Using spreadsheets as an interface

[marcello....@360i.com]

Hi,

As per subject I'm currently working with Google spreadsheets for a specific project. 

I've been going trough API documentation for the past weeks and, while I've been able to achieve some results, other features and their implementation remains a bit obscure ... to make it short:

I'm using spreadsheets in Adword  environment, let's say I create or update dynamically a spreadsheet in which each row will hold an unique identifier and other data: I'd like to be able, starting from those Ids, to display some information stored in another spreadsheet and maybe change or update some of them.

The architecture I have in mind is: 

File 1 - An "Index" spreadsheet in which all the Ids are stored:

ID  | name
-----------------

xx1 | Tizio

xx2 | Caio
xx3 | Sempronio

File 2 - A "Master config" spreadsheet in which certain options I can later apply to any Id are stored 

KEY | dsc
------------

yy1 | ciao

yy2 | miao
yy3 | bau

File 3 - A "Client config" spreadsheet in which to map Ids and Keys: 

ID  | name
-----------------

xx1 | yy1

xx1 | yy2
xx3 | yy3

Now, I'm clearly trying to use Google spreadsheets as a very rudimentary data base, the question is: is there some way I can also use them as an interface?

Let's say I create file 1 and 2, now I need to populate file 3, also I want other people being able to access and write this file, but I don't want them to do it directly but rather trough File 1.

It would be ideal that upon clicking on a cell on "ID" column a form would be displayed in a sidebar, and reading from both File 2 and 3 said form would display on a checklist the options already checked for that ID plus the other ones available.

Obvioulsy checking and unchecking would change File 3.

Now:

1 - Is there  a way to assign a sidebar to a script generated spreadsheet?
2 - Is there a way to assign a script to such spreadsheet? 

3 - Can I attach event listeners to a column and interact with the sidebar itself?
4 - Are there other ways to accomplish the same result? 

The goal (where possible) would be to keep and manage the entire data in the Google docs environment.

Thank you,

Marcello

[Anash Oommen]

Hi Marcello,

A good share of the answers can be found on the App Scripts site. App Scripts allow you to build UI, write to spreadsheets and so on, you can use that to build your application's UI. Then schedule an AdWords Script to read settings from that spreadsheet, do the processing, and populate another sheet of the spreadsheet.

Cheers,
Anash P. Oommen,

AdWords Scripts Team.