Group items tagged

from a Spreadsheet

from a Site

As a stand-alone servlet

Deciding Whether to Run a Script from a Spreadsheet or as a Service

The built-in code autocomplete functionality in the editor requires you to type the trailing period that follows app.

Plan the script. What tasks should the script accomplish?

Write down the specific information you want to display to or collect from your users.

Draw the user interface

Determine what the script and interface should do in response to any user input.

Determine the conditions for exiting the script.

you need a UiApp application object to contain the user interface elements. After you create the UiApp application object, you can add buttons, dialog boxes, panels, and other elements to the UiApp application object.

The general syntax for these operations is as follows:

To create a UiApp application object, use the syntax var your_application_object_name = UiApp.createApplication();

To create a user interface element and associate it with your UiApp application object, use the syntax var your_ui_element_name= your_application_object_name.createElement_Name();.

To add one user interface element to another

use the syntax your_ui_element_name1.add(your_ui_element_name2);

a button with the text Press Me on it:

creates a vertical panel.

other kinds of panels

pop-up panels, stack panels, focus panels, form panels, and so on.

code for displaying your button on the panel:

add the panel to the application:

nstruct Google Apps Script to display the interface elements:

You can create the user interface elements in any order.

the display order

Creating the elements and adding them to your application are separate steps requiring separate instructions.

a short script that does nothing but display a panel with a button on it.

You can chain together setter methods

sets its title

set the size of the object:

how to use Grid objects and the setWidget method to create a more complex layout and also how to create text boxes and label them.

To make a user interface useful, you need the ability to update a Spreadsheet with information a user enters from the interface.

a short script that responds to an action in the interface by updating the Spreadsheet.

looping structure in the script to keep the panel displayed and active

Server-side means that the actions are performed by a server

same script, with functions added that enable the form to be used multiple times before a user chooses to exit.

script collects some information from text fields on a panel and writes that information into the Spreadsheet.

You can make a script's user interface available to users from inside a Spreadsheet or Site or by running it separately as a service.

how to make the user interface as a service.

A script that provides a stand-alone user interface must invoke the doGet(e) function or the doPost(e) function for an HTML form submit.

A script that provides the user interface from the Spreadsheet invokes doc.show(app).

The doGet(e) function takes the argument e, passing in the arguments for the user interface, including the user name of the person invoking the script.

After you write the script, you publish it as a service. During the publishing process, you define who has access to the script.

In a Google Apps domain, you can publish the script so that only you have access or so that everyone in the domain has access.

In a Google consumer account, you can publish the script so that only you have access or so that everyone in the world has access.

Updating a Spreadsheet from the User Interface, the user interface is displayed from the Spreadsheet where the script is stored. The following code defines how the user interface is displayed:

Here's the skeleton code for displaying a user interface as a stand-alone service:

some aspects of the two ways to display a user interface.

provide greater user value

For numerous reasons the services provided by the commercial companies do not adequately meet the creative, social, political, and financial needs of the 99%

allows self-selected individuals to coalesce into powerful workgroups, forums, and movements.

With the PeerPoint approach, each user will own her own inexpensive internet appliance and all the data and content she creates

If a FreedomBox were used as a starting platform, the PeerPoint application package would be added on top of the FreedomBox security stack.

The common requirements for each PeerPoint app are: world class, best-of-breed open source p2p architecture consistent, granular, user-customizable security management and identity protection integrated with other apps in the suite via a common distributed database and/or “data bus” architecture. consistent, user-customizable large, medium, and small-screen (mobile device) user interfaces ability to interface with its corresponding major-market-share service (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) GPS enabled

First tier applications: distributed database social networking  (comparison of distributed social network applications) trust/reputation metrics crowdsourcing: content collaboration & management  (wiki, Google Docs, or better) project management/workflow data visualization (data sets, projects, networks, etc.) user-customizable complementary currency and barter exchange (Community Forge or better) crowd funding (http://www.quora.com/Is-there-an-open-source-crowdfunding-platform) voting (LiquidFeedback or better) universal search across all PeerPoint data/content and world wide web content

run directly on Google servers in order to provide direct access to the products they control.

