I was not sure where to post this question, which is not a bug in fact.
I am currently working on a business template. This template is composed on 2 apps : 1 Front-end app (public) and 1 backend / admin app (password protected, till I upgrade both to pro apps). Both apps point on the same Google sheet, of course.
This morning, I am afraid that I won’t be able to achieve what I expect. The reason is that I work on a template that is supposed to be duplicated for buyers. Once my template will be completed and ready to be deployed / sold, I will have to duplicate Front-end / backend apps for each buyer.
Let’s suppose I have my first customer, very happy to use my template for his business. I will be very happy too, so I will empress to duplicate first the Front-end app, and I will choose to also duplicate the sheet, of course.
Then, I will need to duplicate the backend app. And there, I will have to choices : keep the same sheet (than the template one) or duplicate the sheet.
I don’t want to again duplicate the sheet. I want to use the sheet duplicated for the Front-end app.
It seems it’s not possible, am I right? Any workaround or way to be able to duplicate 2 apps (front and back) pointing on the same duplicated sheet?
This question is crucial for my project. If it’s not possible to duplicate apps and sheet this way, my project is down…
A workaround could be to have a third option when duplicating apps : select a target gsheet.
So that I would duplicate first the Front-end app with gsheet duplication, the I would duplicate the backend app selecting the newly duplicated gsheet…
Or a notion of “project” : N apps / 1 sheet, with the capability to duplicate a whole project : apps + sheet…
Hi @Mark, have you got pls any idea or procedure on how to duplicate several apps sharing a same sheet, mainly for the use case front app / admin app ?
Just a thought, could you structure your template app with both admin and non admin tabs? You could then make a copy of the template as an admin version where you hide the public tabs, then duplicate the app within your account using the same sheet, hide the admin tabs and then show the public tabs.
That’s an idea yes, I have to try, you’re right. Even if the home screen for the front and the admin apps is not the same. Not sure it will work but I’ll try over the weekend… Thanks @Jeff_Hager
It was of course THE idea to workaround the lack of user session management, but unfortunately it will be a nightmare. Lot of changes to do to distinguish the front and the admin apps. And moreover, lot of risks, too much risks I can not afford on a valid business perspective : the template (aka the reference) would be a mix of both apps, and each deployment would require lot of modifications within the duplicated template itself, changes for the front app, changes for the backend or admin app. Not really ckean way to operate, not secure enough. But that remains the only one way to do, to date.
Honestly I’m between lost and disappointed. I took to much time to take into account this limitation and its impacts. User sessions management should be atop of the priority list for Glide to be used and considered as a valid solution for business purpose and scaled deployment. An app must be able to mix public and authenticated visitors. I am the first to not use an app i never connected before, asking for an account creation.
I have a similar problem to you @Christophe_HK. I need to duplicate both client and admin apps and have them working off the same sheet.
After a bit of fiddling, the solution suggested by @Jeff_Hager works a charm. I created a template app with all of the tabs needed for both the client and admin apps. Then when I need to spin up a new set of apps I just:
copy the template app and copy the sheet
for the client app - hide the admin app tabs
for the admin app - copy the client app, unhide the admin app tabs, hide the client app tabs
is there a particular problem you’re having doing that with your apps? you said there needs to be a lot of changes for the front and admin app when you duplicate - like what? for me, there was no need to change anything apart from hiding/unhiding tabs and changing the sign in method (the template app is public email sign in, the admin app is password).
i do agree though - Glide at the moment is not really set up for cases like ours which involve repeated copying of admin/client apps.
Another issue I think I will face in future is having many apps with the same name in my admin dashboard. It would be great if we could have a name for the app in the dashboard which isn’t necessarily the name of the app as it appears on the user’s phone. that way we as admins can organise and access our apps in the dashboard more easily.
The main problem I see, other than rethink / rebuild the whole apps in one app, is that my template won’t be the apps deployed “in production”. That’s maybe not a big deal, I have to check, but I would have preferred working with freezed template for each app, the public app and the admin app.
Also, what will happen when I will provide updates to deployed customers? I will have either to apply the update on both the public and admin apps, either to deploy again the updated template for each customer : deactivate the current apps, create the new ones, migrate data from the old sheet to the new sheet, activate the new app, and so on. Lot of risks, and lot of time, and definitively not a proper process, it’s more about “housing”… Not sure also what will happen with the authentication data, the Google analytics setup,…
Going to +1 this. @Christophe_HK’s suggestion won’t entirely work for me because the admin and public apps have different row owner settings, which is going to be a nightmare to remember to turn off/on for each individual instance. Hopeful for a workaround eventually
