Connecting Projector to a data source takes one drop-down, one sign-in and a short form, and the form is different for QUE than for Google Sheets. QUE asks you which jobs to process. Google Sheets asks you where the sheet is. Either way, a payload gets one data source and no more, so the choice has to be made before you start.
The steps are short. The reasoning behind them is what saves time, because the form is mostly a set of decisions about what Projector should pick up and what it should leave alone. This article walks through both connections in order, explains why each field exists, covers the limits that Dataclay’s help pages state, and ends with how to choose between the two sources.
If you are new to the tool, Projector is the Dataclay application that renders versioned videos in parallel, transcodes them, deploys them to a streaming service and writes the result back to your data source. Its data source is the thing that tells it what work exists. Without that connection, there are no missions to run.
What Projector does with a data source
It helps to know the job the connection performs before you fill in anything. Projector reads render and streaming status from your data source. It does not invent work. Every video it processes is a mission, a group of missions is a payload, and the missions in a payload come from rows in a sheet or jobs in a QUE campaign.
When Projection is enabled, Projector checks the data source on a timer. You enter a number of seconds in the Check every field, and Projector polls on that interval to see whether there are new jobs to process. After each check, a message tells you the result. When a mission finishes deploying, Projector writes metadata back to the data source from the streaming service, the storage service, or both. Dataclay’s help page does not list the exact fields it writes, so we will not list them either.
That loop is why the connection matters more than it looks. The data source is both the input and the record. Projector reads it to know what is ready, and writes to it so that you can see what happened. If the connection is set up loosely, you get the wrong jobs.
Two status values drive the loop. Per Arie Stavchansky, our founder, render-status, used by Templater and QUE, tracks a job’s progress through rendering. Its values are ready, queued, processing, done and canceled, plus error codes such as ERR::MEDIA for media asset problems and ERR::AFXHOST for After Effects errors. Stream-status, used by Projector and QUE, tracks deployment to a streaming or hosting platform. Its values are pending, staged, transcoding, deploying, onstream and error. The article on what each render status means goes deeper on the first set, and the one on how a render becomes a live video covers the second.
The docs also say that with the full suite of Dataclay tools you can use the same data source for video projects from beginning to end. Projector connects the way Templater does. If you already drive Templater from a QUE campaign or a Google Sheet, the same source can feed Projector. That means you do not have to build a second list of jobs.
Connecting QUE
QUE is Dataclay’s web application for managing template versioning data. The docs describe it as a way to work with JSON-based data without the scalability limits of a spreadsheet, and it includes an API and a Zapier integration. If your jobs already live in a QUE campaign, this is the shorter path, because the jobs are already structured.
Before you start, confirm that the QUE side exists. A campaign cannot be created until you have added an Autograf and a Satellite to your QUE account, and a campaign needs a default Autograf and a default Satellite for jobs that do not name their own. If you do not have these yet, set them up first. Projector reads campaigns that already exist. The guides on QUE and on inserting a batch of jobs into QUE cover that side.
Source vs. Source
QUE or Google Sheets: which fits your work
- Data format
- QUEJSON-based, no spreadsheet limits
- Google SheetsTabular, edited by hand
- Filtering jobs
- QUEBy campaign, ID, or Date Created
- Google SheetsWorksheet name and status columns only
- Setup before connecting
- QUEAutograf and Satellite must exist first
- Google SheetsAdd render-status and stream-status columns
Neither is the better source in general. They fit different working habits.
Then, in Projector, the steps run in this order.
In the Data Source section, select QUE from the drop-down and click Setup. This opens the QUE Settings screen. If you are not signed in to QUE, click Sign In in the upper right corner and follow the on-screen instructions. The sign-in is what lets Projector see your campaigns, so nothing later on the screen works without it.
Before You Connect
What to have ready before connecting Projector
- Sign in to QUE or Google Sheets before filling in other fields
- Add render-status and stream-status columns to your Google Sheet
- Add an Autograf and a Satellite to your QUE account before creating a campaign
- Decide whether to set a video asset file extension or enable AEP rendering, never both
- Copy the Share link or browser URL of your Google Sheet for the Data URL field
- Match the worksheet name exactly as it appears at the bottom of the sheet
Next comes the video asset file extension. If you configured the project to include Exporting and selected the Enable AEP rendering setting, skip this step. Otherwise, choose a value from the drop-down. This is the file extension for the files Projector should process. The reason for the skip is a rule that appears in Dataclay’s troubleshooting page. If Projection says there are no missions to deploy, check whether you selected Enable AEP rendering in the Export pillar. If you did, you must not have also selected a video file asset extension when you configured the data source, because the two settings cannot be used for the same project. So the field is either set or skipped, and never both.
