Use a google sheet as a datasource?

[mathowie]

I was setting this up and it feels like the full postgres db instance is kind of overkill for a few short text phrases in most organizations. So naturally I thought about a single google spreadsheet as a datasource, using javascript to extract info from it.

This would have the following advantages:

• no need to fire up a full db
• easy data entry, most glossaries at companies might already exist in a spreadsheet
• easy updates by anyone on your team, outside of knowing slash command syntax

It carries some disadvantages:

• it's a google product that could vaporize at any time for any reason
• not designed for high traffic (or even medium traffic) uses, but if glossbot is only fired a few times an hour it's likely ok

I got the idea from Darius Kazemi, his site is powered by a Google spreadsheet.

The site: http://tinysubversions.com/projects/
The source data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EDs10O223Hgm7gfFxTWsJpnKMPkGj7VEEZzZB8-wxfA/pubhtml
The source code for it: https://github.com/dariusk/projects

Seems like something that could reduce some installation friction and make for a more user-friendly way to view data in either Slack or Google Drive, plus make for easier data entry by more of a staff, no?

[migurski]

There are two tables in the database: https://github.com/codeforamerica/glossary-bot/blob/master/gloss/models.py

Both could be sheets in one doc. This is interesting. 💯