This is a write-up on some additional thoughts to go along with the video.
In regards to the single app example, one idea I had is to build a dynamic list of admin emails. Instead of adding a static column in the sheet with an admin email address, I have two ideas for a dynamic value instead.
- This first idea is to have an admin sheet that lists all of the admin email addresses. You could create a Single Value column on the data sheet which will obtain the email address of a single admin email. This can be used for per user filtering.
- The second idea is to again have an admin sheet, but with 2 columns. One for the email address’s of multiple administrators and another column that will always have a static value of ‘Admin’ in all rows. In the data sheet, first create a template column that places the static value ‘Admin’ on all rows. Using the template column, create a relation column to link the Admin template column value to the Admin column in the Administrators sheet. Now create a Lookup column which will pull back an array of administrator emails from the Administrators sheet. This will allow you to use your existing idea, but the user can establish a list of multiple administrators that have special visibility access.
I also have the idea of a separate Admin Tab…In my app I have a Settings tab which is available to all users.
When you open that settings tab, I have a relation component and an inline list components (This could probably be structured better now that we have visibility and link to screen buttons, but I did this a year ago and haven’t really modified it much with the new features). The Admin settings only shows for the users that have the Admin relation value set.
Instead of explaining how I did it (which is old and convoluted), what I would suggest is possibly some placeholder sheet and create a tab based on that sheet. In the sheet would be a row with a value of ‘Admin’. You can use the methods in the beginning of this post to then obtain a list of administrators. The placeholder sheet would be used for a tab in detail style layout and filtered by signed in user. I think the hamburger menu is a good place for this tab. If the signed in user is not an administrator, then the tab should show as empty. In that tab you could place various administrator only components and lists. Here I think you could apply a similar concept to the Advanced Finstagram (FInstagram Profiles (Bug?)) example where only Admins have access to an editable sheet and on the user side, they see a copied version of the sheet that is used for view only.
This is where I think things get complicated and I think it’s highly dependent on how each and every app is set up. Some people might not like the idea of a separate tab to do admin type functions or they might not like the idea of duplicating data to have and editable version and a view only version. It’s an idea to though, to give people some ideas.