Overview

AppSheet enables you to parse the contents of documents and folders that are stored and created on your cloud provider file system. With this automation capability, you can parse content from documents and collect metadata of files that are contained in folders.

AppSheet uses Google's Document AI solution to extract and parse the content from documents and make that content available as data for your app.

Objectives

In this lab, you learn how to perform the following tasks:

• Use AppSheet to parse a receipt document and extract its contents.

• Check the status of the document parse attempt with automation monitoring.

• Review the extracted data from the receipt and update the data accordingly.

• Parse the contents of a folder on Google Drive and review the extracted metadata in AppSheet.

Setup

Before you click the Start Lab button

Read these instructions. Labs are timed and you cannot pause them. The timer, which starts when you click Start Lab, shows how long lab resources will be made available to you.

This hands-on lab lets you do the lab activities in a real cloud environment, not in a simulation or demo environment. It gives you new, temporary credentials to sign in and access AppSheet for the duration of the lab.

What you need

To complete this lab, you need:

• Access to a standard internet browser (Chrome browser recommended).

• Time to complete the lab.

1. Make sure you sign in to the lab using an incognito window.

2. When ready, click .

   A new panel will appear with the temporary credentials that you must use for this lab.

   If you need to pay for the lab, a pop-up will open for you to select your payment method.

3. Note your lab credentials. You will use them to sign in to AppSheet for this lab.

   If you use other credentials, you will get errors or incur charges.

4. Click Open AppSheet to open the AppSheet UI in a separate browser tab or incognito window.

   Note: If you are not already using an incognito browser window, use the right mouse click in Chrome to open AppSheet and select Open link in incognito window.

5. Click to sign in with Google.

   

6. In the Sign in with Google dialog, enter the provided Username, and click Next.

   Note: If you see other accounts listed, click Use another account and then enter the provided Username and click Next.If you use other credentials, you'll get errors or incur charges.

7. Enter the provided Password and click Next.

8. Click Accept to accept the terms.

9. To enable AppSheet to access the Google Drive folders associated with your lab account, on the AppSheet consent page, click Allow.

   

10. You're now signed in to AppSheet.

    To view the AppSheet MyApps page, click X in the top-right corner of the Tell us about you so we can make better recommendations dialog.

    The MyApps page might be empty since you do not have any apps yet.

Task 1. Create the app

When working on your own app, you normally would incrementally build the app over a continuous project timeline.

Apps that you build are saved and accessible in the Recent section on the Apps page until they are deployed and published.

In this task, you create the app that was built in a previous lab, using a template.

Delete prototype app (if listed)

In the lab environment, the app built in a previous lab might still be listed in the Recent section. You cannot use this app to continue working on this lab because the underlying data is not available for use by the app.

The app must be deleted before you continue with this lab.

1. If the Facility Inspections app is listed, on the 3-dots menu, click Delete.

2. To confirm the deletion, click Delete.

Copy a template app to your AppSheet account

To continue building the Facility Inspections app in this lab, you must first recreate the app from a template.

1. To copy the Facility Inspections app to your AppSheet account, click the link: Facility Inspections

2. In the app preview, click Accept.

3. In the left navigation menu, click Copy app ().

4. In the Copy app form, for App name, type Facility Inspections, and leave the remaining settings as their defaults.

5. Click Copy app.

   AppSheet creates the app and copies the Google sheet used by the app to the /appsheet/data/FacilityInspections-nnnnnnn folder under the My Drive folder on Google Drive.

   AppSheet creates a folder for each of your apps with your account ID (represented by nnnnnnn) in the data folder.

6. To go to the AppSheet editor, click Customize your app.

   You can also access the app from the Apps page in the AppSheet UI under Owned by me.

Your app is set up with the original facilities data source, and you can now continue to build out the app's functionality.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective. Create the app.

Task 2. Parse a receipt document

A receipts folder that contains a receipt document has been pre-provisioned for this lab on Drive. In this task, you parse the receipt and review the status of the parse attempt in AppSheet. You also update the extracted data in the AppSheet editor.

Parse a receipt document

1. In the AppSheet UI, in the left navigation bar, click Data ().

2. Click Add new data (+).

3. In the Add data dialog, select Google Drive Documents.

4. In the Create a new document table dialog, Under Documents, click Receipts.

   AppSheet can parse three document types: invoices, receipts, and W-9 forms. A W-9 form is a US tax form that requests identification information of a taxpayer.

5. In the file chooser dialog, select the receipts folder from My Drive, and then click Select.

   Note: Do not select the individual receipt document that is contained in the receipts folder. You must select the receipts folder.

