New Beta API Launch: Data connectors 📈

Announcements
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Hello Canva Developers!

We’re excited to announce that the Data Connector API is now available in beta. This powerful new intent enables your apps to help Canva users import external data from your platform directly into their designs.

What can the Data Connector do?

With the Data Connector intent, your app can:

  • Import data from external sources into Canva designs
  • Allow users to utilize that data within design workflows - sheets, charts and bulk create
  • Support refreshing previously imported data to keep it updated and in sync

Key Features

  • Customizable Data Selection UI: Create tailored interfaces for your users to select and filter the data they want to import
  • Flexible Data References: Store references to data sources that can be refreshed later
  • Data Table Format: Convert your application’s data into Canva’s tabular format with support for different data types

Getting Started

To implement the Data Connector in your app:

  1. Enable the Data Connector intent in your app configuration
  2. Add the required permissions (canva:design:content:read and canva:design:content:write)
  3. Register the intent with prepareDataConnector
  4. Implement the data selection UI with renderSelectionUi
  5. Create data references to store important context about selected data
  6. Implement the data fetching logic with fetchDataTable

The data connector example will have you up and running in no time, available via:

…and yes, we have tested it with the Canva dev MCP server to ensure that it plays nicely with AI coding assistants!

Documentation & Support

For complete implementation details, check out our Data Connector documentation.

Beta Limitations

During this beta period:

  • Apps using this API will not pass the review process and can’t be published to the Apps Marketplace
  • The API may experience breaking changes as we refine the functionality
  • We recommend testing thoroughly in development environments

We’d love to hear your feedback! Please share your experiences, suggestions, or any issues you encounter in this thread.

8 Likes
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Ah, great been waiting for this… let the cooking begin!

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Can this Data connector use a JSON file to display a real-time scorecard, a real-time number, or something similar? What will be the outcome of this? a dynamic HTML site or could generate a static JPG every X hours?

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Sheets supports image assets in cells, but Data Connect does not. When will this be supported?

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@ricardomedici Data Connectors are not yet in real time or auto generating. For the time being they need to be imported or refreshed by a user directly.

Your data connector could parse the JSON into the DataTable format required by the API inside its getDataTable implementation.

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Hi @quill, this should now be supported. For more information, see Data Connector - Canva Apps SDK Documentation

1 Like