So, a quick background. I make productivity apps (specifically CRM and Project Management). And I love the docs, spreadsheet and presentation products made by Google. Not surprisingly, my products have done a lot of "things" with Google Docs for a long time:
Create "native" (ie. Docs/Spreadsheets/Presentations) documents
Use native documents as templates
Link and modify permissions of any file in Docs/Drive
Upload any arbitrary file
etc.
What I'm confused about is what does Google want me to do on the labels on the buttons in my app. Right now, they all say "Google Docs". You're linking any arbitrary file to a presentation, you're linking it from "Google Docs". You're exporting a spreadsheet of time sheet entries, you're exporting it to "Google Docs". You upload a PDF, you uploaded it to Google Docs. Etc.
What I'm confused about is that, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it is a complete switch over to "Drive." I still see labels on the Google site for Google Docs. So, this is what I think the breakdown is:
If it is a Google "native" file, then it is Docs, else it is Drive. Thus, if your uploading any arbitrary file, that button should refer to drive. But if you are exporting a spreadsheet of data to the Google Spreadsheets format, then that is Docs.
Is this right at all? Does Google have some information somewhere?
Disclaimer: personal opinion
I would use Drive everywhere, except when specifically talking about the collaborative word processor provided in Google Drive, that is the Google Doc.
I would also make sure that all my integrations use the new Google Drive API.
There is reasonably good guidance here: https://developers.google.com/drive/branding
Google Docs and Google Drive are two seperate products from Google. They can work together, but they are still their own individual products and should be called their respective names when being used
Related
Does Google offer a REST or Javascript API for creating and editing slides? I've been able to figure out how to interact with sheets and most of the other services offered as part of Docs/Drive, but haven't had any luck with Slides.
If there is no API, I'd be willing to create files directly myself, but I haven't been able to find any documentation on a Slides file format.
The Google Slides API was launched on 11/9/2016. It provides the ability to read, create, and edit Google Slides presentations.
I was looking into this too. Looks like it's been a requested feature since at least 2012, follow Issue Tracker Link
Right now the best I know of is to automate making a powerpoint file (e.g. use this library for python) and then upload it to google drive where it will autoconvert. Obviously there are many limitations to this strategy, but in a quick test it worked fine for something simple.
I would also love if Google provided an API that allows making slides like the various API calls for microsoft office.
I'm using Talend for several ETL-jobs. Main focus on inserting and updating data defined in local Excel files to Salesforce. Excel and Salesforce are used as Input- and Output-Connections massively.
This works like a charm!
Now instead of Excel I need to use Google Spreadsheets as data inputs/outputs. Just manually download as Excel isn't good enough. Reason: I need a highspeed repeatable process executed thousands of times bi-directional. Uploading/Downloading XLS/CSV is not an option.
As an unfortunate, my researches concluded that there is NO Google spreadsheet connector available. I found this legacy-project which seems to be abandoned: https://code.google.com/p/google-talend-components/ - it is outdated from Talend-side as well as from Google (old API versions).
One other thing I've seen, is that Talend comes with Google Big Data Support: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK6G3sTmwVE - Also Google Big Data might be somehow connectable to Google Spreadsheet - but I wasn't able to figure out how. Is this easy or hard? How to start? What to read?
I need to know if there is any viable approach to read and write data with Talend from and to Google-Spreadsheet.
Alternatively is there an other ETL-tool like Talend which has connectors to Google Spreadsheet AND Salesforce out-of-the-box?
Is there a direct google docs connector in Talend, no. But you can do what you are looking to do if you think of the problem a little differently. It sounds like you need to read and write to spreadsheets then upload/download from google. Lets take each problem separately.
Upload/Download
Google storage. If you need to upload and download files from google Talend has excellent integration with their API. As you mentioned, Talend --> Big Data has components to interact with Google Storage. This type of storage is primary meant as back end storage for an application.
In Talend under Cloud-->Google Drive there are components to upload and download from Google Drive. Google Drive is primarily meant as Chrome app and has direct integration with Google Docs.
Writing to Google Docs
Regarding your need to interact with google docs, you do not need any special components for this. Google docs can utilize csv and Excel formats. If you create and modify your documents in Talend using the standard file interaction components ( delimited, Excel, etc.) you can upload and download these documents using one of the two methods I described above (Google Storage or Drive) depending on what type of storage you are using.
I have a problem in my reporting, i create every day a google doc tracker where all the stack holders in my department update their work progress in it, so i have plenty of spreadsheets to monitor which is a hassle, here is what im trying to do, I'm trying to create a big google doc tracker where i can have an access over date applied in the normal spreadsheets, all what i need is the spreadsheet's URLs that exist in my google drive to be retrieved in this big tracker, with this i'll be able to drive all the needed data from the normal trackers.
PS: I'm not good with google scripts.
You can use the Drive Service to get a list of files with MIME type "application/vnd.google-apps.spreadsheet" using getFilesByType. This returns a FileIterator, which you can use to individually get each Spreadsheet file. From there, just use getUrl() to find the URL's. The FileIterator link has examples of how to loop through all the matching files.
I'm just beginning with programming, but i wanted to know if it's possible to use google docs api to make documents on another site using the google docs text editor?
Is there some sort of way i can put the google docs text editor onto a website so that we can use that for document creation instead of tiny mce?
Basically the functionality needed would be documents created, openly shared, a postable version of it (take html code) -- so it can go on the document display page, and
Of course there would be google login and everything, but i just wanted to see if this would work.
No, that is not possible, sorry.
I want to use Google spreadsheets to store data online so multiple people can enter and maintain data, then publish or export (csv, xls, ods) the sheet for their application. What is the easiest way to process the sheet? If the data can be accessed as a link the updates could be immediately reflected in the client's app.
This article Data Scraping Wikipedia with Google Spreadsheets discusses using Google spreadsheets as an application platform.
It already has features that allow you to share the spreadsheet with multiple editors, as well as the ability to define forms that you can invite people to fill out who's results will be entered into the spreadsheet as a row.
Just in case its still vaguely of interest 5 months later, there is a SQL-like wrapper language for Google Spreadsheets at:
http://gqlx.twyst.co.za
Its very much an alpha release - but maybe its of some use or perhaps the code could give you some ideas.
I think if I am clear on your requirements, you want to store your data online in a Google Spreadsheet where multiple people can access that right? Then you want an app to use that data? Correct me if I am wrong.
It is possible to have Google spreadsheet as a database and the client app can directly access that data through APIs - spreadsheet APIs . If you want a simple link where people can go and update - you can also have a web app using google apps scripting. very simple to use and would solve your purpose too , why to export your data to ods, xls, csv, make your app directly over Google Spreadsheet. Would be maintainable too.