Quick-start Guide: Data from a Database

Learn how to pull data from a data warehouse or database directly into presentations, reports, and spreadsheets.

Step 1. Connect a Data Source

Slideform integrates with databases so you can pull records into your presentation slides and reports. Select your system below for specific connection instructions.

• Google BigQuery
• Snowflake
• Redshift/ Postgres
• AWS Athena

Once the data source is connected, visit the Data Sources page to view the captured data. See Manage Data Sources for details.

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Step 2. Upload a Report Template

To create a report template, make a copy of a prior version of your report and identify the fields that change from one version to another, such as charts, data tables, metrics, client names, and images. Replace these elements with placeholders, identified by curly brackets, that will be filled in from one or more data sources. See Templates for more details.

Frequently-used placeholders:

• Data tables: Create a rectangle shape on the slide to hold the table, then double-click inside the shape and type in a placeholder beginning with "data:" like {{data:name}}.
• Text, numbers & KPIs: Create a text box with a placeholder like {{metric_name}} with the font, size, and color that you want in the output. 
• Charts, images & videos placeholders are also possible. Those can be pulled from other data sources.

Example slide template

Once you have created a template, go to New Project in Slideform to upload your template. If you use Google Slides, Authenticate with Google to easily pull in your template. 

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Step 3. Match Data to Template

The last part of setup is to enter a query to pull data from your connected data sources to each placeholder in your slide template.

• First, go to your project, click Configure Data, visit the Data Sources tab and enable the data sources for the project.
• On the Configure Data page, find the placeholder and click Preset a Value. Select the data source. 
• Select "Query Data Source". Select the database table.
• Enter a query in SQL syntax.

Example query for a single value

SELECT COUNT(*)

FROM Cocktails.Recipes

WHERE `Primary Liquor` = 'gin'

 

Example query for a table of data

SELECT *

FROM Cocktails.Recipes

WHERE `Primary Liquor` = 'gin'

See How to Configure the Data Mapping for more details.

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Step 4. Generate a Presentation

To create output, go to the Projects page and click Generate on the project card. 

If any placeholders were not mapped to data, you will have the opportunity to either fill them in or skip them. See How to Generate a Presentation for more details.

You can save the output as either PowerPoint, Google Slides, or pdf. The output will then be available to view or download from the Downloads section of the Projects page.