and more reliable than browser automation. For the rotating databases thing, set up a config tab in your sheet with field mappings and target URLs. Your main script can pull from these configs dynamically. I’ve done this for client onboarding forms and it handles changing requirements really well.