Channel Properties

Settings

Change your channel properties on the My Channels page in the Channel Settings tab. You can also use the REST API to Write Settings.

Channel ID: Auto-generated ID of your unique channel. Your application uses this ID to read data from the channel. You cannot change its value.
Name: Enter a unique name for the ThingSpeak™ channel.
Description: Enter a description of the ThingSpeak channel.
Field#: Check the box to enable the field, and enter a field name. Each ThingSpeak channel can have up to eight fields.
Metadata: Enter information about channel data, including JSON, XML, or CSV data.
Tags: Enter keywords that identify the channel. Separate tags with commas.
Link to External Site: If you have a website that contains information about your ThingSpeak channel, specify the URL. This becomes the target of the More Information link on your channel public and private views.
Elevation: Specify the position of the sensor or thing that collects data in meters. For example, the elevation of the city of London is 35.052.
Show Channel Location: Check this box to enable entering channel location data on this page. The result is a map with a location pinpoint displayed in the channel view. This location is a single entry. Each data point in the channel feed can also include location information, which is different than the channel location information shown here. Even if this box is cleared, you can still read and write latitude and longitude information for the channel and for the feed using the API. For locations close to the poles, a marker is not visible.
- Latitude: Specify the latitude position in decimal degrees. For example, the latitude of the city of London is 51.5072. The value must be between -90 and 90.
- Longitude: Specify the longitude position in decimal degrees. For example, the longitude of the city of London is -0.1275. The value must be between -90 and 90.
Show Video: Check the box to include a video display on your channel view, using the following settings:
- YouTube/Vimeo: Select your video service.
- Video URL: Specify the full URL for your video.
Link to GitHub: If you store your ThingSpeak code on GitHub®, specify the GitHub repository URL to show on your channel view.
Show Status: Check this box to add a window to your channel view for status updates. This window can show executed commands from a TalkBack App that is configured to log commands to this channel. The status can also show information that you send with an API command using the status parameter as described in Write Data.

Private, Shared, and Public Channels

You can select private, public, or shared channel. On the My Channels page, go to the Sharing tab.

By default, your channel is private and requires a Read API key to access its feed. A public channel gives other users the ability to use your feed without a Read API key. You can also make a channel shared with specified users. Users who have access to shared channels can see only the private view of a channel; they cannot add channels, see alerts, or see license information.

In both the private and public views, you can use plugins to enable visualization and analysis. You can also choose to display different plugins in each view.

Note

Users with a free license can share a channel with only three other users.

Search by Tag

You can use tags to sort and filter your public and private channels. Set tags in your Channel Settings by adding individual words or phrases separated by a comma. In My Channels, you can enter a search tag in the search box, and the channel view is filtered to show only channels with that tag. You can also add tags using the Write Settings REST API Call.

For example, consider a collection of 10 channels for five different sensor types. Add a tag for each channel based on the sensor type, and you can rapidly filter to find the channels of interest.