Cloud scripting with Google Apps Script

Staying On Script

© Olga Yastremska, 123rf.com

© Olga Yastremska, 123rf.com

Article from Issue 150/2013
Author(s):

Spreadsheet scripting with Google Apps Script is made possible by server-side JavaScript.

Most people are familiar with spreadsheets because most people use them for some purpose. Google, among others, brought spreadsheets to the browser with Google Docs, which took them up a notch in terms of utility, ubiquity, and sharing. With a new service called Google Apps Script (GS), you can do even more interesting and useful things with your spreadsheets.

In this article, I'll take a look at how you can take a "master" list, such as a list of company employees, and break it down into consumable sublists, such as a list of employees by office location. Next, I'll take that data and publish it to a series of web pages in Google Sites. Because access to data often is dependent on role or authority, I will also touch on permissioning. This same recipe could be useful in a thousand scenarios, such as providing football team rosters from a master list of all the players in the league.

Google Apps Script is basically JavaScript run on the server (see "Déjà Vu All Over Again"). Google provides a complete development environment in the browser and does all the code versioning and hosting for you. Google also provides a library of functionality, with APIs for other Google services, from email to documents to sites. For this tutorial, I'll assume you have a Google account and some familiarity with JavaScript. If you're a total beginner, see the GS tutorial [3].

[...]

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).

Buy this article as PDF

Download Article PDF now with Express Checkout
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

Related content

  • Google Apps Script

    Spreadsheet scripting with Google Apps Script is made possible by server-side JavaScript.

  • Workspace: wikiCalc

    wikiCalc is a unique tool that offers a combination of spreadsheet functionality and wiki features. This may sound like a strange pairing, but wikiCalc provides a refreshingly new approach to the spreadsheet concept.

  • Web-based Office Tools

    A mobile office without a laptop? No problem – a new generation of web applications converts your browser into a word processor or spreadsheet.

  • AJAX Workshop

    Books were the original model for website design. Navigation was similar to flipping the pages. Thanks to AJAX, many state-of-the-art websites now behave like desktop applications.

  • VisiData

    VisiData lets you easily manage, process, and view tabular data from multiple sources, all from the command line.

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News