How else can I build this?

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1

I have built this app to help me build different camera packages. Once the camera package is built I create a PDF with some other contact information and send it to a rental house for them to create a quote for me.

Right now it is something that is only used by me. It works OK, but there are just too many times I’m having to jump into the backend of my google sheet to resolve things.

How it works is on the Project Info tab you type in some important info.

Then go to the Cameras tab and use the check box to select which Camera you’d like on your order. If you want multiple you click into the item and type a quantity.

You do the same thing on the Lenses and AKS page, using the checkboxes to select which items you’d like on your order.

Then I go back to the project info tab and I click the Check Order button, this takes me to a page of the google sheet.

On that google sheet page, I have some formulas that coagulate all of the items that were checked off into a single sheet. From there I can look at the final order, create a PDF, and then attach it to my email to the rental house.

Here is one page of what the final product might look like.

Camera Package Builder - Glide - Camera Package Builder
Camera Package Builder - Glide - Camera Package Builder612×792 48.8 KB

(I removed some of the personal information that would usually be displayed.)

The issue with this is that I have to depend on having a google sheet that is then created into a PDF, it does not work for multiple users. I would have to make this a template and set it up for each user. The act of creating and editing packages is really clunky too, but I feel like I should be able to resolve that on my own. I think if I mostly had a better way to setup the app where I can select a bunch of different packages to be combined together in one email, maybe using Zapier? I would love to be able to save the package for each project too and be able to recall them.

If you have an app that is similar I’d love to see how you did it. It feels like a pretty common task.

And no I can’t just send them a link to the app, especially if they would have to sign in.

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simply record each action in a separate row, and have google sheet pick up the last entry and trigger a script to create the PDF

sample:

I see Glide is not rendering his own favicons… hmmm

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For generating PDFs, my go-to solution is PDFMonkey, so I imagine you can work with something like this. I’m writing this with the thinking that all can be built in Glide Tables instead of Google Sheets.

  • Build the “Project info” tab on top of a table with only 1 row.

  • Have a “Create new order” button to start a new order for users. This will set a unique ID to an “ID” column. This is needed because users are not logged in for your app.

  • Let them check the boxes using a user-specific column. You can keep the current structure of multiple tabs, but I feel like you can build this into a multi-step custom form after users click “Create new order”.

  • Create a new template in PDFMonkey. Add variables where needed (job, prep, start, end, return, etc., the quantity & item part will likely be passed as line items or constructed in HTML form right in Glide).

  • When users have finished checking the boxes, add a button to send all the variables needed to Make/Zapier, and those variables will then be used to generate a new PDF in PDFMonkey.

  • You can then send that PDF to the user’s email.

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4

Going to give this a shot!! I have really been trying to do most of my work in glide and not using sheets for anything, so love this approach.

If I do want users to be able to sign into my app, would this change the approach much? I assume I would have multiple rows on my Project Info page and then just filter by signed in email?

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No, if you make anything user-specific then you won’t need to rebuild things when you change it to a public with sign-in approach. Anything here including text entries and checkboxes.

The only difference is that if a signed-in user goes half-way in and close their app then their data will be saved when they come back. An anonymous user’s data will be cleared everytime they close their app.

6

Ok thanks.

I got it up and working in a few hours this morning. It needs a bit more work, but managed to get the core functionality in there and it’s so much better than what I had before and much more flexible. Appreciate the help!

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