Google Apps Script for Beginners

Chapter 9. Conclusion

If you have reached this part of the book, I would assume you have read eight chapters and have quite a good view of what you can do with Google Apps Script. However, you have to know that all this is just a part of it—a small part actually.

I did present a few examples of data exchange between different Google services (docs and spreadsheets, Gmail and docs, and so on), but there is definitely much more to explore. This book could easily have over 500 pages without too much effort, but as the title states, this book just provides a few samples to help you to get started.

Development perspectives

Although I didn't mention all the presently available possibilities, there are quite a few. Google Apps Script is an evolving toolbox; the developers' team is still at work to expand its possibilities and application fields.

If you're curious, you should have a look at the release notes on the Release Notes page (https://developers.google.com/apps-script/releases/) they update every month, and you'll get a pretty good idea of what they've already accomplished and the number of issues they have fixed. I read it regularly, and I must say that I'm often quite impressed.

Google's secrets

Now if you want to be even more impressed, go have a look at the issue tracker page (https://code.google.com/p/google-apps-script-issues/issues/list). This is not only the place to drop the issues you are met with—although it is good to know and very useful to read as well—but it is also the place where users can place their enhancement requests.

Also, there are so many enhancement requests in so many fields that I guess they will probably never accept and implement all of them. However, I know they are very attentive to it and consider each of them most seriously, and evaluate their usefulness and feasibility. I know that we are going to be surprised by the numerous features they will add in the coming months, not to mention in the coming years!

I said earlier that learning Google Apps Script is a never-ending process, but I'm sure that developing it is even more endless.

Personal point of view

I guess that a combination of circumstances and opportunities has made me a Google Apps Script addict, but maybe in different circumstances, I could have learned a different language. Life is not always a matter of choice, but I must say that I'm really happy about this coincidence! It makes me feel like I am part of a really modern movement, something unique to our present environment.

Google Apps Script could not have existed in the 80s, nor even in the early 2000s. Computer technology was not powerful enough.

That feeling of modernity is actually quite pleasant, at least as far as computer science is concerned. Unfortunately, not everything in our modern world is so alluring, but that's another story.

My only hope when writing the final words in this small book is that I have given a few people the desire to go further with Google Apps Script and help them get enough self-confidence to start their own project.