Change Linked Spreadsheet of App

Good point, I’m sure that is one of the major reasons for not having this option. If the format isn’t exact it would end up being a mess. They could do a check and not allow if it isn’t an exact match-up. Just run through the sheet names, order and column headers I would think comparing it to the one that is already linked.

I really apreciate that. I think it would bring security to develop apps and deliver that to another person. Other option it could show is “copy all apps from this same sheet”. And if you have turned your app a copyable app, it would show the same option but of this way “copy all copyables apps from this same sheet.”

As long as the “pick a sheet” feature is not available, we won’t be able to duplicate apps pointing on the same sheet (front public app and admin whitelisted app). And this is a showstopper for me, I can’t use Glide for my business and so need urgently to look after another framework to do so. Sh*t!..

This feature is a must!
here is another use case : I have a Glide App that use a google sheet, I accidentally deleted the google sheet definitely (from the drive folder and from the trash).
So the Glide App is stuck with the google sheet linked to the app but can’t load the data. I tried creating a new google sheet with the same name at the same drive folder but it’s not working. Copying the Glide App doesn’t help neither since the sheet is gone.
I think the ability to change the linked sheet will be a good add with a disclaimer that the app may broke because the sheet model is not the same.

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I completely agree! I was looking for this feature and couldn’t find it so I came to the community. I also would like this feature!!

I create Glide Apps for our annual conferences! I want to be able to change the app using the same URL each year, but save the past spreadsheet. The only “way around it” I can think of is to duplicate the spreadsheet and label it with 2019 to save the data then begin changing the spreadsheet which was already connected to the app for 2020.

Sorry, I don’t understand. You can clearly duplicate an app and keep the same sheet to make an admin app.

You can duplicate the app and copy the sheet, and change the new app to have the same URL as before.

Here’s the difficulty:

Original app // sheet (1)
Admin app // sheet (1)

Copy both original and admin app (along with copying the sheet), and you get

Copy of original app // copy of sheet (2)
Copy of admin app // 2nd copy of sheet (3)

You can’t have the 2 apps linked to the same sheet except for the original apps/original sheet
A person would have to re-make one of their apps, as they both won’t copy over onto the same sheet.

Is this correct? Unless there’s been something made to accomodate this already…

Duplicating 2 apps and having them point to the same new sheet is not possible at this. Also, changing the sheet on an existing app is not possible. I’m not a big advocate of having separate apps for Admin and Users. I realize that it may be necessary in some situations, but more and more features are allowing for the ability to create Admin sections or Admin edit rights to an app intended for Users. I think it comes down to there being a lot of risk if you change an entire spreadsheet if something doesn’t match exactly. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be a goal at some point, but for now it’s a limitation.

I would offer the suggestion of creating a template of one app with both the Admin and User tabs, When duplicating, you would first duplicate with a new sheet. Then duplicate the new app with the same sheet. Then hide/remove tabs/components to make each one function as an Admin or User app.

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Yes, it’s correct. It’s also a problem for me, but there’s a workaround : build a template of your app, containing both the original and admin tabs and data. This template will be your master.

When you need to deploy :

  • duplicate your master template (copy the sheet).
  • duplicate your new template Instance keeping the same sheet.
  • modify the first duplicate keeping only the original app’ stuff. It will be your original app.
  • modify the second duplicate keeping only the admin stuff. It will be your admin app.

Any change or new feature will be brought to your master template.

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I’m an advocate of a single app for both (or more) sets of users, but that’s actually a great solution at the moment.

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I just want to be clear. At this time there is no way to duplicate (or create a template) for 2 Apps tied to the same sheet, correct? So I have a student (team) testing App and an Instructor App. The Instructor App allows the teacher to enter the answer key (and other parameters of the test) along with the emails of students on their respective teams for using the student team test App. The Instructor app also allows the admin to monitor the student teams and see their results.
Are you saying the only way to make this work, is to recreate all of tabs in the Instructor App (6) in the student team testing App; creating a single App? Then duplicate the app with a new spreadsheet. Then duplicate the second app keeping the same spreadsheet and in one app turn on the student tabs and in the other turn on the instructor tabs? I need to do this for 3 classes and wish to share the apps with other instructors. Is there a better way?

No, there is no way to duplicate 2 apps that point to the same sheet and have them both point to the same duplicated sheet. You would have to recreate at least one of the apps, or like I posted earlier in this thread, create the Admin/Student functionality in both apps so you can duplicate it with a new sheet, and duplicate it again with the same sheet and then manually hide admin only and student only tabs/components in their respective apps.

An alternative is to build the admin and student functionality into one app, which it looks like you have explored in a different post from today.

One question I have is, why build separate apps for each class when you could really do the same thing with a single or double (admin/student) apps and only show whats relevant to that instructor/student? i understand if you are sharing a template with others, or you have a different client, but it sounds like you would be administering all of this withing the same school.

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This project has come a long way. Originally, for this project I created a separate app for each team. It worked but I had a few errors in some of my formulas and it was impossible to correct them all before the teams finished their test. One team just wrote down their answers and emailed them to me.

Then I figured out that instead each team having their own app they could each have their own answer sheet. This is because I’m building in immediate feedback. Where teams are told if their answer is correct or not then they get to try it again until they get it right or have tried every choice. I also wanted make sure they only saw their own teams answers and scores. I finally got that perfected. By duplicating a separate App per class It keeps things cleaner (teams are coded 1-6).

Also for each test I have to enter the answer key for that test along with the number of answer choices for each item along with the grade weights (each class sets their own). I created the Instructor app with others in mind. I didn’t want them to have to edit the spreadsheet so the instructor app lets them enter the number of items, the key, the number answer choices, the grade weights and the emails for the team members (which controls which answer sheet they see and interact with). I also gave the instructor a page where they could see all the teams scores and another where they could check on the teams and monitor their progress.

So the instructor app has 6 tabs and the student team app has two (one is just directions). The student team tab has 5 buttons for each team so that’s 30 buttons in all. I’ll have to duplicate that in the instructor app (I wish I could just copy and paste). Then figure how to hide all of the instructor tabs based on admin login.

See, that’s why I love this group (and this service). After reading the responses from Jeff_Hager; taking notes and going back to my desired functions list, I used Sidney Kunst’s Account tab method to create my Instructor access. In that tab I added the buttons that allowed me to update the test. I took 45 min. Now my app is complete and I can make it a template. Time for me to go Pro account.

Thanks again, Jeff and Sydney.

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Awesome! Glad you got it figured out!

I need this feature today! (Duplicate app, Select new sheet)

You can do it today.

mmm yes, I think we can close this one :slightly_smiling_face:

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