Skip to main content

When Is Just Enough is Too Much?

By
Recently I've been working on trying to create a Booking System using Google Spreadsheets, Apps Script and Google Calendars. And today, a request for a system stunningly similar came in, except this time, instead of being for booking hot desks, the bookable items are tape measures, cameras, radars, computers and exotic mystery items such as a "FM36 B". Lots of them.

The thing that strikes me about the similarity of the needs, is that already with the booking system, the relationship has more of the developer/client than I'd like. You could say I'm failing in managing expectations slightly. I'll get it back on track. Not that there's any problem, but there is this...

At what point is something software and no longer just a cool spreadsheet?

One of the really great things about spreadsheets is that they're almost agnostic about what you put in them. As soon as you start hanging interfaces off them, then the notion that perhaps you shouldn't be able to book a desk if someone else has already booked it ( sensible enough ) arises. 

Except that an administrator might want to quickly and easily unbook a desk if someone phones in sick, freeing the desk up for other users.

An administrator might simply want to block out a number of desks, which might be done by setting the background to grey. Simple.

These sorts of things are easy when "it's just a spreadsheet" but they quickly become another feature to get bugs / slow down /need an interface / need maintaining when what you are looking at is software ( rather than "just a spreadsheet" ). 

Finding the balance between the two is essential. What we need is a collection of people getting on doing great things with great tools, not the creation of another bottleneck of slightly less professional software development.

As our collective experience with AppsScript grows, we'll learn and develop approaches that we can share that people will be able add to their projects.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inserting A Google Doc link into a Google Spreadsheet (UPDATED 6/12/2017)

By
This article looks at using Apps Script to add new features to a Google Spreadsheet. At the University of York, various people have been using Google spreadsheets to collect together various project related information. We've found that when collecting lots of different collaborative information from lots of different people that a spreadsheet can work much better than a regular Google Form. Spreadsheets can be better than Forms for data collection because: The spreadsheet data saves as you are editing. If you want to fill in half the data and come back later, your data will still be there. The data in a spreadsheet is versioned, so you can see who added what and when and undo it if necessary The commenting features are brilliant - especially the "Resolve" button in comments. One feature we needed was to be able to "attach" Google Docs to certain cells in a spreadsheet. It's easy to just paste in a URL into a spreadsheet cell, but they can often
111 comments
Read more

Writing a Simple QR Code Stock Control Spreadsheet

By
At Theatre, Film & TV they have lots of equipment they loan to students, cameras, microphone, tripod etc. Keeping track of what goes out and what comes back is a difficult job. I have seen a few other departments struggling with the similar "equipment inventory" problems. A solution I have prototyped uses QR codes, a Google Spreadsheet and a small web application written in Apps Script. The idea is, that each piece of equipment ( or maybe collection of items ) has a QR code on it. Using a standard and free smartphone application to read QR codes, the technician swipes the item and is shown a screen that lets them either check the item out or return it. The QR app looks like this. The spreadsheet contains a list of cameras. It has links to images and uses Google Visualisation tools to generate its QR codes. The spreadsheet looks like this. The Web Application The web application, which only checks items in or out and should be used on a phone in conjunctio
59 comments
Read more

A Working Booking System In Google Sheets

By
Working with Andras Sztrokay we had another go at a booking system. This time it was to enable staff to book out a number of iPads over a number of days. You select the days you want, then select the Booking menu. Andras did an amazing job. It even creates a daily bookings sheet so you can see who has which iPads. To see this in action, go  here  and  File > Make a Copy (I won't be able to support you this is just provided to maybe give someone else a leg up, good luck!)
Post a Comment
Read more