can also use Google Apps Script from Google Sites

Google Apps Script Template Gallery

Google Apps Script Blog

guide contains the information you need to use Google Apps Script, a server-side scripting language, based on JavaScript, that runs on Google's servers alongside Google Apps

enable varying degrees of interactivity among the applications

easy enough to use that you don't have to be a programmer to create scripts.

use it to automate complex tasks within Google Apps

You don't have to be a programmer to use Google Apps Script

A script is a series of instructions you write in a computer language to accomplish a particular task. You type in the instructions and save them as a script. The script runs only under circumstances you define.

The Google Apps Script API provides a set of objects. You can use these objects and their associates methods to access Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Finance, and other Google applications.

To run a script, you must first add the script to a Google Spreadsheet or Google Site using the Script Editor.

You can retrieve information from a wide selection of Google Apps and Services and from external sources, including web pages and XML sources. You can use Google Apps Script to create email, spreadsheets, pages on Google Sites, and files in the Google Docs Document List.

The instructions in a script are grouped into functions.

objects

methods

for such tasks

Create pages on a Google Site

Customize a Spreadsheet

Send email based on information in a Spreadsheet

You can manipulate

numeric

financial

string

an XML document

controlling data in the following applications

Spreadsheets

Google Document List

Contacts

Calendar

Sites

Google Maps

create and display interactive user interface elements

interact with relational database management systems

create folders, subfolders, and files in the Google Docs document list

access to user, session, and browser information

access to web services

extract data from XML documents and then manipulate that data

obtain translations of text from one language to another

send email

UrlFetch services

encode and decode strings and format dates

store properties on a per-script and per-user basis

create, delete and update contact information for individuals and for groups in Google Contacts

observation

A post-peak world will depend on detailed observation and good design rather than energy-intensive solutions.

not rely on weather forecasts but to learn to read the clouds,

“instead of researching the market, be the market”

businesses should be out there observing.

larger businesses tend to rely more on surveys and on second-hand information.

direct contact with customers.

move our idea of ‘capital’ from what we have in the bank, to the resources we have around us

not running a business on a constant high speed cash throughput with little or no capital reserves

lack of resilience in the just-in-time supply approach

a shift to storages of parts and materials, as well as the need to financially not be so dependent on debt financing

work slower with more financial reserves and take less risks, not building beyond what the company’s financial resources can support.

either to not borrow any money at all, or to borrow so much money that you can’t fail, being bigger than the people you borrow money from, so they have a vested interest in your succeeding!

energy efficient

long term

Looking to make buildings as autonomous as possible in a world entering energy descent is critical

see things that are flowing past and through the business that others don’t see as being a resource and having no monetary value as being valuable.

any intervention we make in a system, any changes we make or elements we introduce ought to be productive

This is instinctive to businesses

Obtain a Yield, in this context, is out of balance

much of business

have taken this to extremes

A well-designed system using permaculture principles should be able to self-regulate, and require the minimum of intervention and maintenance, like a woodland ecosystem, which requires no weeding, fertiliser or pest control.

moving from “we’re just obeying the law” to being proactive, acting before you get hit over the head with regulation and other vulnerabilities.

be able to put a foot on the break, not just going hell for leather on profit maximisation.

apply applied restraint, avoiding excessive, overfast growth that hasn’t been consolidated

looking for the negative feedbacks, from customers and from the environment in general

We need to increase the tightness of feedbacks.

Where nature can perform particular functions

we should utilise these attributes, rather than thinking we can replace them

Where nature can take some work off our hands we should let it.

a shift towards renewable resources

The emerging opportunities for businesses are things that are renewable. Renewable energy sources are the ones that will ensure a business’s stability in the long run. We can also broaden the concept of renewable resources to include things like goodwill and trust, things which a business can rebuild with good husbandry. Most business doesn’t just depend on law and competition, trust is at the heart of much business and it is very much a renewable resource.