Then you decide which jobs to process, with a radio button. You can select All ready jobs, or Ready jobs in selected campaigns. If you choose all ready jobs, click Save and you are done. That is the broadest setting, so use it only when every campaign you have is meant for Projector. If a different team uses the same QUE account for work that has nothing to do with streaming, choose the narrower option.
If you choose ready jobs in selected campaigns, continue. Select a campaign from the drop-down of your existing QUE campaigns. Then decide whether to narrow it further. If you do not want every job in the campaign, open the Filter drop-down and tick the filter you want. The choices are these.
Connecting QUE
How to connect Projector to QUE
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Select QUE and open SetupIn the Data Source section, select QUE from the drop-down and click Setup.
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Sign in to QUEIf you are not signed in to QUE, click Sign In in the upper right corner and follow the on-screen instructions.
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Set video asset file extensionIf you selected Enable AEP rendering, skip this step.
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Choose which jobs to processSelect All ready jobs, or Ready jobs in selected campaigns using the radio button.
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Apply a filter and saveIf narrowing by campaign, select a campaign, open the Filter drop-down, complete any additional information, then click Save.
ID lets you enter the ID property key from a single JSON object in a QUE campaign. Use it when you want to target one specific job.
Date Created limits the project to JSON objects added within a date range. You give it a starting date and an ending date, and they must be different. That makes it useful for running only the jobs from a particular stretch of days.
Render Status and Stream Status both appear in the list, and the docs say plainly that neither filter is currently used. Do not rely on them. If you were planning to filter by status through this menu, you cannot. The ready jobs setting is the only status-based control you get.
QUE Filters
Only two QUE filters currently work
| Filter | What it targets | Currently works? |
|---|---|---|
| ID | ID property key from one JSON object | Yes |
| Date Created | Objects added within a date range | Yes |
| Render Status | Job progress through rendering | No, not currently used |
| Stream Status | Deployment to a streaming platform | No, not currently used |
Complete any additional information the chosen filter asks for, then click Save.
Two points deserve a second look. First, the filter list holds exactly two working filters. Anything more clever, such as pulling jobs for one customer, has to be handled by how you organize campaigns, because you can select a campaign. Putting a client’s jobs in their own campaign is the cleanest way to give Projector a boundary. Second, the connection reads campaigns that already exist. It does not create jobs. If a campaign is empty, or if its jobs are not ready, Projector has nothing to pick up, and the problem is upstream of the connection.
Connecting Google Sheets
Google Sheets is the other supported source. A native Google Sheets document works as a Templater data source too, and Templater’s own docs note a limit: because of changes to Google’s security requirements, native Google Sheets integration requires Templater v3.5 or later. That note comes from the Templater data source page, not the Projector one, but it is relevant if the same sheet feeds both tools.
The sheet has to be shaped correctly before Projector connects. These columns are always required: render-status and stream-status. Add them to the sheet yourself, with those exact names. They are the two columns Projector reads and writes to track a video through rendering and deployment, so a sheet without them has no way to show progress. This is the one structural requirement the Projector docs call out for Sheets, so it is the first thing to check if a connection behaves oddly. The article on data sources in Templater explains how each row of a sheet becomes a render job, and its columns become the dynamic layers.
Then, in Projector, the steps run as follows.
In the Data Source section, select Google Sheets from the drop-down and click Setup. If you are not signed in to Google Sheets, click Sign In in the upper right corner of the Google Sheets Settings screen and follow the on-screen instructions. As with QUE, the sign-in comes first, since Projector cannot open the sheet without it.
For Data URL, enter the URL of the Google Sheet. The docs say you can use either the Share link or the browser URL, so copy whichever is easier. Then enter the name of the specific worksheet. A Google Sheets file can hold several tabs, and Projector needs to know which one holds your jobs. A typo here is one possible reason for a connection that finds nothing, so match the tab name exactly as it appears at the bottom of the sheet.
Next, enter the Input file directory. If you want Projector to build the path for you, click the button to the right of the field and browse to the location. This is where the files to be processed live on your computer. Using the browse button instead of typing is the safer route, since it prevents path typos.
Then comes the same video asset file extension step as with QUE. If you configured the project to include Exporting and selected Enable AEP rendering, skip it. Otherwise, select a value from the drop-down. The same reasoning applies, and the same troubleshooting warning applies if you set both. Click Save.
Notice what is missing compared with QUE. There is no campaign picker and no filter list. A sheet has no campaigns, so Projector works from the worksheet you named. Dataclay’s Projector help pages do not describe a way to narrow the rows from inside Projector, and they do not say how rows are selected beyond the required status columns. So test with a small sheet before you trust a big one.
A hypothetical example
This case is invented to show how the choices play out. It is not a customer story.
A training company renders course-completion videos. Each row in a Google Sheet has a learner’s name, a course title and the two required status columns. One person manages the sheet, and the jobs run in one batch at the end of each week. For that team, Google Sheets is the natural fit. They already work in a sheet. The setup is a Data URL, a worksheet name, an input directory and the file extension. The only structural work is adding render-status and stream-status.
