Email a copy of 'Pull in data from Google spreadsheet' to a friend
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2012-02-19
12 Comments
I wonder how much can be done with this. I’m thinking RPG where such a spreadsheet could be used for a grid-wide system, keeping a record of experience levels, allegiances, whatever. Point-of-sales recording, too, so it would be easier to send updated items to the individuals that bought those items.
It’s not a secure system, so I wouldn’t advise using it for anything retail-related. There, you’d probably want to shell out some money for a programmer who knows how to work with MySQL.
In my case, I’ll be using it to track visitors — no big secret there. The visitors certainly know who they are!Â
And to track display ads. Again, if you want to see the ads, just go in-world. They’re right there.Â
The way these spreadsheets work, is that anyone with the URL will be able to get this data. They won’t be able to change it — but they will be able to see it.
Of course, if you’re displaying the data publicly — say, in leader boards — then this is a non-issue.Â
And, as you said, it works grid-wide. Hypergrid-wide, even. 🙂
 Cool. That actually works very well for an RP system. People can see what levels and class and such others are at but nobody can change it. Which also secures it against people who want that “extra edge” of upping their abilities by editing the HUD notecards. That is, if the “owning” script can modify it, rather than just append. I have to admit to not checking the script yet. Working on the aforementioned RP system 😀
You can also just use media-on-a-prim to show a read-only version of the Google spreadsheet in-world, if you just want to display the data. The text-on-a-prim script is a little slow!Â
But it’s perfect for pulling in data from a website for internal script use. Keep in mind that if you expose the script itself, folks can do things like point it to a different spreadsheet — where they can put in their own numbers — or replace some of the lookup commands with straight assignments. So if security is an issue, I’d recommend using it on closed grids where users can’t access the server and change the perms and modify the scripts as they see fit.
You can also put the lookup logic in a central control script that downloads the necessary data and passes it along to the various other objects and attachments that need it.
 I’m actually not too worried about security. This isn’t SL, after all. On the other hand, I’m not going to leave the barn door open either. 🙂
In any event, I’ve bookmarked the script for future work.
that’s a very cool script! we want to list “current events” for each field trip activity in Enclave Harbour and this is a great solution, we may just pull it in as a webpage so that it can have clickable links – i did not know that a Google Doc could update a webpage like you mentioned!
thank you Maria! you continue to be an innovator that inspires us! (if it wasn’t for Maria, i doubt i would be in OpenSim!) =)
Nice article. Well can some one help me with accessing transient data on Google Docs? Well its a serious concern with Google Docs, I am looking for some alternatives and also waiting for some new players like CollateBox http://www.collatebox.com/ and IBM docs. Hoping that these tools can solve my problem.
What is “transient data”?
Maria, can I update the data after I have published? I want to use it for classes that I will be delivering
ok I saw your info about date changes thanks
Hi Maria, Google spreadsheet has changed now and the “Export to CSV” is deleted. All the old documents will be converted to their new format which is very very annoying.
I am currently looking for a solution to this problem but I have not found it yet. If you already know a solutoin you are welcome.
Sorry, I’m afraid that I don’t, but, if its possible, the info will be out there.
Comments are closed.
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I wonder how much can be done with this. I’m thinking RPG where such a spreadsheet could be used for a grid-wide system, keeping a record of experience levels, allegiances, whatever. Point-of-sales recording, too, so it would be easier to send updated items to the individuals that bought those items.
It’s not a secure system, so I wouldn’t advise using it for anything retail-related. There, you’d probably want to shell out some money for a programmer who knows how to work with MySQL.
In my case, I’ll be using it to track visitors — no big secret there. The visitors certainly know who they are!Â
And to track display ads. Again, if you want to see the ads, just go in-world. They’re right there.Â
The way these spreadsheets work, is that anyone with the URL will be able to get this data. They won’t be able to change it — but they will be able to see it.
Of course, if you’re displaying the data publicly — say, in leader boards — then this is a non-issue.Â
And, as you said, it works grid-wide. Hypergrid-wide, even. 🙂
 Cool. That actually works very well for an RP system. People can see what levels and class and such others are at but nobody can change it. Which also secures it against people who want that “extra edge” of upping their abilities by editing the HUD notecards. That is, if the “owning” script can modify it, rather than just append. I have to admit to not checking the script yet. Working on the aforementioned RP system 😀
You can also just use media-on-a-prim to show a read-only version of the Google spreadsheet in-world, if you just want to display the data. The text-on-a-prim script is a little slow!Â
But it’s perfect for pulling in data from a website for internal script use. Keep in mind that if you expose the script itself, folks can do things like point it to a different spreadsheet — where they can put in their own numbers — or replace some of the lookup commands with straight assignments. So if security is an issue, I’d recommend using it on closed grids where users can’t access the server and change the perms and modify the scripts as they see fit.
You can also put the lookup logic in a central control script that downloads the necessary data and passes it along to the various other objects and attachments that need it.
 I’m actually not too worried about security. This isn’t SL, after all. On the other hand, I’m not going to leave the barn door open either. 🙂
In any event, I’ve bookmarked the script for future work.
that’s a very cool script! we want to list “current events” for each field trip activity in Enclave Harbour and this is a great solution, we may just pull it in as a webpage so that it can have clickable links – i did not know that a Google Doc could update a webpage like you mentioned!
thank you Maria! you continue to be an innovator that inspires us! (if it wasn’t for Maria, i doubt i would be in OpenSim!) =)
Nice article. Well can some one help me with accessing transient data on Google Docs? Well its a serious concern with Google Docs, I am looking for some alternatives and also waiting for some new players like CollateBox http://www.collatebox.com/ and IBM docs. Hoping that these tools can solve my problem.
What is “transient data”?
Maria, can I update the data after I have published? I want to use it for classes that I will be delivering
ok I saw your info about date changes thanks
Hi Maria, Google spreadsheet has changed now and the “Export to CSV” is deleted. All the old documents will be converted to their new format which is very very annoying.
I am currently looking for a solution to this problem but I have not found it yet. If you already know a solutoin you are welcome.
Sorry, I’m afraid that I don’t, but, if its possible, the info will be out there.