Connect Business Applications to Your Map (CRM & System Integration)

Many organizations store their location data in CRM platforms, internal databases, or operational tools. With Google Sheets and Map to Sheets, you can connect that data to your interactive map and automate updates.

Keep location details, descriptions, categories, and other supported fields updated as your business data changes. You can also import images, videos, and PDFs into location media galleries.

Google Sheets acts as the bridge between your application and your map, letting you organize and format data before sending it to Mapme.

This guide focuses on connecting business applications, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and other CRM or operational systems. If your data is managed directly in spreadsheets or collected through forms, explore the other ways to connect data to your map.

How the Integration Works

The typical workflow is:

1. Send data from your application to Google Sheets, including a unique ID for each record.
2. Use formulas to populate the Map to Sheets columns, including the required Id column.
3. Send the formatted data to Mapme using Map to Sheets.
4. Publish the updated map.

The record ID connects each source record to its location in Mapme. Keeping the same ID across updates allows Mapme to update the existing location instead of creating a duplicate.

With the appropriate integrations and automation settings, this workflow can run fully automatically. You can also review changes before sending or publishing them.

Important: Your business application should remain the main source of truth for the fields it manages. Changes made directly in Google Sheets or the Mapme Editor may be overwritten the next time your application sends those fields.

Media behaves differently: incoming media is added to the existing gallery rather than replacing it. Removing a media URL from your source data does not delete that item from the map.

Implementation Guide

1. Create Your Map

Create a new map in the Mapme Editor or open an existing one. If your map uses categories, such as Hotels or Restaurants, set them up before connecting your data.

2. Install the Map to Sheets Add-On

Install Map to Sheets from the Google Workspace Marketplace and follow the setup guide to connect it to your map.

Availability: Map to Sheets is included with the Expert and Enterprise plans.

3. Configure Your Application to Send Data to Google Sheets

Set up the connection in your business application or through an integration platform.

Required: a unique record ID from your application. Every record sent to Mapme must include an identifier that distinguishes it from all other records and stays the same when that record is updated.

For example, use your CRM’s property ID, store ID, or contact ID. Do not use a spreadsheet row number or a value that changes when the record is edited.

Send this ID to Google Sheets along with the other fields you want to display:

• Location name
• Address or coordinates
• Description
• Type or category
• Public HTTPS URLs for images, video files, PDFs, or embedded content

Send this data to a source sheet—for example, a sheet named Data.

To import media files, Mapme must be able to retrieve them without signing in. Provide URLs that give access to the files, not filenames or links to preview pages.

4. Configure Map to Sheets

Your spreadsheet will typically contain two sheets:

1. Data – Raw data received from your external application.
2. Map to Sheets (MTS) – Formatted data sent to your Mapme map.

Setup

1. Open the Map to Sheets sidebar.
2. Click Use Case Configuration.
3. Select Data Integration.
4. Select the sheet containing your incoming data.
5. Select the Map to Sheets (MTS) sheet.
6. Choose the submission action that matches your workflow.
7. Click Save.

Automation

By default, changes are not automatically sent to your map. This lets you review and validate pending updates in Google Sheets first.

When ready, click Send to Map to process pending changes. After successful synchronization, processed changes are removed from the MTS sheet to keep it manageable.

To synchronize changes automatically when your application updates the source sheet, enable Automation.

Click the Automation button and choose an option:

• Automatically send data to the map – Synchronizes changes without publishing them, so you can review them in the Mapme Editor first.
• Automatically send data and publish map – Synchronizes changes and publishes the map automatically, without a review step.

Click Save to apply your selection.

Notes:

• Complete the formula setup and test your integration with automation disabled before enabling automatic updates.
• Google may occasionally suspend the automation trigger. If this happens, Map to Sheets displays a notification with a link to re-enable it.

5. Process the Data with Formulas

Use ARRAYFORMULA in the MTS sheet to copy and transform your source data. Enter formulas in row 3 and ensure the cells below are available for the results.

The examples below assume your source sheet is named Data. Adjust column letters and starting rows to match your dataset. Source ranges should begin at the first data row, excluding any column headers.

Required: Populate the Id Column

Copy each record’s unique ID from your application into the Map to Sheets column with the header Id. Keep this header unchanged.

Map to Sheets uses this value to match the source record with its location in Mapme. Sending the same ID in later updates allows Mapme to update the existing location instead of creating a duplicate.

• Every record must have an ID.
• Different records must have different IDs.
• The same record must keep the same ID across all updates, even if its name, address, or other details change.
• Use the original ID supplied by your application; no conversion is needed.

