Connect data sources
This page shows how to connect and test a data source and start collecting from it for the sites it covers. It also lists what each status on screen means.
A data source is a service that already holds numbers about your site: Google Analytics for visitors, Search Console for search clicks, an ad network for revenue. You connect your account with each provider once, an integration, and NoticeOS then collects from it on a schedule, so the numbers arrive without manual work and appear on the site's pages.
Before you begin
- At least one site added. See Add your first site.
- What the provider issued: API key (Bing), API login and API password (DataForSEO), Personal API key (PostHog), Email and Password (Mediavine), or a token per project (Microsoft Clarity). Google uses a sign-in instead of a key. See Connect Google.
Two places to connect, one panel
- Integrations in the sidebar lists every source the product can collect, grouped as Traffic & search, Revenue, Coordination and Other. Each row shows the source's name, its one status and one button: Connect, Manage, or Reconnect when its key is failing.
- A site's Data sources tab lists the same sources for that one site, under Data sources and More sources, each row with its own Connect.
Both open the same panel. Opening it from a site pre-selects that site.
Connected once, or per site
Google, Bing Webmaster Tools, DataForSEO, PostHog and Mediavine use one credential for the whole workspace and then collect for every site that matches. Connect them once on Integrations.
Microsoft Clarity issues a token per project, so its panel lists your sites with a Paste token field on each row. Pasting a token saves it. Run now fetches at once, and its label shows that it uses one of the day's calls; Clarity allows ten calls per project per day.
Discord and calendar feeds apply to the whole installation, not to one site, so their panels have no site list. Discord's panel shows Posts a test message before you press, because connecting sends a test message to check the webhook.
Uptime needs no connection: the product checks each site's home page every hour, and the row shows Up or Down.
What each source costs
Google, Bing, Clarity, PostHog, Mediavine, Discord and calendar feeds are free to read, within each provider's own limits.
DataForSEO is metered. Its panel shows the spend before you start, its row shows the account credit, and collection stops at the Monthly data cap in Settings > General. The product ships with a cap of $25 a month.
Connect a source with a key
- Open Integrations and select Connect on the row.
- In the panel, paste what the provider issued. The panel links to the provider's own key page.
- Select Connect. The panel shows Checking while it waits for the provider's response, then Key accepted (or Signed in for Mediavine). Nothing is stored before the provider responds.
- Review the list of what the account has access to, matched to your sites by domain and already ticked. Anything that matches no site is listed under No matching site. Untick a site to skip it; the row opens the Not using reasons.
- Select Start collecting. For DataForSEO the button shows Start weekly reports, and the panel shows the cost first.
Each site's row moves from Collecting to Working when its first result arrives. With one site the panel shows Open example.com; otherwise it shows Done.
Skip a source for one site
- On the site's Data sources tab, open the row and select Not using.
- Select Don't use this product, Replaced by another tool, Not relevant for this site, or type Your reason. Your choice is saved at once, with Undo in the toast.
A skipped source is never requested or billed for that site. Use again puts it back.
Some rows also have a Mapping or Market section: the Search Console site, the GA4 property, the PostHog project and its saved funnels, or DataForSEO's market. Each choice is saved on its own with Undo beside it.
Change how often data is collected
A collection that uses a connection is scheduled on that connection's Manage panel.
- Open Integrations and select Manage on the row.
- On the job's row, select Paused, Every few minutes, Hourly, Daily or Weekly, then the time. The jobs are Ad revenue (Mediavine), Traffic and search archives (Google and Bing), Product analytics archives (PostHog), Search rankings and backlinks (DataForSEO, weekly) and Clarity recordings summary. Each choice is saved with Undo beside it.
Collections that use no connection, such as Nightly reports and Live traffic and counters, are scheduled on Settings > Data collection.
Replace or disconnect
- On Integrations, select Manage on the row.
- Select Replace API key to test a new key before it is kept, or Disconnect, which shows one confirmation listing what stops, then deletes the secret permanently. Collected history is kept.
Verify
The row's status shows the state of the connection:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not connected | Nothing saved for this source. |
| Not checked | A credential is saved but nobody has tested it. |
| Checking | The panel is waiting for the provider's response. |
| Key accepted / Signed in / URL accepted | The provider accepted what you gave it. Nothing collected yet. |
| Collecting | A first collection is running, or the site's source is mapped and waits for the next scheduled run. The site's Data sources row shows when that run starts. |
| Working | The latest attempt succeeded. |
| Overdue | A scheduled attempt is late while others still work. |
| Failing | The credential was rejected, or most sites failed their latest attempt. |
| Not using | You skipped it for this site, with a reason. |
| Unknown | The latest monitoring data is out of date, so the row does not show the connection as working. |
| Doesn't apply | This source never applies to this site. |
Expires in 12d or Key expired is shown beside a credential with a recorded expiry. Small chips beside a status count sites failing and reports missing.
If it didn't work
- The key is cleared and the reason is shown under the field: the provider rejected the key. Check the key on the provider's own page and paste it again.
- The row shows Failing with a Reconnect button: the key was rejected or most sites failed their latest attempt. Select Reconnect and enter the key again.
- Start collecting does not run: the collection's job is Paused. Resume it on the Manage panel first.
More symptoms are in Troubleshooting. Every source, what it provides, its limits and how it fails is in doc 11, Integrations & economics; what each state means on a site's row is at https://github.com/notice-cx/NoticeOS/blob/main/config/integrations.README.md.