The concept of waste is essentially a reflection of poor design. Every output from one system could become the input to another system. We need to think cyclically rather than in linear systems.

looking at our work from a range of perspectives

wider context

keep a clearer sense of the wider canvas on which we are painting, and the forces that affect what we are doing.

being strategic is important too

ask how is what we are doing part of a bigger picture, the move away from globalisation and towards the local, taking steps back from the everyday.

This can be done firstly by allowing space for Devil’s advocates, for black sheep, for hearing the voices of those outside of the dominant culture of the organisation and secondly by looking from a holistic perspective of how things interconnect, rather than just relying on experts who are embedded in detail. It emphasises the need to value the generalist, to give value to holistic thinkers.

allowing people to imagine different possibilities.

scenario planning

Permaculture has been described as the science of maximising beneficial relationships.

Solutions are to be found in integrated holistic solutions rather than increased specialisation and compartmentalisation

The challenge here is to move to seeing business as being part of the geographical community, as being rooted in place, rather than just part of a globalised community. At the moment for many larger businesses, the local is something one pays lip-service to as a source of good PR, something one is passing through, rather than actually being an integral part of the community.

This is a profound structural challenge for large organisations. Part of the resilience of the organisation comes from the degree of lateral integration. Resilience is in all solutions, it is the characteristic of ecological systems. If we apply these principles, resilience is one of the emergent properties

the notion that big is best needs to be challenged

new opportunities are very hard to understand and exploit from a macro level perspective, and are much better done from small scale perspective. It is here that the idea of appropriateness of scale becomes key.

more diverse systems have much more inbuilt resilience

have a diversity of small businesses, local currencies, food sources, energy sources and so on than if they are just dependent on centralised systems, globalisation’s version of monoculture.

not having all your eggs in one basket.

In the short term this kind of diversification could reduce profits, but in the longer term it will be more secure

this is about the reverse of specialisation, about having a mixed portfolio, and presents a big culture change for businesses.

it is a good strategy for business to keep a diverse portfolio of what sustains the business, keep some things that appear to be peripheral. They may not at this stage appear to be a serious part of how the business is run, but in this new world they will increasingly become so

‘edge’

the point where two ecosystems meet is often more productive than either of those systems on their own.

overlap systems where possible so as to maximise their potential.

recognising that innovation doesn’t come from the centre but from fringe thinkers.

giving status to the marginal

It is important that the business has as many fingers in as many pies as possible, as many interfaces, and recognises that every person working for the business represents it in the community.

Natural systems are constantly in flux, evolving and growing.

Remaining observant of the changes around you, and not fixing onto the idea that anything around you is fixed or permanent will help too.

be flexible, lean and adaptable

A healthy approach is to start with no complete plan, to allow the process to be emergent. This is not a time when we can work to a rigid plan as conditions will change so fast. Organisations will need to stay on their toes, without rigid management.

“The biggest challenge is to cope with the dynamic and unpredictable environment of service robots,” Fischer said. “Compared to industrial robots, the environment is totally undefined

hardware hacking community

overviews of Open Hardware can be found on Make Magazine’s Blog, MIT Technology Review, Computerworld, O’Reilly Radar.

Lists of existing Open Hardware projects can be found on the GOpen Hardware 2009 website, on the P2P Foundation website (here and here), on Make Magazine’s Blog, Open Innovation Projects and Open Knowledge Foundation.

4 possible levels of Openness in Open Hardware projects,

by SparkFun Electronics (USA)

Open Interface

Open Design

Open Implementation

Arduino

most popular Open Hardware project

open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software

ommercially produced

Most of Arduino official boards are manufactured by SmartProjects in Italy.

Arduino brand name

Gravitech (USA).

starting point

Closed

ecosystem

community

mature and simple

Creative Commons license

produce

redesign

sell boards

you just have to credit the original Arduino group and use the same CC license

without paying a license fee or even ask permission

the name Arduino

is trademarked

cheap and durable enough

two different business model

sharing open hardware to sell expertise, knowledge and custom services and projects around it;

hardware is becoming a commodity

selling the hardware but trying to keep ahead of competition with better products

companies that are selling open source hardware

the open source hardware community to reach $ 1 billion by 2015