Discontinuation
As of January 2019 I have stopped offering support for this module. If you are still using it, and it stops working, I will not help you fix it. It is up to you to solve any problems you experience.
Original Post
Overview
A day ago there was a very insightful post about how to use forms to post data to a spreadsheet hosted on a Google drive. I wanted to have a further look into it and managed to create a system that allows you to use one as a database.
Setup
Hopefully this will keep things fairly straight forward and easy enough to do.
Step 1 - Create a new spreadsheet
Open up google sheets and create a new spreadsheet.
Step 2 - Set column names
Now what we need to do is setup the spreadsheet. The database is set up to work like ROBLOXâs using a key and a value.
So what youâll need to do is change the value of cell A1 to âkeyâ and the value of cell B1 to âvalueâ (these are case sensitive).
Step 3 - Freeze the columns
Now we want to freeze the columns so they donât disappear when we scroll down through our database. Do this by clicking View > Freeze Rows > Freeze 1 Row.
It should now look like this
Step 4 - Setup sheets
Each sheet in the spreadsheet is a different database where the sheets title is the id of the database. Later on you can add more sheets but now now weâll just rename the default one. (Youâll need to add the key and value headers on new sheets).
Rename your sheet to âGlobalâ
Step 5 - Save
You can name the file whatever you want, since I am assuming you know how to save you wonât be getting a picture.
Step 6 - Create a new macro (script)
For this database to work we need to setup a macro, this probably sounds daunting at first but is much easier than it seems. To do this click Tools > Script Editor
This should open a new window that looks like this
Step 7 - Setup said macro
Now weâre going to set it up. First, replace the current code in the open window with the code found here.
Once youâve done this click File > Save and name it âDatabase Macroâ or anything you feel is suitable.
Step 8 - Authorize said macro
Our macro will need to be allowed to read the spreadsheet, this is nice and simple to do. Once youâve saved the file click Run > setup
Continue
Accept
Step 9 - Publish the macro and get the key
This is about the time you want to start considering getting ROBLOX studio open. Youâll also be needing this module.
Now we need to publish our macro, click Publish > Deploy as web app âŚ
Youâll see a new window, project version can be anything that you deem suitable, I chose âFirst Editionâ. Click save new version⌠Youâll then want to execute the app as âmeâ and set the access to anyone including anonymous.
Youâll then be shown a URL. Copy it to your clipboard and make sure not to lose it.
Step 10 - Setup the module
Weâve done everything weâve needed to do in regards to setting up the datasheet and the macro, now itâs time to setup the module.
Insert the module into your place and open it up. At the top of the module youâll see a variable labelled called scriptId, set this as the id of the script (thatâs the URL without âhttps://script.google.com/macros/s/â at the start and â/execâ at the end. Alternatively, if you find it easier you can just change the url variable to that of the url given to you from the webApp. Make sure NOBODY gets their hands on your scriptId, it can be used to change values within the database.
Thatâs it. Now we can use our module as our database.
Usage
The module works very similar to that as the Datastore service. Hereâs an example made using it.
databaseService = require(script.DatabaseService)
local globalDatabase = databaseService:GetDatabase("Global")
globalDatabase:PostAsync("Example", "Test")
print(globalDatabase:GetAsync("Example"))
>> Test
Warning: Do not post anything with the key âkeyâ, this will rename your first column breaking the database. I was too lazy to implement anything to stop people doing that. Youâre smart people anyway. Donât do it.
Limitations
The only real limitations I have come across are the ones imposed by Google, you will find them here.
Applications
This has some practical uses, one example is that you can edit the database from your phone or browser, so if a player hasnât been awarded the points they bought for some reason, youâll be able to fix this manually. It also allows you to share data between different games, which may come in useful if you want to reward players who play more than one of your games.
One final thing to also add on is that you can download your entire database as a spreadsheet, so you can easily back it up if you need to.
