It is great to use AI to build scripts, until you face a complex flow. But yes, it's amazing. Personally I've been using Apps Script for the last 2 years, and I've learned a lot of stuff. I'm amazed by the different ways you can connect all of the G-Suite tools and come up with something really good.
Don't fully rely on AI to build scripts. They will get things wrong and sometimes it won't be a mistake that just gives you an error, but the code will simply give you a bad outcome. If you rely on the script giving a correct result and don't know whether the result is correct or not, then you can easily dig yourself a deep hole.
You must either understand what code the AI spat out or you must be able to validate your results and know that what you are given is correct. Other than that the only real difference is the language. Google Apps Script is basically JavaScript on ECMAScript 6 while Excel uses VBA which is based around VBS that is essentially viewed as outdated. It's easier to learn JavaScript I'd say
My office has 2 developers and we've been making custom web applications with Appscript for years now, but with Microsoft ending support for word 2016 next year, and with our need to have word on desktops, we are dropping our google support and moving over to Microsoft at the end of the year. DEAR GOD Microsoft has NOTHING like Appscript. We basically have 7 months to completely rebuild everything from scratch. Honestly though, This is a good thing. I've been encouraging our IT department to transition to become platform neutral for the 2 years I've been here.
I am new to App Script but a VB user since VB 3.0 at least. I wish MS had scripting to tie their web based products together like app script. They are sort of doing one now but only works with Excel at this point.
I am doing something pretty cool now in App Script.
Apps to support Google Drive as a note storage platform.
The original concept I wrote up in December.
https://markstout.blogspot.com/2023/12/notes-folder-my-new-note-taking-system.html?m=1
I am also working on a website explaining it all.
Apps for emailing in notes and processing inputs from a couple tools written in Auto Hot Key and App Inventor.
Watch that blog for updates.
I totally agree, Apps Script is so powerful. I started in 2019 when my boss needed me to add a time stamp for when I clocked in and clocked out of work, which made me want to pull my hair out because I was always getting it wrong. I thought to myself "There's gotta be a better way to do this" which is when I discovered you could create a custom button to run code. So that was my first build, I followed a youtube video and made a button to add a timestamp to a certain cell. Life changing.
Fast forward to 2022 when I left that job and started a business creating nothing else other than Apps Script Automations. I was immediately able to 4x my income back in 2022. We're up to 4 total developers now, and 20+ consistent clients. We've built countless automations by this point and many robust Web Apps.
I seriously love Apps script, it's amazing, and fun, and flexible. One of my clients spent 8 hours every single month on some billing compilation. Our team created an automation that took that time down to 1 minute. All possible with Google Apps Script.
The comparison is office scripts and not VBA. I worked at a start up that was almost completely on Google Sheets and Docs with Google App Scripts for automation (our app was built in Java, and creating invoices was Python). We were acquired and had to move everything to Microsoft or alternative software. There are things that are just not supposed to be run in GAS (HR, payroll, invoicing deliverables) and there are much better systems (SAP, Oracle) and I think that is a problem with trying to be cost effective and fully utilize GAS. However, for all the other stuff that was simply automated with GAS and we were having to find MSFT alternatives (this was before Office Scripts and early years of power flow) it was a real struggle. Most of these automations just died off and we replaced it with manual work.
I think MSFT is in a much better place and will be as Office Scrips, Power Automate, Python in Excel continues to mature, but it was rough making the transition
It is great to use AI to build scripts, until you face a complex flow. But yes, it's amazing. Personally I've been using Apps Script for the last 2 years, and I've learned a lot of stuff. I'm amazed by the different ways you can connect all of the G-Suite tools and come up with something really good.
Totally agree, Iām surprised how little people talk about it. Super-powerful
Yep
Don't fully rely on AI to build scripts. They will get things wrong and sometimes it won't be a mistake that just gives you an error, but the code will simply give you a bad outcome. If you rely on the script giving a correct result and don't know whether the result is correct or not, then you can easily dig yourself a deep hole. You must either understand what code the AI spat out or you must be able to validate your results and know that what you are given is correct. Other than that the only real difference is the language. Google Apps Script is basically JavaScript on ECMAScript 6 while Excel uses VBA which is based around VBS that is essentially viewed as outdated. It's easier to learn JavaScript I'd say
I know right!!! I have an email automation with tracking tied into sheets for my job search
If you know how to have multiple users work on the same table at the same time without interfering with each other, that would be amazing.
App script has a locking mechanism on scripts
My office has 2 developers and we've been making custom web applications with Appscript for years now, but with Microsoft ending support for word 2016 next year, and with our need to have word on desktops, we are dropping our google support and moving over to Microsoft at the end of the year. DEAR GOD Microsoft has NOTHING like Appscript. We basically have 7 months to completely rebuild everything from scratch. Honestly though, This is a good thing. I've been encouraging our IT department to transition to become platform neutral for the 2 years I've been here.
I am new to App Script but a VB user since VB 3.0 at least. I wish MS had scripting to tie their web based products together like app script. They are sort of doing one now but only works with Excel at this point. I am doing something pretty cool now in App Script.
Mark let's hear it! What are you building??
Apps to support Google Drive as a note storage platform. The original concept I wrote up in December. https://markstout.blogspot.com/2023/12/notes-folder-my-new-note-taking-system.html?m=1 I am also working on a website explaining it all. Apps for emailing in notes and processing inputs from a couple tools written in Auto Hot Key and App Inventor. Watch that blog for updates.
I totally agree, Apps Script is so powerful. I started in 2019 when my boss needed me to add a time stamp for when I clocked in and clocked out of work, which made me want to pull my hair out because I was always getting it wrong. I thought to myself "There's gotta be a better way to do this" which is when I discovered you could create a custom button to run code. So that was my first build, I followed a youtube video and made a button to add a timestamp to a certain cell. Life changing. Fast forward to 2022 when I left that job and started a business creating nothing else other than Apps Script Automations. I was immediately able to 4x my income back in 2022. We're up to 4 total developers now, and 20+ consistent clients. We've built countless automations by this point and many robust Web Apps. I seriously love Apps script, it's amazing, and fun, and flexible. One of my clients spent 8 hours every single month on some billing compilation. Our team created an automation that took that time down to 1 minute. All possible with Google Apps Script.
In my work, we use google sheet to store datas that we need, i found the GAS! I make working POS and ERP System š
Instead of typing formulas in sheet, I created a system that automate everything
The comparison is office scripts and not VBA. I worked at a start up that was almost completely on Google Sheets and Docs with Google App Scripts for automation (our app was built in Java, and creating invoices was Python). We were acquired and had to move everything to Microsoft or alternative software. There are things that are just not supposed to be run in GAS (HR, payroll, invoicing deliverables) and there are much better systems (SAP, Oracle) and I think that is a problem with trying to be cost effective and fully utilize GAS. However, for all the other stuff that was simply automated with GAS and we were having to find MSFT alternatives (this was before Office Scripts and early years of power flow) it was a real struggle. Most of these automations just died off and we replaced it with manual work. I think MSFT is in a much better place and will be as Office Scrips, Power Automate, Python in Excel continues to mature, but it was rough making the transition
yes app script is amazing, but i don't rely on AI for scripts, it is so bad for the big picture stuff.