In an earlier article, I showed how to front-end Google BigQuery with a Google Docs Spreadsheet / Google Apps Script application. Later articles generalized the engineering: this article described a Google Cloud SQL front-end application and this article explained how to integrate BigQuery and Cloud SQL to build BigQuery stored procedure functionality. This engineering works well enough, but it has some drawbacks:
First, it offers no way to save a result set as a finished file.
Second, it offers no way to print a result set.
Third, the sample applications rely on a container‑based architecture - in other words, the application script files are bound to a Google Sheets file as components of that file.
This article describes a sample Google Apps Script application that front-ends a BigQuery project. However, the application also offers file save and print features. Additionally, while its engineering relies on Google Sheets, it breaks the Google Sheets dependency of the earlier article samples.
Lastly, this article will explore application sharing - the idea that the application can serve more than one user. We'll see that although the engineering described in this article is not recommended for that use case, the engineering can become the basis for future shared production applications if Google Apps Script technology evolves as it ideally will.
Part one here will show the sample application user experience.
Part two will describe the application configuration.
Part three will explain the application engineering.
Part four will explore how Google Apps Script application sharing presently works and will explain why this is not yet ready for production, based on the present state of the Google Apps Script product. It will also discuss suggested feature enhancements to the Google Apps Script product that would make application sharing possible.
Download the three application component files from the GitHub repository.
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The application described in this article works a lot like the application described in this earlier Bit Vectors article. It front-ends the "Complete ZIP Code Totals File" from the U.S. Census Bureau, placed in one table in a Google BigQuery project. The user starts with a URL pointing to the application to open this
form. The form disables the SAVE / PRINT button at this point. The user picks zero or more values in the dropdowns and clicks SUBMIT. When the application shows the result set
the SAVE / PRINT button enables. The user can click the RESET button to reset the form back to its original state, or (s)he can click the SAVE / PRINT button to open the
print / save dialog. With this dialog, the user can print a spreadsheet-formatted result set through the Google Cloud Print! link. This will open dialog boxes to print the result set through a printer. If the active Google account running the application has access rights to one or more printers configured earlier through Google Cloud Print!, printing can happen through it / them. This dialog can also configure a new printer. The user can also click
Save to Google Drive
and then
Advanced options...
to open this second
The application described in this article works a lot like the application described in this earlier Bit Vectors article. It front-ends the "Complete ZIP Code Totals File" from the U.S. Census Bureau, placed in one table in a Google BigQuery project. The user starts with a URL pointing to the application to open this
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| 1. The BigQuery application web form |
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| 2. The application result set |
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| 3. The Print / Save dialog |
Save to Google Drive
and then
Advanced options...
to open this second
 |
| 4. Save the output in the Google Drive of the user |
dialog. The user types a file name in the
Google Drive File Name
textbox and clicks Print . The application saves the spreadsheet equivalent of the form - with the result set and all the control picks - as a PDF placed in the Google Drive
"owned" by the active Google account. The application saved the file - named "Application Output" here - as a conventional PDF
and the user can copy / rename / share / etc. the file. The Cloud Print dialog above defaults the file save to the root directory. It does not handle directory drill-downs. Google explains that the Cloud Print dialog is in beta; hopefully, it will soon offer directory drill-down flexibility.
Google Drive File Name
textbox and clicks Print . The application saves the spreadsheet equivalent of the form - with the result set and all the control picks - as a PDF placed in the Google Drive
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| 5. The output file saved in Google Drive |
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| 6. The Application Output PDF file |
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Part one showed the application user experience. Part two will describe the application configuration.
Part one showed the application user experience. Part two will describe the application configuration.