Data Pipeline Basics

The designer friendly sheets are found in the Google Sheets provided to you by IdleKit.

A good starting point can be found in Episodes Template. This contains all the stages used in the main game.

Named Ranges

The designer friendly sheets access data through named ranges. For data to import into the pipeline scripts the named range must start with Z_IK_. For example, Z_IK_Milestones will import this range for use in the python scripts.

Workbook Mapping

All designer friendly sheets have one tab called “Workbook Mapping”, where we can map column header into variable names “Keys”.

Exporting and which sheets are changed.

• Events can export to Event and Global and read some Main Game data

• Main Game can export to Main Game or Global

Python Local Development

The python scripts run in a local environment allow you to test and develop against Events or Main Game content.

• Use the TEST_MAIN variable to direct the flow of the script.

• Update the variables TEST_MAIN_UID and TEST_EVENT_UID to point to the correct Google Sheets. Note that this string can be the entire Google URL and does not need to be the file id only.

• During development it's sometimes faster to disable uploading. Comment out the line pipeline.upload() to save a bit of time when testings.