We've just decided to purchase Google Apps for Business for a couple of users and are now running pilot for migration.
We have a certain issue, which we would like to see if it can be solved with Google Apps Script.
Suppose that the following situation applies:
At this moment we're in a domain and we have certain user templates set-up in documents such as a document for faxing and a document for memo's. These templates have application-logic behind them so the template gets filled in values for the users name, and branch office, ...
What we would like to do is replicate this behaviour in Google Drive, but I'm not sure what the best way is to implement such a feature.
Do we create a spreadsheet and in the script editor we write the full template from scratch? Or is it possible to have a template on the google apps account which we then can transform on open?
I hope I'm a bit clear of what we would like to achieve, but in case I'm not; do feel free to ask me more questions.
I hope to hear from you all!
Kind Regards
Your question relates more to a global appreciation of Google Apps than a script question... I'm not sure I should be answering here...
As a personal opinion I guess documents would be the best tool to get what you want. You'll have to create a couple of templates with personalization fields that a script would fill in with the 'logged user' data.
The document and doclist api are quite powerful and could also classify the created docs in folders and manage how they are eventually shared among users.
Depending on your abilities in javascript coding it can be anything between quite easy and really hard to build up ... :-)
Related
I`m sorry if this is the not right place to ask. If not please delete this.
I`m looking for someone that can help me with a very simple program that can do this:
Login into accounts on an website and extract there a number from every account and and save the details ( account number - the number that must be saved ) on an txt file.
I need this for my job. This program will save me a`lot of time. this is the purpose.
If anybody can help me please let me know. thank you very much.
Fortunately for you, there is ample tooling available.
I will provide you some insight into related tools in the Python ecosystem, since that is what I am most familiar with and also an easy languages for beginners to work with.
If what you are extracting/scraping is relatively simple and doesn't require complex UI interaction with website elements, I would recommend requests Sessions to retain cookies and additional information for use in a series of authenticated requests, and bs4 to parse document trees in order to extract the data you are interested in.
For more complex interaction, you will need to look towards browser automation and possibly more advanced scraping frameworks. Hopefully I've given you enough keywords to go far in Google.
Of course, you'll need to first learn the basics of programming and how web data is structured if you want to write scripts like this. That is left to you to learn and absorb.
I am trying to place amazon search bar for books category in my website, where user searches for a book and is redirected to amazon website. My URL should be tagged with my associate ID so that i can earn some money.
The problem is i am unable to find any procedure to create such search bar. I have browsed through Product advertising API section, but it is very confusing.
I want exactly like this: http://amasearchbar.com/demo-blog/
Can someone help me how to make such autocomplete search bar, or provide me directly the code for it.
Any help is appreciated.
Amazon isn't likely to give instructions for how to create something like that - but they do give you the tools necessary to figure it out yourself if you're willing to learn their API.
Without more information, it's hard for anyone here to "help" you either.
That link you gave is to a WP plugin. Are you using WP? If so, your easiest bet is to buy the plugin and use that (I am not endorsing that plugin specifically, I have no experience with it).
If you give more specifics on what language you're wanting to use to create the search bar and its interaction with the API, and specific problems you run into while working on it, this community will be much more likely to help you. Questions to point you to a free source for the finished code of your project are not likely to get very far though.
Based on your previous questions, it seems likely that you are using Wordpress. If that's the case, and you don't know how to write the scripts to interact with the API then the easiest answer to your question by far is to either buy a plugin (perhaps the one you linked) or hire someone to write one. If you'd like to learn, there are a lot of resources online to help you start learning to write WP plugins.
Do any of you use the javascript macro capabilities of Google Apps, particularly for spreadsheets? How do the capabilities compare? Is there anything that Google Apps can't do that can be done with VBA macros?
I am in the middle of conversion of a complex project from VBA to Google Apps Script as an experiment to see what can be done and what can't.
In general, the development environment for google apps script is primitive and frustrating. The language is of course javaScript so if you already know that then you have a head start. The problem though is that many of the advantages of javaScript are not realizable since you don't actually have access to DOM elements, and neither do you have an equivalent of Excel shapes - except through the UI object- which is essentially the same as an excel form, with the same kind of events and objects etc.
Another issue is general slowness. You need to be careful how you structure, so that you minimize calls to the spreadsheet data (I got round this by building a values cache), and scalability is very questionable.
I am equally at home with javaScript or VBA, so putting language aside, VBA is currently more fulfilling and quicker to get things done, although there are increasing capabilities built in to apps script to make it extremely promising.
I am logging the progress of my migration, and the things I come across and the battles to figure out how to minimize structural change (I am trying to see if I can come up with something that would allow dual maintenance on both platforms), so if you are interested, you can follow along here
http://ramblings.mcpher.com/Home/excelquirks/gooscript
Bruce
The VBA in Office has been the same for about 10 years now, still using old VB6. The limitations of that language are endless. No data structures, no logic short-circuiting, limited types, non-object oriented. Google Apps and javascript are presumably on the forefront of technology and so it should not have many of these limitations.
As for what each is capable of doing that the other can't, that's a little more difficult to assert. I would argue that both languages are more or less turing complete, so while it may be more or less difficult to do something in each language, in theory, a good enough team of programmers could do just about anything in either.
Cheers :D
I'm trying to create charts in google spreadsheet using google apps script and is seems not possible... It is fairly easy in VBA, maybe vb6 is 10 years old but on the other hand you're able to do everything what you need with your spreadsheet. This is not the case in google scripts though.
One of the major hurdles is that Google Apps is web based. Thats were most companies cringe at the thought that you would have your own data not stored securely within your own network. I would never trust Google with that sort of data. I'm sure they have secure data connectors, but why take that risk?
