I’m working on a project that uses AngularJS and Node.js to build a web app. What I want to do is track when a cell in a Google Spreadsheet changes. Is there a way to set up some kind of listener for this? My main goal is to get the row of the cell that was updated.
I’ve looked into the Google Sheets API, but I’m not sure if it has this kind of real-time tracking feature. Does anyone know if there’s a way to do this? Maybe through webhooks or some other method?
I’m pretty new to working with Google Sheets programmatically, so any advice or pointers would be really helpful. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
have u tried using the google sheets api’s watch method? it lets u set up notifications for changes. u can configure it to send updates to a webhook endpoint in ur node.js app. then u can process the updates and get the modified row info. might be worth checking out if u want near real-time tracking
I encountered a similar challenge in a previous project. Although the Google Sheets API does not support real-time event listening, a workaround using Google Apps Script can be effective. The idea is to set up a time-triggered script that periodically checks the sheet for changes and then logs the modified rows or sends notifications via a webhook. On the Node.js side, you can poll these updates or handle the webhook data. This method is not truly instantaneous, but it provides a practical balance between responsiveness and API limitations.
As someone who’s worked extensively with Google Sheets in various projects, I can tell you that achieving real-time tracking can be tricky. One approach that’s worked well for me is using Google Apps Script with the onEdit() trigger. This function automatically fires whenever a cell is edited.
Here’s the basic idea: You set up a script in the Google Sheet that captures edit events. When a cell changes, the script can log the details (including the row) to a separate sheet or send the info to an external service via UrlFetchApp.
For your AngularJS and Node.js setup, you could have your script push the data to a server endpoint you control. Then your app can poll this endpoint or use websockets to get near-real-time updates.
It’s not perfect, but it’s a solid workaround for the limitations of the Sheets API. Just be mindful of quota limits if you’re dealing with frequent updates.