Plex and Google Sheets integration

What moves between them

Records flow primarily from Plex into Google Sheets. Purchase orders, invoices, inventory snapshots, sales orders, and supplier or customer master records are read from Plex on a schedule and written into the customer's defined Sheets tabs. Each row in the target sheet represents one Plex record, with columns mapped to the Plex fields the customer has chosen to expose. Updates to records in Plex are synced by re-polling and appending or upserting rows based on Plex record IDs. Google Sheets is read-only from the integration perspective, so ml-connector does not write back into Plex.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector stores both Plex OAuth2 credentials and Google Sheets OAuth2 credentials (or Service Account key) encrypted and polls Plex REST API on a configurable interval, typically every 5 to 15 minutes, filtering by modified_date to catch new and changed records. Because Plex enforces role-based permissions and does not publicly document rate limits, ml-connector implements exponential backoff on HTTP 429 responses and validates that the integration user has the correct Plex role assigned. For Plex's legacy SOAP datasources, ml-connector adapts to customer-specific stored procedure availability and tests each datasource for idempotent behavior to avoid duplicates. When records are retrieved, they are mapped to the customer-defined sheet schema, with A1 notation ranges or Named Ranges specifying where data lands in Google Sheets. Since Google Sheets Drive watch channels expire within hours and require re-registration, polling is used instead of webhooks. Every record carries a timestamp and Plex record ID, allowing ml-connector to detect and skip duplicates on re-poll. If a sync to Google Sheets fails partway through, ml-connector logs the error and retries from the last successful batch.

A real-world example

A mid-sized automotive supplier operates Plex for production planning, purchasing, and finance, and uses Google Sheets for weekly operational reviews and executive reporting. The supply chain team exports purchase order and invoice data from Plex by hand twice a week and pastes it into a master sheet to track spend by supplier and invoice status. With Plex and Google Sheets connected, purchase orders and invoices flow automatically into the team's sheets every 15 minutes. The operational review sheet refreshes with current data, invoice aging is calculated from live dates, and the manual export step is eliminated. Finance can see accounts payable metrics updated continuously rather than waiting for the weekly export.

What you can do

• •Sync purchase orders from Plex to Google Sheets, refreshing on a configurable schedule so operations teams see current PO status and open items.
• •Write Plex invoices and invoice status into customer-defined sheets for accounts payable aging and spend reporting.
• •Refresh Plex inventory snapshots into Google Sheets so supply chain teams can analyze stock levels and reorder points across parts and locations.
• •Authenticate both Plex with OAuth2 and Google Sheets with OAuth2 Authorization Code or Service Account, storing both credential sets encrypted.
• •Poll Plex on a schedule that respects rate limits and enforces exponential backoff, with duplicate detection based on Plex record IDs to prevent re-entry of the same invoice or PO.

Questions

How does ml-connector handle the lack of native webhooks in Plex?

Plex does not offer webhooks for cloud connectors, so ml-connector polls the Plex REST API on a configurable interval (typically every 5 to 15 minutes) filtering by modified_date to retrieve new and changed records. This approach ensures no records are missed while respecting Plex rate limits through exponential backoff on HTTP 429 responses.

What records can be synced from Plex to Google Sheets?

ml-connector can sync purchase orders, invoices, inventory, sales orders, suppliers, customers, GL accounts, and payments. Because Google Sheets has no native ERP schema, each customer defines the sheet tabs and column headers that match the records and fields they want to expose, and ml-connector maps Plex data to those customer-defined columns.

How does the integration detect and prevent duplicate records in Google Sheets?

ml-connector stores the Plex record ID and a sync timestamp with each row in Google Sheets. On each poll, it checks for existing rows with the same Plex record ID and either updates the row or skips it, preventing duplicate purchase orders or invoices from being added on subsequent syncs.