Sure VBA is outdated, and not as sexy as javascript. However, its a great tool for quickly writing small applications, and getting it to the user fast. You only really hear nightmare stories about applications that were built by non-programmers using VBA.
It really depends on your project, and what you want to accomplish. Both have their limitations.
Having taken a quick look at Google Spreadsheet API I get the impression that its currently somewhat limited, for instance:
fewer Events, no control of calculation?, no way of writing UDFs?
Has anyone tried using it for serious work?
By its nature, a Google spreadsheet will not be able to do many things a local program will do. Example: a macro that would import all csv files in a user specified folder and consolidate them.
One thing that springs to mind is that VBA has full access to the WinAPI through 'Declare Function' declarations. Google Apps script won't have this access. This is something to watch for if you're converting a spreadsheet between the two.
We have over 100 applications in my company and we are trying to come up with a dashboard to show which applications use continuous integration and unit testing and other best practices.
I was going to put together my own database and a small website to start tracking this but first wanted to ask if there are any products on the market that allow you to track this.
Hmm, I will just throw this :)
We have smth similar on our company, we use inside wiki for that, there are list of our software and each responsible developer can comment it, is it using Unit Testing, little documentation attached, maybe an screenshoot, class diagram, a bit of design review. You can customize it as you want. No difference where it will be, on wiki, database, whiteboard, spreadsheet, the most important think is that ppl will have possiblity to edit that, and they will use it.
I really think a custom database with a pretty front-end is your best bet. Hell, a spreadsheet would even do the trick.
Whiteboard.
$41.29 on Amazon
How do you guys manage the information overflow?
What are the tools that you guys use?
One of the usefull tool is RSS feed reader.
Does Any body uses any other tools or any other ways to effectively manage the information?
Be an information snob.
If the blog doesn't absolutely rock your world, don't read it. It's so easy to get bogged down, even obsessed, with too much information. No matter what tools you have, you're still human and can only read so many words per day.
I use Evernote to keep notes and search through them.
I use Google Reader for the feeds. Split it up in multiple categories, 'A' with the more unique stuff, 'B' with the spam (Digg for example, easy to ignore because the important stuff shows up in 'A'), 'C' for my webcomics.
I always read the stuff in 'A', when bored I read 'C' and 'B' when I have spare time. It happens a lot of time that I'll mark 'B' as read just to get rid of it.
For work I'm stuck with Outlook, so I use the 'Tasks' function of Outlook a lot to get things sorted. Also a big believer of 'Inbox Zero' (http://www.43folders.com/izero).
I use a small number of tools and techniques, because it is easy to get distracted managing the information management tools, rather than managing the information.
Google Reader - The key for me was creating #work and #home labels, for the appropriate location.
TiddlyWiki - I keep track of all my notes for work projects in a TiddlyWiki file.
Delicious - I keep my bookmarks here. When I come across a link I want to read later (usually in my RSS Reader), I tag it #readreview. When I read it, I delete it unless it is useful reference, then I retag appropriately.
Local bookmarks - I store bookmarks on the browser toolbar in folders so I can middle-click and open all in tabs. Obviously these would be limited in number :-). I also have a bookmarklets folder.
I don't have a PDA. I have a pad of graph paper on my desk that I use for writing temporary notes and diagrams (permanent notes go into the TiddlyWiki). A lot of "productivity blogs" like to promote various tools, and some of these caught on for people, but I find my system is pretty simple and easy for me to manage. This makes it useful.
Well, this is an obvious one, but iGoogle seems to do a great job for me.
Depends on what information you are looking to manage. Can you be more specific?
I use google reader to handle things i read, RememberTheMilk to remind me of what i have to do, and gmail overall to quickly store and search data/correspondences.
Oh and i use the hipster PDA too!
You should probably check out Lifehacker for more tools and Getting Things Done apps.
Like you say most sites have a RSS feed today. Get a RSS Reader that sync between computers if you use more than one computer, so you don't have to mark alot of post as read. A good program is FeedDeamon, its free and sync between computers, there is even a online version as well, if you are on the road. FeedDeamon also have tools to help you identify the feeds, that you dont really read, and gives you a top 10 of feeds that you look on alot. This can help you delete bad RSS-Feeds, and also help you organize you're feeds.
I also use Delicious, to keep my bookmarks in sync, and is very handy if you bookmark alot.
Other than that, I don't really use any more tools - just the common sence that there is only 24 hours in the day, so dont use it to just read information that you don't need - bookmark interesting blog post from RSS, and read them later when you need to.
I've been using Delicious quite a bit over the past 2 years and it's been a great help.
If you're primarily interested in blogs, what I think we need is a way to prioritize the information that we, personally, are interested in. There used to be an RSS reader called wTicker (now demised) that used Bayesian filtering to rate articles for you. Another product under development, Particls, would similarly watch what you read and highlight similar content.
What about other types of information, though? For example, the tasks that OneNote or EverNote, or more obscure tools like Zoot aim to facilitate?
It depends on the type of information you meant. The answers above contain most of the tools. But if you use ms office you shall explore Office OneNote.
iGoogle: News, RSS, Wether, New Films, E-Mail widgets
ToDoList: every day work aspects
Local MediaWiki, for local company knowleges
Smartphone MS Excel for personal finances.
I still read news and blogs from RSS feeds. Feedly is the best tool for that right now.
When I find something interesting in Feedly, I add it to Pocket and read later. A Premium account allows me to highlight paragraphs I would like to save.
I also set up a receipt on IFTTT that monitors my likes on Twitter and adds links from the liked tweets to Pocket too.
As Substack grows, there is the new email newsletter boom. But my inbox is also a place where I do my work. So, I wrote an apps script file to receive newsletters once or twice a day and prevent them from distracting me from work. And then, I published it as Silent Inbox add-on that plugs into your Gmail.