/Goodel

An ORM for Google Apps scripts

Primary LanguageJavaScript

Goodel

Google Apps Script is powerful. Similar to Microsoft's VBA, it programmatically queries Google services such a Drive, Forms, Analytics, and Mail with minimal setup.

Google Sheets works well as a database for these scripts*, but querying records by rows and columns is no fun. Goodel hides the querying under a familiar object-oriented API.

* If you're wondering, Google Apps Script has a service called JDBC that can connect to a cloud database. However you'll have to set up your SQL server or pay for Google Cloud SQL. Note that JDBC is just a driver, not an ORM.

Why use Goodel?

Do you often fight the urge to automate every repetitive task you come across? Do you sometimes wish you could replace all the spreadsheets in your life with custom web apps?

xkcd: the general problem

Google App Script narrows the gap between what a web app and what a spreadsheet can do. Goodel goes one step further and makes the two equally enjoyable. Perfect for rapid prototyping and automating administrative tasks.

Set up

From your Google scripts editor, click "Resources > Libraries", then enter MX4aQpaRvsS-JcZN6JrngxPZd3ZQaD1Xq (this project's key) in the search field and click "Select". Goodel will appear in your included libraries. Select the latest version from the corresponding dropdown menu and hit "Save". You're ready to go!

Note: Loading functions from external libraries seems not to work for some. This is a known issue as of December 2014. If the libraries' variables are undefined in your script, you can simply add the goodel.gs file to your project.

Usage

Given a sheet named "Logicians" and the table below starting at the origin A1:

A B C
1 firstName lastName country
2 David Hilbert Germany
3 George Boole Britain
4 Alfred Tarski Poland
5 Augustus De Morgan Britain 
// "Logicians" is the name of a sheet in the active spreadsheet
var Logician = Goodel("Logicians");

var alf = Logician.findBy({ firstName: "Alfred", lastName: "Tarski" });
alf.country // => "Poland"
var brits = Logician.findWhere({ country: "Britain" });
brits.length // => 2

var al = new Logician({ firstName: "Alan", lastName: "Turing" });
al.save(); // "Logician.create(al)" also works.

Works with arbitrary numbers of rows and columns.

Contributing

  1. Fork it ( https://github.com/7imon7ays/goodel/fork )
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  5. Create a new Pull Request