For example, if your application’s record IDs are in column A of the Data sheet, enter this formula in row 3 of the Id column in Map to Sheets:

=ARRAYFORMULA(Data!A1:A)

Adjust the source range to start at the first data row, excluding any column header, and ensure each ID aligns with the corresponding record’s other fields.

Example: A property with ID PROP-1042 must continue to use PROP-1042 when its description or address changes. Changing the ID can cause it to be treated as a different record and create a duplicate location.

Copy Multiple Columns

If several source columns match consecutive destination columns, you can copy them together. Make sure the output does not overlap the Id formula or any other populated cells.

=ARRAYFORMULA(Data!B1:D)

Combine Address Fields

This separate example assumes columns D, E, and F contain street, city, and country, with a street value for each record.

=ARRAYFORMULA(IF(Data!D1:D="", "", Data!D1:D & " " & Data!E1:E & ", " & Data!F1:F))

Set a Fixed Zoom Level

This example assigns zoom level 17 to rows with a record ID in column A.

=ARRAYFORMULA(IF(Data!A1:A="", "", 17))

Import an Image into the Media Gallery

If column G contains one public image URL per record, enter this formula in the media column:

=ARRAYFORMULA(IF(Data!G1:G="", "", "image;url\" & Data!G1:G))

The formula generates values such as:

image;url\https://example.com/property-photo.jpg

This imports the image into Mapme’s media gallery rather than displaying it as an externally hosted embed.

Add Externally Hosted Content as an Embed

For content such as a Matterport tour, use embed instead. This example assumes column H contains the embed URL:

=ARRAYFORMULA(IF(Data!H1:H="", "", "embed;url\" & Data!H1:H))

These are separate examples for the media column. To send multiple media items for the same location, combine their formatted strings with a pipe character (|).

You can also use formulas to apply conditional logic or generate formatted HTML descriptions.

6. Test Your Setup

Keep automation disabled while testing. Before sending data, confirm that every record has a unique value in the Id column and that it matches the original ID from your application.

Click Send to Map and check that:

• New records create locations with the correct content and position.
• Media files appear in the correct location galleries.
• Existing gallery items remain unchanged when new media is added.
• Records without media leave existing galleries unchanged.
• Changes remain unpublished if you selected a review-before-publishing workflow.

Test an update: Change a record’s name or description in your application, keep its ID unchanged, and send the update again. Confirm that the existing Mapme location is updated and no duplicate location is created.

Also confirm that later updates send only the intended media values.

Once everything works as expected, enable automation if required.

Add Images, Videos, and PDFs from Your Application

Media support lets you enrich locations with files from your business systems without a separate batch import. For example:

• Add property photos and brochures from a real estate CRM.
• Add project images and reports from an operational database.
• Add store photos or promotional videos to a store locator.

Use the media column with the same syntax as Mapme’s Excel/CSV import. Supported types include images, uploaded videos, PDFs, YouTube and Vimeo videos, and embeds.

Images, video files, and PDFs are imported into Mapme. Streaming videos and embeds remain hosted by their respective providers.

How Media Updates Work

• Valid media value: Adds new media to the existing gallery without replacing or removing existing items.
• Empty field: Leaves the gallery unchanged.
• Invalid media value: Returns an error, leaves the gallery unchanged, and keeps the value available for correction.

After successful processing, the media cell in Map to Sheets is cleared. This does not remove the media from the map.

Media is input-only. Existing gallery URLs, filenames, captions, and other media information are not returned to Google Sheets or your business application.

The media field is not a synchronized inventory of the gallery. Removing a URL from your CRM or source sheet does not remove the corresponding gallery item.

To delete all media from a location, send a single pipe character (|) as the only value in its media field, excluding surrounding spaces. Deleting an individual media item through Map to Sheets is not supported; use the Mapme Editor to manage individual items.

Important: Deleted media cannot be recovered.

See the media import guide for complete syntax, captions, credits, image display options, and examples.

Why Use This Integration?

• Keep your map connected to your business systems.
• Update existing locations reliably using your application’s record IDs.
• Reduce manual data entry and repeated imports.
• Use Google Sheets to format and transform incoming data.
• Add photos, videos, and documents to relevant locations.
• Manage datasets containing thousands of locations.

Processing Limits

Automatic Updates

When automatic updates are enabled, there is no limit to the number of new or updated rows that can be processed.

Manual Updates

In manual mode, Map to Sheets processes up to 1,700 new or updated rows per request. If your dataset exceeds this limit, click Send to Map again until all rows have been processed.

Media Limits

For each location, a single Map to Sheets update can add up to:

• 5 images
• 1 video
• 1 PDF

These media limits apply to both manual and automatic updates. They apply to each update, not to the total number of media items already stored in the location’s gallery.

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