Google Docs Gets an API For Task Automation (techcrunch.com) 35
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google today announced the general availability of a new API for Google Docs that will allow developers to automate many of the tasks that users typically do manually in the company's online office suite. The API has been in developer preview since last April's Google Cloud Next 2018 and is now available to all developers. As Google notes, the REST API was designed to help developers build workflow automation services for their users, build content management services and create documents in bulk. Using the API, developers can also set up processes that manipulate documents after the fact to update them, and the API also features the ability to insert, delete, move, merge and format text, insert inline images and work with lists, among other things.
The canonical use case here is invoicing, where you need to regularly create similar documents with ever-changing order numbers and line items based on information from third-party systems (or maybe even just a Google Sheet). Google also notes that the API's import/export abilities allow you to use Docs for internal content management systems.
The canonical use case here is invoicing, where you need to regularly create similar documents with ever-changing order numbers and line items based on information from third-party systems (or maybe even just a Google Sheet). Google also notes that the API's import/export abilities allow you to use Docs for internal content management systems.
... until two weeks later, when they casually ment (Score:5, Insightful)
... until two weeks later, when they casually mention in a blog post somewhere that they have removed it.
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They're already working on an API for removing it automatically.
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They'll have a framework for that API to automatically remove uses of the replaced API, the framework however will require the use of a new programming language of which they've got a handy SDK for converting Go, C++, and Java into the new programming language which then "compiles" into a 126MB JavaScript blob.
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They already did all that, but they accidentally ran it on itself.
You want proof? Well it's not there any more, is it?
VBA macros for Google Docs! (Score:2, Insightful)
Google Docs gets malware macros. Welcome to the big leagues! What could possible go wrong?
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Well, someone could write an anti-virus program in JavaScript, which would then subsequently exhaust the entirety of the world's computing resources. Poof, no more bitcoin. Sound bad enough?
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Will the anti-virus run in a Javascript VM as well?
Congratulations, Google (Score:3)
This sounds like a "Macro" with more steps. Welcome to the 1980's.
Invoices need to be electronic. (Score:2)
Rant..
Invoices are generated by a computer and then get typed into the receivers computer by a human. Super inefficient and prone to error. Invoices need to be electronic and this needed to happen years ago. Iâ(TM)m not talking about special cases for big business. This is a small business problem and needs to happen in atime ftware such as quickbooks without vendor lock-in.
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Rant.. Invoices are generated by a computer and then get typed into the receivers computer by a human. Super inefficient and prone to error. Invoices need to be electronic and this needed to happen years ago. Iâ(TM)m not talking about special cases for big business. This is a small business problem and needs to happen in atime ftware such as quickbooks without vendor lock-in.
Exactly. More than 30 years after the usage of computers in most businesses it is shocking to see 100 pages invoices being sent as PDF files and then some other company either typing them into their accounting system or attempt to OCR, push into Excel and then process. Why can't the business analysts, IT people and accounting department sit around a table? The generation of the initial PDF should surely come from an accounting system isn't it?
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Re: Invoices need to be electronic. (Score:1)
It would require to systems staff of both companies to have a ten minute chat to work out suitable format that can be emailed or uploaded to the other and then parsed into the accounting system.
I doubt this happens very much because the amount of people who have understanding or control of the systems to the extent required is limited, especially since the push to the cloud with access via api and or third parties only and simplified user interfaces which no longer required a systems team. Ie outsourcing m
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I agree with you. It's a question of scale though.
If I have ten invoices a month from 1 supplier and 10000 invoices a month from another then I would definitely seek to improve the flow from the larger supplier, whether it is by some published standard or rolled between us and the larger supplier.
I would not try to solve both tasks with the same solution.
If my invoice load is 1 invoice each from 10000 suppliers the problem is different and I would be encouraging them to use either our system or again some
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They can be:
http://ubl.xml.org/wiki/ubl-fa... [xml.org]
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Sounds potentially useful, how long until they EoL (Score:2)
Well, it is Google, only a matter of time
They could save themselves the hassle and just Jill it off now to be honest.
Not really impressed (Score:2)
Google deploys sed (Score:2)
... but changes all the options
weak AI (Score:2)
Sparking more inventions (Score:2)
Every few years, I end up talking to some poor schlub who has reinvented relational databases. Badly.
It's not their fault, some of the folks are pretty smart. They just don't know. Anyway, Google just enabled another menagerie of eldritch cross-referencing nightmares.