3 questions regarding the exploitation of Data, my app being based on one of the 100% GLIDE tables
1/ I have a sheet with all events added by all users. If I want to display only the events created by a user or all the events corresponding to a category, impossible to do it on the Glide sheet ?
2/ If I understand correctly, there is no way to generate an automatic export of my Data in Glide to a Google sheet to save the data in real time and to be able to query the database to display certain lines: sort by order alphabetically according to a column for example, etc.
3/ If a User asks to delete the app and therefore delete all their data, I tried the “Delete user data” feature in the settings but it didn’t delete anything at all.
Why do you think this is impossible? There are several ways to filter data in Glide. It all depends on how you want it work, or how secure the data needs to be.
No there is no way to automatically export data to a google sheet, I think if you had an enterprise plan, then you could use an API to retrieve data from glide tables. You would be better off just using a google sheet as your data source.
When you say that you want to query to display certain lines, or change the sort, this means you only want to change the view of the exported data for use in the google sheet, right? Nothing to do with glide at that point?
The “Delete User Data” feature deletes internal data you don’t see, such as the data that glide uses to track a signed in user, or user specific data. Things you won’t see in your tables. Glide will not reach into your actual tables and delete data. There is no way for them to accurately know what should or should not be deleted from your tables. All they delete is the internal data you can’t see.
For switching to a Google Sheet database, given all the time already spent setting up the app, I’m afraid it’s too long and complex to manage now, especially for an MVP. Can the switch be made later without data loss or is it risky?
In fact, to be clearer, I would like to be able to easily display on my Glide sheet all the events created by a user in the database.
Or to be able to access an event created by a user by requesting the name of the event (or the ID of the event) in order to be able to complete certain columns. I saw there was a search engine in the Glide sheet but it only seems to be for searching column headings.
Well noted for deleting data. And here again the same, if a user wanted to delete his account and therefore all the events created, I would like to be able to filter in the Glide table/sheet that would allow me to view them all at once and delete them manually .
It would be a manual process and you would probably have to duplicate all data to a google sheet, recreate all computed columns, and switch all components and screens to use the new tables. It would not be simple or easy.
So to be clear, you are talking about filtering and searching data within the data editor itself instead of through the app, correct? You can do that already. Instead of using the search bar at the top right of the screen (which, like you said, only searches headers), instead press CTRL+F in Windows (or whatever function is similar if you use Apple) and search that way. It will look at the actual data.
Maybe just create a tab that is only viewable by yourself, built on top of a new table that only contains one row (we call those working tables here), then add a column to store a “chosen” email.
Add a choice component pointing to the users table, assuming you store your users’ email in all tables, then point the choice component to the email column.
Add inline lists of all data tables in your app, filter by “user/owner” is the screen’s chosen “email/owner” (in the choice component above).
Use the “delete row” action for all inline lists.
Then you would have a quick filtered tab to do the manual deleting.
I’m going to think about switching to Google Sheet…
So by switching to Google Sheet, it will certainly be easier to program automatic email alerts from the dates entered by my users, isn’t it?
To switch to Google Sheets, do I have to rebuild everything from scratch or can I use the structure and my current settings and just update the data sources for each column?
Potentially yes. You could run automated Google scripts against the data in a google sheet. You can, however, send emails within glide too, as long as there is a user action to trigger the email. I guess it all depends on how you want it to work and how and when you want to send the emails.
You would definitely need to rebuild any computed columns. Also, depending on your app flow from screen to screen, you may or may not have to rebuild screens too. More likely than not, you would have to rebuild a large portion of your app.
→ Thanks @Jeff_Hager
I would like to be able to send emails to users without any action on their part.
My application is a calendar application with reminder emails at predefined frequencies according to the dates entered by users.
If I switch to Google Sheet, from what I understand the app might be slower.
In short, I don’t really know what to do anymore, it’s not easy to make the right choices… I would like to test the service / concept already and see if it attracts users before spending too much time there.
In addition I have just realized by looking at the price offers that the “Starter” plan was limited to 10 private users so that is not much to say!
That’s not quite true. I use Google sheets and my app works just fine. I have other speed issues (not related to google sheets), but that’s my fault and due to the complexity of my data. Glide’s servers sync their own copy of your data to and from the Google sheet. Glide still has a copy of the data, which functions just like a glide table. The app only communicates with the glide server. As far as the app is concerned, it has no idea if the data came from a glide table, google sheet, airtable, or excel. It only sees data coming from glide. The only real slowness is if you manually updated data in the google sheet directly, or if you have formulas that calculate in the google sheet instead of a glide computed column. Then it may take a few seconds to a few minutes for that updated data to sync back to glide. Otherwise you really shouldn’t know the difference because the app doesn’t and only syncs with the glide server, which already has a copy of the data from the google sheet.
Be mindful as well that you don’t have to convert all of your tables to google sheet tables. Just convert the one you need to run the app script against. I would create a new google sheet, build the one table that you need, add a tab to your app that uses that sheet table and rebuild everything that you need. You could set up the new tab so it’s only visible to you. Once the data is migrated and the new tab is built to your liking, then you can switch over to using the new tab built against a google sheet instead of the old tab built against a glide table. I’ve done this many times when I make major changes to my app. I rebuild new screens in my live app, but in a way so only I see the changes, until I’m ready to switch over. Then it’s just a matter of flipping a couple of visibility conditions.
Thank you for all these details Jeff, it will help me a lot for the future.
I’m still taking the time to reflect this weekend and I’ll decide on Monday whether I’m switching part of the data or not.
Thank you very much for the tip of visibility / non visibility of the tab by users, it is indeed a very good technique that I will not forget
@Jeff_Hager
Just to be sure, when creating a new App, if I want both source of Data : Glide Table and Google sheet, I have to select “Google Sheet”, is it right ?
You can, or just add a new table in the data editor and select a google sheet. You don’t need to create a new app. You can mix and match multiple data sources in an app.
