I’m making a separate apps for admin and user operations, but I want the admin to view all the data that the users inputted into the table on the first app. The Glide Tables seem pretty inflexible since they only use basic column types. Is there another way to do this?
Yes, a second app can point to a google sheet that’s already being used for the original app. You can also use glide tables in multiple apps.
Can you expand on what you mean by glide tables being inflexible? Glide tables and google sheets can do all of the same things as far as basic columns as well as any glide computed columns, except that google sheets may have some more formulas that it can perform, as well as the ability to use any google scripts, and some additional integrations with third party services. On the flip side, google sheets could be more limiting if you have a lot of data since it’s an extra path for data to travel as well as future scalability. Do you have an example of something you are unable to do in a glide table?
When I link a glide table, a pop-up informs me that “only basic columns will be available to use in your app. Computed columns will not appear in your linked table.”
How do I connect a pre-existing google sheet to another app?
Yes, it’s true that if you use an existing glide table in another app, that the computed columns will not come across. Only the basic columns will come across because that’s where the actual data resides.
Computed columns are computed in real time on a user’s device, so they don’t really contain actual data. I’m guessing it’s some sort of technical limitation (possibly due to computed columns being directly connected to a specific app) that prevents computed columns from coming across, but that doesn’t stop you from the recreating the computed columns you need.
I’ll assume that your user app is the original app and the admin app is the new one. I’m not sure how you created the second app. :
- One option is to duplicate the original. The duplicate process gives you an option to use the same original table/sheet, or create a separate duplicate of the table/sheet. In your case you would use the same original table/sheet for the duplicated app. That process will in fact keep all of the computed columns in the database regardless if it’s a glide table or google sheet.
- The other option is if you already have the admin app created, you can redirect it to use a different google sheet. I’ve never used that process and you have to be careful if the data doesn’t exactly line up. I do think it could be possible that changing the google sheet on an existing app could cause corruption of existing components and computed columns if the data doesn’t exactly line up. I would personally avoid that method unless you had no other option. Changing to a different google sheet, will not cause computed columns to come across either, since the second app would have no knowledge of the first app or any computed columns that were created in that first app. Existing Glide table’s however can be added to an existing app as needed, but you will have to recreate any computed columns.
The popup you see is just telling you that computed columns won’t come across into the new app. It does not mean that you can’t create and use them. Depending on where you are at with the second app, I can give you a recommendation of what I think is the best option to move forward.
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Thank you for your help! The user app is the original and I can recreate the admin app at this point if I need to. Your suggestions were helpful, but I am also wanting the admin info to update as users change the data in that table. If the admin app is created from a copy, it wouldn’t update, correct?
The data will update in both apps…as long as you select the option to ‘keep the same sheet’ when duplicating the app.
The only thing that wouldn’t update in the duplicated app, is obviously any design changes, as well as any new computed columns that are created after you create the duplicate.
Oh ok awesome! Thank you - I really overlooked that!
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To be honest, creating a new app with Glide Tables only is a trap, and shouldn’t even be an option - or at least come with a proper warning. You will find very quickly that you’ve limited yourself and may have to start over. Once you’re past the initial learning and have built a toy, you can’t take it further to make a product “for business”, which is Glide’s direction. As soon as you want to add a separate admin app, or a dashboard, or make copies you’re screwed.
That’s a fair point. Most of my recent apps are Glide Table only apps, because at this point I use next to no google sheet logic and can do pretty much whatever I need in a glide table. But to be on the safe side, a new app can still be created against a google sheet so it’s available if you ever need it in the future, while most other things could still be done with glide tables. It just comes down what you think your future needs may be, like logic for formulas that are only available in google sheets, or scripting, or any third part integrations. There’s also the consideration of future scalability or any data bottlenecks to sync data between glide and google. In that case, glide table begins to shine.
In my opinion, I would agree that creating an app that’s attached to a google sheet is the safest, even if you don’t use it. You still have the opportunity to access and use the google sheet if needed. I would still be hesitant to rely on a lot of google sheet logic if it can be avoided. Glide tables will always be faster and more scalable.
It’s a problem for new users, (which included me a few months ago), as you don’t know what you don’t know. You can invest several hours learning and building to then crash, which is completely antithetical to the idea of the ease of use of Glide. Once you’ve built a few apps it becomes a non-issue, but do you (Glide) really want new users hitting this wall when a simple sign at the beginning could have prevented the crash? 
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Like Jeff suggested, when I create an app, I always create it against a Google Sheet that I don’t use. The Google Sheet is there just in case.
What huge hurdles or crashes are you referring to? Could you give examples?
Yeah, in the same sense that you can connect a google sheet based app to another google sheet, I wish you could just connect a glide table based app to a google sheet.
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Right, but you know that NOW… when you’re a new Glide user and you see this, (pic below), you have no idea that the selection on the right could be a trap. I thought I gave some very obvious examples for experienced Gliders. 
Last week I built a dashboard from my Google Sheet in Google Data Studio so that I can look at my Glide App metrics on my desktop, and email the report easily etc. This would not have been practical with a Glide Table - don’t tell me that it could have been done with 12 different Zaps 
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