'Server-Side' actions

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1

I am looking for suggestions for the best way to complete some ‘server side’ actions on my app. I am quite sure glide can’t do this as it requires the user be in the app etc.

Essentially, I’m looking for a way to acheive timed actions where the user can trigger the action and then after a set interval they’ll complete, as well a way to trigger cyclical data updates after a set regular period.

I have considered zapier, and having my data held in google sheet tables. However, zapier can get very expensive very quickly and I’d be interested to hear any alternative ideas!

2

I’m in the process of setting some of this type of stuff up right now.
The App I’m working with is purely native Glide Tables, and the client needs some time-based email notifications in the form of daily digests.

The approach I am taking:

  • Created a Google Spreadsheet (this is not connected to the App)
  • Written some Apps Script to query the Glide API, and pull in the tables/data that are needed in order to create the digests (effectively creating a read-only mirror of a subset of the App database)
  • More Apps Script to process the data, create the notifications, and send emails.
  • Time based triggers to both sync the App data and generate the notifications.
3

Do the time based triggers fire even if the user is not in the app then? I was of the impression glide was more ‘client-sided’ and didn’t feature server-side type actions like that?

4

Yes, because the triggers are completely independent from the App, and are fired from the Google Sheet.

Glide will at some point add the ability to trigger time-based actions, but we don’t expect to see that until some time next year.

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5

Ah yes, with you now, the triggers are from google sheets. I’ve not ever used Google’s Apps Script so wasn’t immediately familiar.

6

It’s basically JavaScript with a bunch of classes and methods for interacting with Google Workspace applications. So if you’re familiar with JavaScript, it’s easy enough to pick up.

The same thing could be done with Make or Zapier, but I choose the Google Sheet route as that’s what I’m comfortable with.

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