Will you maintain relationship between sheets? For many API use-cases, I'd expect my data to be relational.
It's great idea! I'll think about it. You want use each sheet as a separate table (like in DB), right?
Exactly.
Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API
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Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's great idea! I'll think about it. You want use each sheet as a separate table (like in DB), right?
Exactly.
I didn't thought about it yet, but right now when you put =SUM(A1:A10) into cell, and GET (or POST) it via API, you will get the result (sum of the column 1-10). So, it'll be working with sheets the same way.
ex. when you put =Sheet2!A1 and get that via API, you will get the value of A1 cell in Sheet2.
Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API
#13API doesn't look very REST to me. It is basically just using HTTP as a JSON transport. The JSON contains a "status" code which appears to loosely follow the HTTP status code numbering. But if that was the intent then why not just use HTTP status codes like a true REST endpoint? Otherwise, a neat idea. Needs a Office 365 connector too.
true REST != JSON :D
yes json it's convenient. no json isn't stateful, unless you transmit operations and allow API discovery, not just data.
Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API
#14Neat. Instantly converted my BTC price tracking spreadsheet [1] into an API [2] 1) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iUVXmC04KIU5K1Osb_4H... 2) http://sheetsu.com/apis/2aab25c7
Note: if you changed the first row to show the type of data that will follow, that API will be tons nicer to use.
Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API
#15Ah man, this is perfect! finally a way to get simple servers running with very little hassle.
One major feature I would like is the ability to specify cells for I/O. Eg in some sort of "my api" console I could say "/custom_api, {stuff:A5, things:A6}, B2". Then requests to GET /custom_api would plug in the key-value of "stuff" into A5 and "things" into A6 and then respond with whatever is in B2.
Once more useful features are up, the ability to disable parts of the API (eg dump the whole spreadsheet) would be necessary.
Obviously you wouldn't build a large app with this, but I could see many traditional businesses using it for more than just prototyping.
Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API
#161. How to get columns?
2. Your docs say: http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/:column_name
Is ':' a documentation convention somewhere that I've not come across? I tried:
http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/:Email
http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/:email
http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/EmailRe: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API
#171. How to get columns? 2. Your docs say: http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/:column_name Is ':' a documentation convention somewhere that I've not come across? I tried: http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/:Email http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/:email until I realised it was just: http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/Email
Yes, it's just /column/Email.
Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API
#18Ah man, this is perfect! finally a way to get simple servers running with very little hassle. One major feature I would like is the ability to specify cells for I/O. Eg in some sort of "my api" console I could say "/custom_api, {stuff:A5, things:A6}, B2". Then requests to GET /custom_api would plug in the key-value of "stuff" into A5 and "things" into A6 and then respond with whatever is in B2. Once more useful featu…
Thanks for the ideas! I'll consider them.
Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API
#19That's nice - I've recently made a small project to wrap Github's Gists around an open API[1] for the same use case - a small open database easily browseable -, but your project seems much more interesting - spreadsheets are a very interesting way to solve this. Good job.
Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API
#201. How to get columns? 2. Your docs say: http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/:column_name Is ':' a documentation convention somewhere that I've not come across? I tried: http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/:Email http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/:email until I realised it was just: http://sheetsu.com/apis/12345/column/Email
This is typically the way it's done in Node.js's Express library: http://expressjs.com/api.html#req