pushData

The best way to explain what pushData does is by the words of the maker of original pushData , Andrew Stillman.

Here it is a nice picture explaining it:

 

Andrew has been my mentor on all the projects I did this summer and a very good and thorough teacher.

pushData was his idea and out there is a published version, the difference between the previous version and this is basically that here the user gets a graphical interface, this version uses ScriptDb and as suggested by users of the previous version there is a real time transfer option included.

 

How it looks

All parts of the look are not final, but here it is.

After installing the app the onOpen handler will add an additional menu to your spreadsheet:

The above entries will do:

Start pushData – will show the user interface where you can define new processes, edit/delete existing processes do an immediate data push (overriding the time interval) and see all processes defined

About pushData - will display the picture first shown in this post

Update database now – will check for changes in your source sheets and update the database accordingly

Clear all data and triggers – will delete whatever you and the script made and give you a fresh start

Package push procedures for others to copy – will generate Google Apps Script code for you that you can share. Say you have a great system of processes and want to share it with someone, this is what you need.

Import copy procedures – will use the code generated by the function above to initialize the processes. NOTE: the spreadsheet names have to bee the same as from the original user

Manage user tracker settings – it is great to allow user tracking, the tracking will not allow anyone to steal the users identity but will help New Vision.

 

Start Screen

The grid will provide data on any active processes, Push all data now button will provide an immediate push and New Push Procedure will get the user to the interface for defining a new procedure.

 

The starting point of creating a new procedure is to pick the source spreadsheet, afterwards the app will allow for picking the source sheet. After the source sheet has been picked the app will provide a grid with an overview of the first 5 rows in the source sheet.

 

The next step is to chose the headers to be pushed. The app provides a set of list boxes, every box will contain all the headers from the source sheet. The order in which the headers are picked is the order they will appear in the destination sheet.

After the headers have been picked the user is prompted to choose the destination spreadsheet and sheet. It will also allow for picking the starting point for the data to be written. A range check will be done, if there is a possibility for overwriting data in the destination sheet the user will get a warning. A grid will provide a overview of data currently in the destination sheet.

 

Finally the user will pick the push interval, options go from 1 to 24 hours for all processes, but will allow real time pushing for one process.

After hitting the finish button the app will save the source sheet to ScriptDb, and preform the first data push taking the user back to the start screen,

 

pushData is most definitely the best app I produced this summer of several reasons. On of the main is that Andrew took a very active role in developing this.

Additionally the previous version of pushData has received some feedback which are implemented in the new version.

 

Cheers