Credits: Don Santmajor
In this blog post, I would like to share my understanding of Google App Maker
Use case: Helps people help themselves that want to replace bandage tools like excel and inbuild less secure apps with enterprise-grade applications(kinda). And also suited to those companies or start-ups that either don’t have large engineering/software development teams/skills and those that don’t want to spin up shadow IT, but still want to be able to build enterprise-grade applications with a focus on business workflows…
Must have skills :
The scripting language used by App Maker is JavaScript, which is used in both the Browser (Client) or Server. The Server’s runtime environment is Apps Script which provides access to a vast library of G Suite services for common operations with Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Calendar and other services.
App Maker streamlines the process of writing code by providing an intuitive Code Editor
Requirements:
- Gsuite Access: Google App maker is part of Gsuite and hence a Gsuite account is required.
- GCP account access: If the app needs DB to store data can integrate with Cloud SQL out of the box.
What can you do with it at a high level ?:
- Reporting and dashboards can be quickly built
- Helps build workflow apps and solve business issues with connectivity to Google CLoudSQL
- You don’t need deep down knowledge of app development to make use of it but basic javascript knowledge and software architecture is a must.
- Built-in security at a granular level from Gsuite and GCP.
- Integrates easily with Google products like calendar, maps, and others.
- Many templates available https://developers.google.com/appmaker/samples/
User stories:
example 1: How ATB Financials in Canada made use of it
PS: If you are short on time, check the video link below from 11min to 15:54 on how it solves a business case
Example 2: from 20mins to 23mins from excel to App maker
A good step by step example here, Some more examples in below videos