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Google Makes Apps Script Available To All
theodp writes "Formerly only available to Apps Users, Google has made Apps Script available to everyone (sample script), including you Google Docs low-lifers. Apps Script lets you automate actions across spreadsheets, sites, calendars, and other Google services. No spamming, kids!"
In my opinion, this is going to make google's spreadsheet application a viable alternative to some uses of excel. God knows Apps Script is easier to use than excel macros.
Don't get me wrong, there are some things that excel will always be used for, but google spreadsheets have so far been just useless enough without outside manipulation that most people have turned the option down.
When I first saw the summary, I thought, "Apps script lets me automate tasks across multiple sites?! Finally!" Then I read the next few words, and it seems to be only for Google services. Oh well, better luck next time.
Palm trees and 8
Wow, this is really fantastic. Now Google's web apps are almost comparable to The Microsoft Office for Windows 3.0, from 1992, which had VBA scripting support, in addition to COM interoperability. There are only 20 more years of catching up to do!
/. ....well you get the idea
and thank you google
ya know given the corporate climate of the usa i'll say it they are for there size a dare i say it sometimes nicer company
even if they go and accuse the chinese govt of hacking when the times shows there are tons of chinese hackers for hire that
Fantastic, Google. You've reinvented AJAX.
" including you Google Docs low-lifers."
Fuck you theodp.
Method: MakeGoogleSpreadsheetUseful
Error: unknown Method!
Check out my novel.
...but am I the only person here who senses an innate danger to entrusting one's data to a for-profit entity? I simply cannot fathom a scenario in which I would create a business-critical or personal spreadsheet to be stored on a Google server. Google's business is data mining, plain and simple. They certainly aren't offering all of these services out of the goodness of their corporate heart (if there is such a thing). Therefore, there must be some deeper motives at play. Yet, there are those who run around breathlessly extolling every move that Google makes.
Who are these people who would entrust every detail of their business and personal life to a for-profit company? I would have thought the /. crowd, of all groups, would be asking the difficult questions.
I find the relative silence concerning these issues both disconcerting and scary.
When you tie yourself to Microsoft Office you have physical possession of the software and they can't change it from under you. When you buy a copy of Microsoft Office and use it to script your business and finance operations, you can count on it continuing to work for 10 years, no question, as long as you can keep the hardware running, and then as long as you can run the OS in a VM.
With Google, they can change the software and scripting interfaces right under your nose and there's nothing you can do about. It's not even vendor lock-in, it's customer SOL, because unless you are willing and able to update your solution to use the new interface, that changes every 6 months or a year, knowing Google, you are SOL.
And the problem is largest for the customers who are most likely to want to take advantage of this: home and small businesses. They're the ones who are least able to take on 3 months of development on short notice to update their scripts to Google App Script x.x++. That will put a home or small business under.
Advance warning: do not allow another company to control your software upgrade cycle for critical business infrastructure, or they will control you.
What about Google writing App Script interpreter for Excel? Would that be helpful for migrating away from Excel to Apps?