Can you do a WebApp in 10 minutes?

Today I explored WebApps, a programming environment that lets you publish Web Sites without the need to provision a Web Server. In other words, it is serverless. It uses AppScript as programming language which provides great integration into Google apps.

I want to show you that you can create your first WebApp in 10 minutes. If you need longer, leave me a comment please - eager to get feedback.

Challenge: 

Show something from your Google Calendar using WebApps

Solution:

Point your Chrome to sheets.new -> Tools -> Script Editor. Click on Services -> Add Service -> Google Calendar API.

Then, add the following code:

function doGet(params) {

  var today = new Date()

  events=CalendarApp.getDefaultCalendar().getEventsForDay(today)

  output="Here are your calendar events: <br/> "

  for (i=0;i<events.length;i++)

  {

    output+=events[i].getTitle()+"<br />"

  }

  return HtmlService.createHtmlOutput(output);

}

Now your screen should look like this:

Click on Deploy -> New Deployment -> Select Type -> WebApp -> Deploy. You should see a screen like this:

Seems like your first WebApp is available on a super-long URL starting with https://script.google.com. Looking there, here is what I see in my browser:

And this is exactly the content of my calendar for today :)

Now, did this take 10 minutes?

What I like about this is that it is pure HTML, that you can influence the complete HTML code with your app. You have this data from your calendar in your app and can do withit whatever AppScript and HTML can do. You could for example implement a booking system where your customer can book time slots in your calendar as a self-service. And yes, it is possible to hand over variables via the URL.

Also, you have access now to the world of Google Services. You could use it to backup your Google Drive or to find big and old files there and create a diagram in Google Sheets. You could use the GMail service and archive your mails to Google Drive. Automatically put your daily todos from Tasks to Calendar... and much more.

References

• https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/web?hl=en