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Data Publishing Process for HCL

Last update: 18 Feb 2026

Quick Guide for the Update Process​

  1. Update the source GSheet data (SRC)
  2. Paste updates into the staging Gsheet, check staging site to verify updates (STG)
  3. Paste verified updates production Gsheet, check production to confirm (PRD)
tip

Keep the workflow consistent: SRC → STG → PRD

Google Sheet Data Sources​

OcNOS Hardware Compatibility SRC Data

OcNOS Hardware Compatibility STG Data

OcNOS Hardware Compatibility PRD Data

Versioning Policy for SRC GSheet​

Our recommendation for versioning the data is with a source GSheet (SRC).

Within this sheet, versioning is manually managed on separate tabs named by date/release number.

  • This source sheet is where edits and data cleaning are done
  • Once cleaned, the data is copied into STG for testing
  • The data is then copied again into PRD for publishing

The active sheet should remain as the first tab, from which the scrubbed data is copied into STG and then PRD sheets.

With each new version of the data, whether for minor or major updates, copy the active tab to a new tab, and name the copied tab by date for version control. Programming conventions for naming are numerical, in YYYYMMDD sequence.

Example

If the current tab name is:

"CURRENT HCL 6.6.1"

…and the versioned tab is created on 18 Feb 2026, the versioned tab is named:

"CURRENT HCL 6.6.1 20260218"

Once the previous version is backed up to the new tab, make edits to the active tab of the SRC sheet.

note

Version control is manual. There is no automated rollback. Accurate tab naming is required for recovery.

Update Steps in Detail​

STAGING​

  1. Copy changes from the SRC Google Sheet to the Staging Google Sheet
  2. Login to the staging instance of IP Infusion website
  3. Under the TablePress plugin, go to the Import tab and locate the line item for HCL
    (It may be the only auto-import item activated)
  4. To immediately import the data from Google, in the HCL line item click Run Now see screenshot below
  5. Check the STG HCL page to view your data
tip

Use STG as the validation gate. Confirm formatting and content accuracy before publishing to PRD.

PRODUCTION​

Once the data is confirmed as correct, repeat the steps in production.

  1. Copy changes from the SRC Google Sheet to the Production Google Sheet
  2. Login to the production instance of IP Infusion website
  3. Under the TablePress plugin, go to the Import tab and locate the line item for HCL
  4. To immediately import the data from Google, in the HCL line item click Run Now
  5. Check the PRD HCL page to view your data
note

Do not proceed in PRD until STG output is confirmed correct.

Import Settings & Intervals for Update Frequency​

Intervals​

In the TablePress plugin settings, an import connection to the GSheet data is set up in the Import tab. The configuration supports different time intervals from one minute up to 24 hours. In general, the interval should be an hour or more, to reduce the frequency of calls to Google.

Immediate Updates with Run Now​

In some cases, updates may need to be viewed right away instead of waiting for the interval to pass to import the data. In those cases, the import can be run on-demand from the Import tab and viewed immediately on the web page.

Look for the HCL in the Import list, and rollover the line item to expose the Run Now button.

Run Now button in TablePress Import *Fig. 1 - Run Now command

Cleaning the Data​

This refers to issues introduced when the original data source is an Excel spreadsheet. Excel data that comes from IPI Engineering often has formatting, data structure, and content inconsistencies.

All of this must be stripped out and/or corrected before adding into the GSheet. This ensures consistent display and reduces the chance of breaking the table display once it moves onto the website.

Display Format Corrections​

  • Differing font sizes, colors, and formatting like bold or italic are removed
  • Cell colors are removed

Data Format Corrections​

  • Cell data formatting with extra tabs, spaces, and line breaks are corrected
  • Stray commas, apostrophe, or quote marks are removed
  • Enforce correct capitalization of the brand name OcNOS (vs "OCNOS" in all caps)
  • Enforce correct all-caps of "ASIC" & "SPEED" values
  • Underscores changed to dashes

Content / Markup Accuracy​

  • Verify correct SKU, Product and Version match up
    • (e.g., SKUs like "OcNOS-DC-PLUS-3200" need to be matched to the correct DC product and version in the same record)
  • Multi-line items in a single cell using ASCII line breaks, and not commas
  • Adding properly formatted HTML links to correct Pardot form URLs
    • Form URLs come from Nicole Bellemare at One Umbrella Marketing
    • They are not required to publish and can be added at any time
tip

The best method of scrubbing formatting is to copy a cell/cells of data into a plain text editor first. Then make any adjustments and corrections needed in plain text before copying back into the SRC sheet.

Note on Ownership and Migration​

warning

The GSheets being used are hosted on Mighty Digital's Google Workspace. These should be migrated to an IP Infusion-operated Google Workspace in the near future.