Now picture a different team. A video agency serves four clients, each with its own template and its own stream of jobs, all in one QUE account. If they chose All ready jobs, Projector could pick up work from every client at once. If they chose ready jobs in selected campaigns, they could point one payload at one client’s campaign and keep the others out of it. The structure of QUE does the separating, and the connection only has to name the campaign. For that agency, QUE’s extra step buys a clearer boundary.
Choosing between QUE and Google Sheets
You can only use one data source per payload, so the question is which one. Dataclay’s docs support a few plain points.
Choose Google Sheets when your data is tabular and a person edits it by hand, when you want no extra application between you and your jobs, or when a sheet is already your Templater data source. The cost is that you carry the structure yourself. Two required columns, an exact worksheet name and a correct path are all on you.
Choose QUE when your jobs are JSON, when the volume is growing and a spreadsheet is becoming awkward, or when you want separation by campaign. The docs describe QUE as freeing you from the scalability constraints of traditional tabular sources such as spreadsheets. The cost is setup, since an Autograf and a Satellite have to exist before a campaign can.
Neither is the better source in general. They fit different working habits. And if your data lives somewhere else, such as a CSV, an Excel file or a URL feed, Projector does not read it directly. Projector’s data sources are QUE and Google Sheets, and the docs say more will be supported in the future. The simplest path today is to move the data into one of the two, either by inserting it into a QUE campaign or by pasting it into a sheet. Templater also works with QUE and native Google Sheets, so a source you already use there can feed Projector.
A few things can go wrong after the connection is saved. If Projection says there are no missions to deploy, check the Enable AEP rendering and file extension conflict first, since the troubleshooting page names it. Then check that your QUE jobs are ready, and that the campaign or worksheet you named is the one holding them. For the rest, the Projector troubleshooting guide collects the known fixes.
Bottom line
Connecting Projector is a short form with two real decisions. The first is which source, QUE or Google Sheets, and you get only one per payload. The second is what Projector should pick up. In QUE, that means all ready jobs or the ready jobs in a chosen campaign, with ID and Date Created as the only working filters. In Google Sheets, it means the right worksheet with render-status and stream-status columns in place.
If you are starting from a spreadsheet, use Google Sheets and add the two columns. If your jobs already live in QUE, point one payload at one campaign. Either way, set the file extension or enable AEP rendering, never both, and test on a few rows before you let Projection loose on a whole batch. Our Learn section has the rest of the Projector and QUE guides.
A connection like this raises a few practical questions, so here are the ones we can answer from the docs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Projector use QUE and Google Sheets in the same payload?
No. Projector supports QUE or Google Sheets as a data source, and you can only use one data source per payload. If you need both, make two payloads. The data source you pick is also the place Projector writes status and streaming information back to when a mission finishes deploying.
Which columns must my Google Sheet have for Projector?
The help docs say render-status and stream-status are always required. Beyond those two, Dataclay’s Projector help pages do not list further required columns. Your other columns depend on your template, since each row is a job and each column maps to something in the video. Start with the two status columns, connect a small test sheet, and add the rest from your Templater setup.
What do the Render Status and Stream Status filters in QUE do?
Nothing yet. The docs state that both filters are not currently used, although they appear in the Filter drop-down. The filters that work are ID, which takes the ID property key from a single JSON object in a campaign, and Date Created, which limits the project to objects added within a date range. For anything else, organize the jobs into separate campaigns and select the campaign you want.
Do I enter a video asset file extension if I use AEP rendering?
No. If you configured the project to include Exporting and selected Enable AEP rendering, you skip that field. Otherwise you choose a value from the drop-down. Setting both is the cause the troubleshooting page gives when Projection says there are no missions to deploy, because the two settings cannot be used for the same project. Pick one approach per project.
Can I paste either the Share link or the browser URL for my sheet?
Yes. The Data URL field accepts either the Share link or the browser URL for the Google Sheet. You also have to enter the name of the specific worksheet, because Projector needs to know which tab holds your jobs. If the connection finds nothing, compare the worksheet name you typed with the tab name in the sheet, character for character.
Do I need to be signed in to QUE or Google Sheets to finish the setup?
Yes. In both cases the Settings screen has a Sign In link in the upper right corner if you are not already signed in, and you follow the on-screen instructions. The sign-in is what lets Projector read your campaigns or your sheet. Do it first, before the other fields.
How often does Projector check the data source for new jobs?
You decide. In the Projection section you enter a number of seconds in the Check every field, then click Enable. Projector polls your data source at that interval to see whether there are new jobs to process and shows a message after each check. Projection keeps running until you disable it, so enable it only when your data source is ready.
