Two years ago, our team began building custom software to automate the multi-stage and highly manual team staffing process. Building internal software has allowed the same-size Staffing Operations Team (3 members!) to enjoy a 60x reduction in time spent staffing each role.
The Apps Script ecosystem has emerged as the most critical component in our toolkit for building this internal software, due to its versatility and ease of deployment. We want to share how one piece of the staffing process has evolved to become more powerful over time thanks to Apps Script. Ultimately, we hope that sharing this journey enables all types of teams to build their own tools and unlock new possibilities.
On the G Suite YouTube channel you’ll find a new playlist for “why organizations build with Google Apps Script” which contains contributions from Cleo Espiritu, Ivan Kutil, Niek Waarbroek and myself. Hopefully these clips are useful in encouraging users to look at Google Apps Script as a powerful and agile development solution.
In this episode of Sheets to Apps, we will show you how to track your work time on projects via Google Calendar. More importantly, he’ll be showing you how you can sync Calendar events to Google Sheets, creating a spreadsheet that shows you the total time spent on your projects.
Historically, Apps Script has been powered by Mozilla’s Rhino JavaScript interpreter. While Rhino provided a convenient way for Apps Script to execute developer scripts, it also tied Apps Script to a specific JavaScript version (ES5). Apps Script developers can’t use more modern JavaScript syntax and features in scripts using the Rhino runtime.
To address this concern, Apps Script is now supported by the V8 runtime that powers Chrome and Node.js. You can migrate existing scripts to V8 in order to take advantage of the modern JavaScript syntax and features.
This page describes the new features enabled by V8 and how you can enable V8 for use in your scripts. Migrating scripts to V8 describes steps for migrating existing scripts to use the V8 runtime.
Developers have been waiting a while for the new Google Apps Script runtime, since 2018 in fact, but it’s now here. The new runtime not only allows developers to use modern JavaScript syntax but when announced in 2018 also comes with a a tenfold (x10) faster execution. Follow the link to the developer docs for the full migration guide.
G Suite Admins have started to be notified that App Maker will be shutdown on January 19, 2021. In the turndown notification Google cited ‘low usage’ as the reason for the shutdown. This news comes shortly after the announcement of Google acquisition of no code platform AppSheet and AppSheet is identified as one of the alternative platforms:
Due to the specific source code used for App Maker, you can’t directly migrate your apps to another platform. Depending on your use case, we recommend these alternative tools:
If you use App Maker to automate business processes: Use AppSheet, a new addition to our app development portfolio that has capabilities similar to App Maker. App Maker data is stored in Cloud SQL, and App Sheet supports Cloud SQL databases. This allows you to build an application on the existing database tied to your App Maker app.
If you use App Maker to develop apps: Use App Engine to build and deploy applications on a fully managed platform. App Maker data is stored in Cloud SQL, allowing you to build an App Engine application on the existing Cloud SQL database tied to your App Maker app.
If you use App Maker for data collection: Use Google Forms, which has many new features that were not available when App Maker launched.
Google included the following schedule for turndown:
Today, existing apps continue to work. Though App Maker is no longer under active development, the service will continue to be maintained.
Starting April 15, 2020, you will no longer be able to create new App Maker apps. You will still be able to edit and deploy existing apps.
Starting January 19, 2021, App Maker apps will stop working and you will no longer have access to them. App Maker data stored in Cloud SQL will remain unchanged and continue to follow the policies established by your Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account.
Whether you are in sales, marketing, education, project management, data analysis, etc., it’s common for people to want to send emails to multiple recipients with information that is customized to each. In this episode, learn about Martin Hawksey’s mail merge solution, which helps anyone send emails with customized content from a Google spreadsheet, and Gmail.
See the YouTube description for all the links you need.
Image credit: Google – Take action without leaving G Suite
Last year we announced the beta of G Suite Add-ons, a new cross-suite platform that connects G Suite to your favorite workplace apps. Beginning today, G Suite Add-ons will begin rolling out to all users.
Whilst the Add-on ecosystem is being extended making them generally available to end users developers will have to wait until you can start developing new add-ons for G Suite:
Organizations can also build their own add-ons using Apps Script. Note that the developer feature will be fully available in early February
Everyone has their own superpowers. Whether you’re an Data Analyst, Data Scientist, Task Automater, or Programmer, you can use G Suite to support these talents. In this video, we’ll go over what tools you can use to support these different talents.