PREVIOUS DRAFT​

OVERVIEW​

The IP Infusion website has a commercial plugin called TablePress, which adds powerful table management features to the website. It is used in multiple areas of the site, including the Hardware Compatibility List.

One of the features is called Periodic Table Import. This feature enables an external data source to be connected to the website, which can automatically import data from the cloud.

This is an enhancement over the current method, where CSV data is downloaded from Google Sheets, and manually imported to the website. This works well enough, but it requires administrator access to the website, and greater familiarity with WordPress and webmastering.

This improvement will allow IP Infusion Marketing team to manage the HCL data in the cloud (via Google Sheets), and the plugin will import that data to the HCL page automatically, on a defined scheduled. This will save steps and improve productivity for regular software releases.

STAGING TEST​

As of this writing, we have conducted successful tests on the IP Infusion staging site. The following document is an overview of the current state, where both the staging site and the Google Sheet are demos for testing.

Automatic import is not yet live or in production.

Once the staging tests are concluded, the process will be migrated to production and tested again. After deployment to production is completed, this document will be updated.

HCL page on staging​

Google Sheet with test data​

note

See the marked the test data in the first record for S9500-22XST. The ASIC field is changed to QAXX. We will use this marker to check that the data is correctly imported from Google Sheets to the staging site

The setup of this operation is very straightforward:

  • The Google doc is shared as a public link
  • That link is slightly modified to support CSV data format
  • The Table plugin imports data from the Google doc URL on intervals
  • Currently the interval is set to 15 minutes for testing, which can be a longer interval for production (or custom like a CRON job), since this data is not updated that frequently.
  • The HCL page pulls in the table and data automatically on page load
tip

In day-to-day practice the only part for you to maintain and update is the Google doc.

Once you change that, the plugin on the IPI site will update from there and display your changes automatically. See notes below on requirements and process for data updates.

View complete documentation for the import process here:​

The two links point to the same Google document. The difference in the modified link is changing the URL parameter at the end of the link, to export the data in CSV format.

Quick guide to modify the Google Sheets URL for import​

  1. First copy the sharing URL from the address bar of the browser into an editing app
  2. Manually edit the ending parameter
  3. Copy the modified URL and paste it into the WordPress/TablePress configuration field. This can be done in any plain text editor or coding tool.

Example URL parameter before modification

Full URL: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Cjtj7xPEiKbYdtMJoX1PhtgBdD5GRUmF3yJycy4oNic/edit?usp=sharing

Ending URL Parameter: /edit?usp=sharing

Example URL parameter after modification

Full URL: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Cjtj7xPEiKbYdtMJoX1PhtgBdD5GRUmF3yJycy4oNic/export?format=csv

Ending URL Parameter: /export?format=csv

(These are example URLs for demonstration. Your production URLs will be different)

warning

Do not use office software like Microsoft Word to edit URLs. It may apply formatting that will interfere with link functionality. Use a plain text editor or code writing app.

RULES for DATA EDITS​

There is a critical aspect of this configuration to note: the HCL data display is tightly coupled to the data source, based on the number and order of columns in the Google Sheet. The automation feature is powerful, and it enables the editor of the data to break the HCL page if data structure guidelines are not followed.

Rule of thumb for editing the Google Sheets data source:

tip

Row edits YES

Column edits NO

The display of the HCL data is based on the columns in the doc. Like a database, it is fine to update and modify data within a record or cell, but it is not allowed to modify columns, or you risk breakage. We are in staging for our testing, so if something were to break it is not customer facing. But once we have this in production, the structure must be maintained.

Rows are Records, and those changes do not risk breaking the layout. Changing the order, adding or removing rows, and so on are acceptable. If errors are made in the data, those errors will be imported and displayed. Remember there is no error-checking feature in the automatic import. Content in the source will be imported without question.

In the event of larger scale data changes, the staging site can be used to test the display of that data before deploying to production. That will be a judgment call on the part of Marketing.

danger
  • DO NOT CHANGE the number, order, or titles of the columns in the Google Sheet
  • Changing the order or number of columns can break the display of the HCL page
  • There is no built-in error detection between the data source and what is displayed on the HCL page
  • Data structure will be imported as-is, including any errors
  • It is the editor's responsibility to follow the guidelines and be careful when making edits

WHEN COLUMN CHANGES ARE REQUIRED​

Data warnings aside, it is possible to change column structure, as long as it is correctly scoped, coded, and fully tested first in staging. The filters, sorting and other table formatting must be tested and checked, which may required vendor support to implement. If there is a need to modify the columns or data structure, it should be done as a separate project.

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