A Review of Google Apps Script

Like I said in my previous post, I've been taking a class on Google Apps Script for web app development. This is something completely new to me. I've built shiny apps in R, but those are glorified dashboards, and written exclusively in R. This was a challenge for me, as I've never had to balance server-side integrations with UX/UI design of HTML and CSS.

I did find the content of the class to be very useful, however. My overarching project for the class was a time sheet for work that could act as a place to input and track hours, while also being a sort of dashboard that could tell the user information like: hours worked, hours to overtime, distance to work and more. This all revolved around the G Suite of applications. For my app, the time entry is driven via a google form embedded into the page. The app leverages Maps to show the driving distance from home to work, and Gmail to send a message to one's supervisor alerting them to check their end of the app that features an admin template where they can see the employee's hours and wage. I am also working on another scheduling problem for my mom's summer job with the local county park district. That would feature largely the same set of features in addition to integration with Google Calendar. So, I guess you could say I actually got something out of this class.

In comparing it to things I've done in the past, this is a completely different way of thinking through problems. Most of Data Science follows a pretty delineated process for projects. Get the data, clean the data, run some analysis, make a model, train a model, etc. Problems in web app design feel somewhat cascading, in that solving one problem leads to 2 more. Sure there is definitely a process there: get the data, clean the data, put it in the HTML, and make it look pretty. However doing that is often infinitely harder than the same in Data Science.

Overall, I'm glad I learned some of these skills instead of being bored for a semester reviewing an Intro to Python course. In my mind, the money was the same, so I might as well have picked up some new skills while satisfying requirements. One thing I wish we could have done would have been integration with Tensorflow.js or other packages within Javascript, however given the one month time frame, and the distancing the class was solid.