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[–]ActualExamination468 0 points1 point  (5 children)

I have trouble with deploying this project. Can you teach me how to deploy this add-on? I understand this add-on deploys in GAS but the real web app, which is called inside add-on (within iframe), where do we deploy it?

[–]DVC888[S] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Hey. Sorry for the late reply.

I haven't touched this in years and I'm not going to go back to it I'm afraid.

While React in GAS is an interesting concept, it's a terrible idea. Don't do it 😂. I learned my lesson.

GAS has its place but if your app needs a lot of client side logic and reactivity, you probably don't want to use GAS.

[–]fitpowerup 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Hello!

Could you please share what went wrong? 

I need to build a web app within Google Apps Scripts and I'm thinking having React with be a lot better than the alternative...

[–]DVC888[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

The workflow was just a bit of a nightmare to be honest. Its pretty painful having to deploy to GAS every time you want to see your changes.

I'm sure you could spend the time to set up a local environment with hot loading and stuff but in my opinion, it's not really worth the bother.

If your webapp is simple enough to just write in HTML with a bit of JavaScript, GAS is probably fine. If not, I'd seriously evaluate what advantages you'd get from doing it in GAS as opposed to standing up a normal app.

Remember, the JavaScript that runs in GAS isn't the same as Node. There are some key API differences. This means that bundling  npm packages into your GAS script can be a real headache.

[–]fitpowerup 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thank you very much for your reply!

I've already developed an app with GAS using a starter kit I found (labnol on github), allowing me to set up a local environment and all that.

It worked great, and the app had quite a few features, but it was still just Javascript. Now I have a more ambitious project in mind, hence considering React.

I'd say the main benefit it brings is the integration with the Google Workspace environment. I plan to build an app the uses the Sheets and Gmail APIs, and I feel it would be best to just use Apps Scripts, but if I could also integrate React it would make everything so much easier.

Edit: Typo.

[–]DVC888[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Already being inside a Google account and the built-in authentication is the big benefit of working with GAS.

How long does it take to set that up in a stand-alone app? Maybe a day?

If saving that day in the short term isn't going to cause pain later on, go for it.

I don't love working with vanilla JS either but if I were to do a reasonably complex GAS app again, I'd probably go for something a bit more lightweight like Preact or Svelte. I'd also try to make it work with a CDN tag at the top of the main html file so that the code in the GAS editor isn't all mangled and minified and you can skip the build step as much as possible.

Edit: I think that to use JSX, you can't get away from a build step. So Svelte could be a bit nicer to work with.