Hi app creators! Welcome to our monthly Community Roundup series. Check out our latest news and upcoming events, along with our top contributors and conversations.
Introducing the new and improved AppSheet Help Center
This month, the AppSheet team launched the new and improved AppSheet Help Center, now available at support.google.com/appsheet.
The new AppSheet Help Center retains all existing articles, and addresses many of the usability issues that have been raised with our current doc site, including:
- More learning assistance such as videos, tutorials, and community tips that address common use cases
- Improved search and navigation
- Roadmap for using AppSheet to provide guidance on the overall app development process and what to do next
- Ability to filter the AppSheet function list
- Content refresh to update or remove out-dated content and implement stylistic changes
- Ability to provide feedback on docs
See more details in the post from @lizlynch here.
In case you missed it: How to use and optimize expressions
For app creators, expressions are a powerful way to customize behavior and add sophisticated logic throughout your app, from incorporating conditional statements and managing lists, to extracting data from images, detecting user details, and much more.
However, it can be challenging to know which expressions to use where, and the best way to build them into your app to deliver the results you want.
Last month, the Community came together for AppSheet Office Hours focused on how to use and optimize expressions. Check out the session recording to learn more about:
- Types of expressions and when to use them
- How to build and test expressions
- Common use cases with live demos
Here are a few additional resources on expressions, but stay tuned in the Community for a session recap post including written Q&A:
- Expressions: The Essentials
- Expression types
- AppSheet function list used to build expressions
- Expressions: Community Tips & Tricks
- Expressions: Community Q&A
Have a topic you want us to focus on for our next Office Hours? Please let us know in the comments!
Meet Joseph Seddik: AppSheet Community Member Spotlight
This month we’re shining the spotlight on @Joseph_Seddik !
When asked why he contributes to the Community, Joseph says,
“The community helps me explore new ways and use cases of employing AppSheet. I learn on a daily basis through reading and also contributing.
To be able to provide a solution, one has to fully understand the subject matter, and in many cases it pushes the boundaries of your creativity to solve problems.
I used to manage technical projects and I was always eager to craft the training and documentation myself. This is the best way to learn.”
It’s been inspiring and incredible how quickly you’ve made such a positive impact on the Community. Thank you Joseph! Read the complete spotlight story here.
Who do you want to meet next? Let us know in the comments!
Community tip of the month: Automatically repeating (looping) actions
We’re continually impressed with all the tips and tricks members share in the AppSheet Community. Taking the time to share your knowledge, lessons learned, and recommendations goes a long way in helping app creators accomplish their goals with AppSheet. Thank you!
This month, we wanted to highlight this tipfrom @Steve on looping with actions, which is especially helpful for app creators who need to perform actions repeatedly. Steve provides a step-by-step guide to add rows to a table automatically, plus helpful sample apps to get you going (linked below).
Supporting resources:
- Steve’s tip
- Add Rows 1 Sample app: Demonstrates how to add an arbitrary number of rows to a table from any new or existing row of the same table
- Looping with actions Sample app: Demonstrates several approaches to flexibly looping actions
- Looping with actions Sample app from @MultiTech : Demonstrates how to loop through a list and create child records for each item in the list
Don’t forget to share your appreciation by liking the post or adding a comment 
Product updates and release notes
Here’s an overview of AppSheet product updates and enhancements over the past month. To stay up-to-date with the latest, make sure you subscribe to Release Notes.
New governance policies to restrict prototype sharing
Two new policies have been added to AppSheet to restrict Prototype Authentication and Restrict Prototype Sharing.
1. Restrict Prototype Authentication
Apps must:
- Require user sign-in
- Prevent all signed-in users from accessing the app (disable Allow all signed-in users)
- Disable Require domain authentication
By default, this policy applies to prototype apps; you can change the targeted apps.
Note: It’s required that you use this policy with Restrict Prototype Sharing to fully limit prototype access.
2. Restrict who can deploy apps
- Apps can be deployed only by specific app creators
For complete details, see Define governance policies.
Improvements to the email automation configuration experience
The following enhancements have been made to the dynamic email feature
- When sending email from an automation, the new Email Type field enables you to select one of the following options for the email body: Embedded app view (dynamic) or Custom template
- When you select Embedded app view, you are prompted to select the Detail or Form view to embed in the email using the App view to embed in email body field.
- You can now click Preview email to preview either email type.
Note: Dynamic email will soon be referred to as embedded app view emails.
These changes will be rolled out over the next several weeks.
For more information, see:
- Improving the email automation configuration experience (Community Announcement)
- Sending an email from an automation
- Send embedded app view email from an automation
What’s available in preview
The Preview Program is where AppSheet app creators can try out new app features that are not yet fully supported (learn more about the program and how to get started here). Here’s what’s currently available in the program:
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New! Visualize your AppSheet app data using Data Studio: Data Studio is a free reporting and dashboarding tool that enables you to generate fully customizable visualizations of your app data. You can combine data from multiple data sources to generate a rich dashboard to share with stakeholders.
For more information about using Data Studio to visual your AppSheet app data, see:
Rich reporting with Data Studio (Preview Announcement)
Visualize your app data using Data Studio
Quick start: Visualize your app data using Data Studio -
Table view: Table View now supports freezing the first column while scrolling horizontally. For details, see Freezing the first Column of a Table View - in Preview Program.
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Chart Editor: App Creators can now make use of our new chart editor and the new and improved charts it can create. Learn more.
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Detail views: Rich text formatting is now available in Detail views. For details, see this announcement in the community.
Top five contributors in May
We love to see how many of you are eager to participate in the Community’s discussions. Let’s take a quick look at who contributed the most by replies authored and topics published in the month of May. Please meet our top five contributors:
Thank you @Suvrutt_Gurjar , @Steve , @Joseph_Seddik , @Koichi_Tsuji , and @Marc_Dillon !
Are you ready to become our next top contributor? Learn all about how to contribute to the Community here.
Top three conversations in May
Here are our most popular discussions in the Google Cloud Community over the past month:
- AppSheet Office Hours: How to Use and Optimize App Expressions [Event]
- [Preview] Rich reporting with Data Studio
- Introducing the new and improved AppSheet Help Center
Looking for more topics and discussions? Visit the AppSheet Q&A or Tips & Tricks forums to join the conversation or start something new.
We hope you enjoy our new feature updates and thank you to all our Community members who continue to make this space an engaging and informative place to be. If you have any feedback, please feel free to add your thoughts to the Community Feedback forum here or add a comment directly to this post.
Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest Community news, activities, or opportunities by subscribing to News & Announcements. To do so, go to the Announcements page and click on the blue button that says “Subscribe.” You can also learn more about how to manage your subscriptions and notifications in this article here.
Thanks everyone. Until next time!
The Google Cloud Community Team