6. AppSheet populates the Source Receipt Folder and Table name. To parse the contents of the receipt document and populate the table, click Create Table.

   AppSheet generates the receipts table to store data extracted from the parsed receipt document. A second receipt_line_item table is also generated to store extracted data for each receipt line item.

7. Click Save.

View the table schema and data

1. To expand the receipt_line_item table definition, click the receipt_line_item table, to view the generated table schema.

2. To view the extracted data from each line item of the receipt, in the table header, click More () and select Preview data.

3. Repeat the previous steps for the receipts table.

   Note: The generated receipts table will not contain any data yet because the parse attempt was only partially successful with a low confidence level.

   To fix this issue, you will manually update the extracted data in the next task.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective. Parsed the receipt document.

Task 3. Monitor document parsing

In this task, you monitor the status of document parsing in AppSheet. You review the quality of the parse attempt and update the extracted receipt data for use in the app.

Review the parse attempt

1. In the AppSheet UI, in the left navigation bar, click Manage () > Monitor.

2. Click Automation Monitor, and then click Launch automation monitor. The automation monitor opens in a separate browser tab.

3. In the navigation bar of the automation monitor, click Document Parses.

4. In the Apps pane of the Document Parses tab, to monitor an app, select the Facility Inspections app.

   The Parses Table pane on the right displays a summary of all document parsing for the selected app and time range.

   The time range can be optionally set by clicking Settings in the main menu () of the automation monitor.

   In the Parses Table pane, the values in the Status column indicate whether the document parsing succeeded or failed.

   The parse attempt displays a status of POOR_QUALITY, which indicates that the content was extracted with low confidence in the accuracy of the information. It is also possible that one or more critical fields were missing from the receipt.

Update the extracted data

You can manually review and update the extracted data and provide any missing information from the document parse attempt.

1. In the Parses Table pane of the automation monitor, for the parse attempt, click Edit Parse ().

   AppSheet displays the confidence level details of the data items extracted from the receipt and reports on any missing pieces of information. You can update the extracted data and provide any missing pieces of information.

2. To update the data in the form, specify the following, and leave the remaining settings as their defaults:

   Property	Value (type or select)
   The currency used for the receipt	USD
   The name of supplier in the receipt	Pharmacy
   The address of supplier in the receipt	123 Busy Street
   The city of supplier in the receipt	Portland

3. To update the receipt data, click Mark Complete ().

4. Wait a few seconds for the app to sync its data to the AppSheet backend, or click Sync ().

   After the data is synced, the parse status changes to HUMAN_REVIEWED.

5. Navigate back to the AppSheet UI in the other browser tab, and click Data () in the navigation pane.

6. Click on the receipts table, to expand the table definition.

7. To view the updated data for the receipt, in the table header, click More () and select Preview data.

   The receipts table now contains the manually updated data for the receipt.

   You can now optionally create or use the views in your app to enable a user to view and manage receipts in the app.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective. Update the extracted data.

Task 4. Process document folders

With AppSheet, you can process the contents of a Drive folder by compiling a list of files in the folder and their metadata. The process is similar to that of receipt documents that you followed in the previous tasks.

In this task, you process the contents of a folder that has been pre-provisioned for this lab.

Process a folder

1. In the AppSheet UI, in the left navigation bar, click Data ().

2. Click Add new data (+).

3. In the Add data dialog, select Google Drive Documents.

4. In the Create a new document table dialog, Under Folder, click Collection of files.

5. In the file chooser dialog, select the supplierData folder from My Drive, and then click Select.

6. AppSheet populates the Source File Folder and Table name. To parse the contents of the folder and populate the table, click Create Table.

   AppSheet generates the supplierData table and stores the metadata for each file that is in the folder.

7. Click Save.

View the table schema and data

1. To expand the supplierData table definition, click the supplierData table, to view the generated table schema.

   The columns store the properties of files such as the filename and path, created date and time, email of the user who last modified the file, and mimeType.

2. To view the extracted metadata of each file in the folder, in the table header, click More () and select Preview data.

   Each row in the table corresponds to a file in the folder.

   You can now optionally create views in your app to enable a user to view and manage the contents of a folder in the app.

Congratulations!

In this lab, you learned how to perform the following tasks:

• Use AppSheet to parse a receipt document and extract its contents.
• Check the status of the document parse attempt with automation monitoring.
• Review the extracted data from the receipt and update the data.
• Parse the contents of a folder on Google Drive and review the extracted metadata in AppSheet.

End your lab

When you have completed your lab, click End Lab. Qwiklabs removes the resources you’ve used and cleans the account for you.

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