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Synthoid / ExportSheetData

Add-on for Google Sheets that allows data to be exported as JSON or XML.
MIT License
237 stars 46 forks source link

How do I generate the XML file every X hours ? #57

Open paulinelemalefan opened 6 years ago

paulinelemalefan commented 6 years ago

Hi there ! Newbie on Github, not a developper but a little bit geeky.

Sorry to ask, the answer is certainly super easy but still : I don't see how to generate the XML file every X hours... Can you help me ?

Thanks !

Synthoid commented 6 years ago

ESD does not support automation yet. It may be possible to use an external google script that you create yourself and have that run ESD, but I don't know what that process entails (if it exists).

Automation is on the roadmap for ESD, and is probably the next big thing that will be added (after XML nested elements). I will also need to refactor how "Replace existing file(s)" works before automation can reliably be used.

petervanakkeren commented 5 years ago

Hi, is there any progress on this feature? I would find it really helpful.

Synthoid commented 5 years ago

There has been some progress, yes. Replace existing file(s) now functions in a good way for this feature, and after doing some research I am pretty confident that it can be done with an add-on.

There are a bunch of caviats to those statements though. I still have to design the menus for setting up automation, and there are certain limitations that users need to be made aware of, depending on the tier of service they use.

Unfortunately, that means that this feature is still a ways off most likely.

If you don’t mind me asking, what are your use cases for this feature (what are you using it for/would you like to have as features)? If I know what people are trying to do I can try to implement some quality of life features along side the core functionality.

petervanakkeren commented 5 years ago

Thanks for your quick reply! I have a spreadsheet with dynamic information (in this case, an inventory list from a webshop), and I want to export the data as an XML file on a regular basis (once per hour) for others to import it. So what I'm looking for is a 'schedule report' function with an interval setting (once per hour/day/week/month).

Synthoid commented 5 years ago

That type of automation should definitely be possible. There are limitations for how many documents can be created and how often the export can happen, but they shouldn’t affect you with those desired values.

Like I said, this should be manageable, but I need to design the front end UI still and make sure users can create and delete automation functions without zombie processes occurring inadvertently!

I was thinking of adding an “email me when the process runs” option for setting up automated processes. Does that sound appealing (as an optional feature of course).

petervanakkeren commented 5 years ago

Hi Chris, I'm curious if the automation function is anywhere near completion, or if you still want to go ahead with it. As I said before, the add-on works wonderfully (although at the moment I see just a blank sidebar) but I'm missing the automation. Wouldn't mind paying a small monthly fee for it either.

You asked about an "email me" option, I guess as some form of notification? It's a 'nice to have' but for me, not necessary.

Synthoid commented 5 years ago

Automation is still on the roadmap, but I haven't made any direct progress on it beyond research. I'm currently working on custom export locations as I feel that is a nice feature to have (for automation especially). Then I have to decide if I want to move towards automation or Nested Element improvements.

The email option was mostly an afterthought, I was just curious how interested people were in the feature. It probably wouldn't be included from the get go unless it was fairly easy to implement.

I've been debating setting up a Patreon for ESD since it has become increasingly difficult for me to peel off of work or my personal projects to make improvements on ESD. Not because I don't like working on ESD, but because time is limited and I have to prioritize things. If the Patreon could gain enough traction, it would be much easier for me to invest time in ESD on a regular basis and start putting out more frequent updates. It would also allow me to ping the community and ask what features they would like prioritized.

In any case, I apologize that I haven't been able to put out requested features as fast as I would like. Also, a blank sidebar is probably not great. What was your sheet set up like / what options did you have enabled?

gandrus commented 4 years ago

Any updates on this feature?

If not, is there a way for me to use a script to send the export instruction to your app so I can set up a simple timer in scripts?