Introducing new AppSheet database feature in public preview

[ShirleyN]

Please see updated GA announcement → here

Hi everyone!

Over the past year, we’ve been conducting user research with app creators, end users and some of you to better understand the app creation experience. Through this research we’ve uncovered challenges with the existing external data sources and noticed a gap in datastore options for citizen developers. With Sheets being the most common connected source for AppSheet apps, we noticed frustrations around:

• Formatting a spreadsheet for app creation can be time consuming
• Changes to the data schema after initial app creation are challenging and can easily break apps
• Unstructured data leaves room for human error in data entry
• Scalability and sync speed starts to deteriorate as Sheet size increases

With these challenges in mind, we set out to build a native database for citizen developers to easily and securely manage their data. We believe this will also improve the experience for app creators.

Today, I’m happy to announce the release of the new AppSheet database feature for public preview! During public preview, access to AppSheet databases is enabled by default for everyone but it will not affect existing apps unless you explicitly add a blank table or connect an AppSheet database inside the AppSheet editor. Use of this public preview feature will be free to everyone but limited to 10k rows per table and 20 tables per database. Note that these limits will change for our public launch.

To get started, you can create a blank database from the My Apps page. If you’d like to start building an app from scratch, there is also a new Blank app option. This blank app will create a new AppSheet database to use as the data source.

Within the database editor, you can set the same column types as in the AppSheet app editor for your data.

After that, you can create an app directly from the database. This will create an app on the current table only. If you have references to other tables, you will need to add them using the AppSheet app editor. This is something we’re working on improving.

Since this feature is in public preview, we’re still making improvements to it and appreciate your patience with issues you may face. Some features that are coming include a smoother import/export of data, database recovery, and email notifications after sharing a database.

We will also be updating our support documentation to include this new feature. For those who would like to disable access to this feature, see the Disable AppSheet databases policy.

Thank you and happy app building,

Shirley

Dec 8 Update: Sheets import is now enabled on the My Apps page! More details on import and other ways to create a database here.

Feb 1 Update: Column types set inside the editor were getting reset every users regenerated schema twice. This has been fixed.

Feb 14 Update: Virtual columns can now be set as labels inside the AppSheet app editor.

Apr 26 Update: Deleted tables can now be restored through the new history experience inside the database. Please see support article here.

May 3 Update: You can now share a database with an entire AppSheet team as a shared datasource. AppSheet teams are only available to AppSheet enterprise users.

May 24 Update: Audit logs for AppSheet databases are now available for admins and database editors. You can also restore deleted databases. More info here.

[DannyG27]

Awesome feature! Will test it out.

[vYGY]

Excellent, works really well so far. Looking forward to finding out what the limits will be for public launch.

[EliK]

@ShirleyN

Some features that are coming include a smoother import/export of data, database recovery, and email notifications after sharing a database.

Looking forward to these updates!

[Ryan_Wagner]

This is fantastic. Also hoping it is a very large storage limit.

[shanmukarajan]

This one is going to be a best competition for Amazon Honeycode.

But I fear the “limits based on subscriptions plans” in th support page will impact the usage of Appsheet Database..

Better we keep Google Sheets as Data source.

[Vlad_Roman]

This is a good thing for productivity. How do we store images or files if we migrate from gSheets?

[MatthewDavid122]

Does connectivity from Tableau, PowerBI, or Google Data Studio exist? If not, planned?

[anonymous]

Is it possible to update the Appsheet Database with Google Appscript?

[dbaum]

Great question. You could surely use the AppSheet API. Also consider exploring App Script’s Tables service, since Google Tables underlies AppSheet databases.

[Eduardo_Jr_Vill]

This is awesome. Looking forward to this!

Few questions though:

• How’s the privacy policy for appsheet database?

• Is there a way to use our existing column structure in an app and import that structure into appsheet database? This would probably save us a lot of time.

• Do you have an ETA for the public launch? Would like to know the limits as soon as it’s available. So we’ll know migrating into appsheet’s database is an option or not.

  I saw this image upload under the early testing post of this feature in this community. So maybe they’ll follow the same 10k limit for existing app core subscription per user? (E.g. 2 user license = 20k limit) I hope they don’t go below! This is enough for me. And if they don’t go below that’s enough reason for me to invest time exploring. I hope someone can clarify.

  

[dbaum]

ICYMI: AppSheet databases - AppSheet Help

[takuya_miyai]

@ShirleyN

I tried to ban it in the team policy.
I don’t know if it’s a bug or a spec, but I can ban the creation of Blank apps, but not the mere creation of a Database.

[takuya_miyai]

@ShirleyN
Also, it was possible to add a Table as a Table even if the policy prohibited it.
Although it would be an error, I thought it would be better if it could not be added.

[Eduardo_Jr_Vill]

So the current limits while it’s on preview. I hope the limits won’t go below for Appsheet core /starter when it’s launched.

[ShirleyN]

Similar to Sheets, files cannot be stored inside the database. Currently files and images can only be referenced using a file path.

[ShirleyN]

Jumping in here, yes the AppSheet API can be used or if you build an app using an AppSheet database as the source, you can use AppSheet automation to trigger an Apps Script project. Unfortunately the Tables service will not work here. Although the user experience is very similar to Tables, AppSheet databases was completely rebuilt to integrate with AppSheet.

[yumei]

Sounds exciting, so I hate to be a downer. But these related to the very questions my team have been discussing: How does one export an AppSheet database? And where does the database live? If I cancel my AppSheet subscription, will I still have access to the database?

Is this new development indicative of where AppSheet is headed? Are you planning on ditching GoogleSheets?

[neovinu]

error while adding new row to Appsheet Database

[Ratatosk]

Looks promising!

Before I try out this feature, I have core plan, will I be able to use these features within that plan?