Google Apps Script has made the switch to Chrome V8 JavaScript Engine. You can now write your Google Scripts and GSuite addons directly in ES6 but with a few caveats.
Today’s guest is Ben Collins, who creates online courses, writes tutorials, and teaches workshops around G Suite and App Script. Apps Script is a scripting platform developed by Google for light-weight application development in the G Suite platform. It is an implementation of JavaScript with the express purpose of extending Google apps.
Ben Collins is the guest on episode #419 of the Javascript Jabber podcast to discuss using Google Apps Script with Google Sheets.
The conversation includes Ben’s usage of automated sentiment analysis of feedback from his courses.
Come and celebrate Google Sheets at SheetsCon 2020, the world’s first, dedicated online conference for Google Sheets users.
Listen to world-class experts talk about how they craft solutions using Google Sheets and G Suite.
Over the course of two jam-packed days, you’ll hear everything from deep-dive tutorials on specific topics to cutting-edge solutions across different industries. You’ll have the chance to network with other professionals and meet vendors at the forefront of the Google Sheets movement.
Looks like a great event being hosted by Ben Collins for Google Sheets users. Click through to the SheetsCon 2020 website for the full agenda and free registration
Google Cloud has acquired AppSheet. Do I care? At first I thought, “Not really, it’s just interesting news.”
I guess that I do care in the sense that I want to be valued as a programmer, and no-code development feels like programmers are being thrown away in favor of something else. The driving force behind this is development costs. Even if an independent programmer only charged $5 dollars an hour, in two hours the customer would have paid $10 dollars, which is twice as much money as the $5 a month AppSheet plan.
It was recently announced that Google has acquired AppSheet a low-code platform for business users that lets you build applications that can integrate into a variety of sources including Google Sheets. This has resulted in an interesting thread on the Google Apps Script Community Google Group linked to from the source link at the end of this post, in particular, impact on Apps Script developers. On the one hand you can argue that products like AppSheet, with there low/no code environments remove the need for developers. However, the general consensus on the thread is rather than removing developer opportunities it may in fact create them with opportunities to extend the basic functionality of AppSheets. This comment from Alan Wells in particular caught my eye:
What AppsSheet does, is increase the number of apps and code being created, as opposed to lots of business creating no apps at all. It’s kind of like, you need a lot more mechanics if everyone can afford a car. If only the rich can afford a car, then there aren’t going to be many car mechanic jobs. So, I think that AppSheet is filling a need, which increases the number of apps. Some of those apps will crash, and they’ll need the equivalent of an auto body technician to repair the damage. This is part of the evolution of the computing industry.
You can join in on this discuss using the following link:
An interesting analysis prepared by Kanshi Tanaike of the ‘google-apps-script’ tag usage on Stackoverflow which shows that since 2016 there has been an increase in questions related to the tag with a bigger increase in 2019. Clicking through to the source post you’ll also see the data shows that new users asking questions about Google Apps Script is growing quicker than those who are answering them.
SW gApps LLC is hosting a G Suite and automaton training conference for organizations who have invested in Google’s productivity software known as G Suite. Send your associates to be more equipped and productive!
SW gApps LLC which is run by long time Google Apps Script contributor Steve Webster is running a two day training event for anyone interested in G Suite. Speakers and trainers include James Ferreira (Google, G Suite Specialist), Alexandrina Garcia-Verdin (Google, G Suite Developer Advocate [remote]) Ben Collins (Google Developer Expert and Google Sheets Developer & Data Analytics Instructor) as well as Steve Webster and Eric Schwartz from SW gApps LLC. There is an early bird registration available until February for either attending in-person or a reduced fee for remote attendees. You can follow the source link for more details.
I finished my free book on Apps Script by a long chapter about “Google Assistant with Apps Script”.
I’m often asked for resources to help people with getting started in Google Apps Script. Noted French computer scientist Jacques Chazarain has published a free ebook which looks like an ideal resource and is available in both French and English.
Those familiar with Google Sheets will probably want to know how this is different to the built-in QUERY() function, the answer is this is add-on enables a full SQL. Following the source link gives information on how to access this add-on.
Peter Whitehead is Head of Mathematics in a large Further Education College in London, UK and has started a blog sharing “Google Apps Script code that will make life easier for teachers, educational managers and educational IT support”.
Guest post by Thomas Coudray, Amaury de la Vieuville, and Ahmed Bougacha. Thomas, Amaury, and Ahmed attended the Google Apps Script Hackathon in Paris, and in this post they are sharing their creative use of Google Apps Script to render a 3D scene in a Google Spreadsheet
An old project but hopefully something nice to delve into for the weekend…
