5 ms·

Show HN: Using Google Sheets to create a survey chat bot without a server

119 points by m88m 9y ago

bhnmmhmd 9y ago
This is great! I wonder can it be done for Telegram as well?
- m88m 9y ago
  Thanks! Feel free to fork it.
- gfredtech 9y ago
  When I'm free this evening, I'll follow the guide and build a telegram bot. I will fork his repo if it works
  - bhnmmhmd 9y ago
    Thanks. Waiting to hear more from you.
dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
Seeing these chatbots I'm always wondering... Are customers rally using these? I'm wondering because it would never occur to me to chat to a chatbot.
- anonu 9y ago
  From what I've heard - chatbots are bigger in China and other parts of Asia. In the US, we primarily use chat to communicate with others. In China, with apps like WeChat, you can fill out forms, send payments, etc...
- m88m 9y ago
  Yesterday typeform announced $35 million round. Maybe there are applications for a human to chat with a survey based application. IMHO calling something a bot, is a short for "oh, I have an API which people can interact with it".
- gfredtech 9y ago
  In Russia, lots of people use telegram and the bots too. I use bots to do lots of things, from ordering pizza to managing my schedule. However, these bots are usually not NLP-powered...so there's less disaster as compared to how facebook bots rely heavily on natural language input from the user
  - frandroid 9y ago
    Yeah, these are more chat wizards than chatbots... I think we should distinguish that.
    - highd 9y ago
      So terminal UIs are coming back?
le-mark 9y ago
It's curious to see these occasional "cool little apps using google sheets for a datastore" when there are many "database as a service" around with free tiers, like firebase, restdb, and a whole bunch of others. Why not just use a real database instead of hacking google sheets?
- austenallred 9y ago
  Because it's cool that you can
  - m88m 9y ago
    Totally agree. Personally, I just adored everything about GSuite interface. They did an amazing work.
- giarc 9y ago
  FTA "Most bot tutorials are for people who can code, so if you don’t have developers or staff with extra time on their hands your custom needs may not be met."
jimktrains2 9y ago
You have a hacienda server, you're just not managing it.
- jimktrains2 9y ago
  Wow, I have no idea where that came from. Hacienda should be backend.
pmlnr 9y ago
That is not without a server... it's not your server, but it does have a server side.
- m88m 9y ago
  Yeah. You are right. Should have use a different terminology.
- Isamu 9y ago
  In fairness, "serverless" architecture involves servers. I am appalled by the constant erosion of meaning in the tech field, but there you are.
  - goblin89 9y ago
    How do we refer to the type of architecture without server-side component proper[0][1][2] though? Makes it surprisingly hard to find material and research on those topics. Recently I was looking for one insightful talk (with a PoC) where websites run completely on users’ machines. It’s been a couple of years since I saw that talk for the first time, “cloud” was the term of choice to refer to what’s “serverless” now. I had to give up after pages upon pages of search results talking about Lambda or Azure (otherwise I’d have linked the talk here, of course). [0] https://github.com/jhiesey/peercloud https://github.com/jhiesey/peercloud [1] https://github.com/lucaspiller/shortly https://github.com/lucaspiller/shortly [2] https://paul.kinlan.me/serverless-sync-in-web-apps/ https://paul.kinlan.me/serverless-sync-in-web-apps/
- drumttocs8 9y ago
  I think "serverless" always just implies there's not a server that you yourself have to spin up and manage. Of course there's still a server...
charred_toast 9y ago
How difficult, if at all possible, would it be to add images to each question?
- m88m 9y ago
  Hi. Should be easy! I have another demo that actually send images, rich messages and other elements. However, I can't share its source code yet. Sorry!
wnevets 9y ago
I did something similar with AWS's S3, Lamba and a google spreadsheet.
justboxing 9y ago
This is beautiful. Also - side-note but often overlooked on open-source & github projects - the documentation / getting started guide on home page is EXCELLENT!
- m88m 9y ago
  Thanks. <3 GitHub!
nikolay 9y ago
They didn't approve my developer account, so, I have no incentive to look into this when Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and many others are widely available.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- m88m 9y ago
  Hi Nikolay. Viber's DevRel here. Super sorry to hear that. Can you please shot me an email over devsupport[at]viber[dot]com? I'll try to fix this.
  - nikolay 9y ago
    Why do you need to manually approve at all? I have a bunch of public accounts and I want to take full advantage of those.
    - m88m 9y ago
      We are working on a new better system. Should be out anytime now.
      - nikolay 9y ago
        A week late - no change!
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
DanI-S 9y ago
If you're interested in this approach, there's a similar spreadsheet-based pattern available for building trivia-style games for the Google Assistant platform: https://triviatemplate.com/ https://triviatemplate.com/

119 points by m88m 9y ago

bhnmmhmd 9y ago

This is great! I wonder can it be done for Telegram as well?

m88m 9y ago
Thanks! Feel free to fork it.
gfredtech 9y ago
When I'm free this evening, I'll follow the guide and build a telegram bot. I will fork his repo if it works
- bhnmmhmd 9y ago
  Thanks. Waiting to hear more from you.

dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago

Seeing these chatbots I'm always wondering... Are customers rally using these? I'm wondering because it would never occur to me to chat to a chatbot.

anonu 9y ago
From what I've heard - chatbots are bigger in China and other parts of Asia. In the US, we primarily use chat to communicate with others. In China, with apps like WeChat, you can fill out forms, send payments, etc...
m88m 9y ago
Yesterday typeform announced $35 million round. Maybe there are applications for a human to chat with a survey based application. IMHO calling something a bot, is a short for "oh, I have an API which people can interact with it".
gfredtech 9y ago
In Russia, lots of people use telegram and the bots too. I use bots to do lots of things, from ordering pizza to managing my schedule. However, these bots are usually not NLP-powered...so there's less disaster as compared to how facebook bots rely heavily on natural language input from the user
- frandroid 9y ago
  Yeah, these are more chat wizards than chatbots... I think we should distinguish that.
  - highd 9y ago
    So terminal UIs are coming back?

le-mark 9y ago

It's curious to see these occasional "cool little apps using google sheets for a datastore" when there are many "database as a service" around with free tiers, like firebase, restdb, and a whole bunch of others. Why not just use a real database instead of hacking google sheets?

austenallred 9y ago
Because it's cool that you can
- m88m 9y ago
  Totally agree. Personally, I just adored everything about GSuite interface. They did an amazing work.
giarc 9y ago
FTA "Most bot tutorials are for people who can code, so if you don’t have developers or staff with extra time on their hands your custom needs may not be met."

jimktrains2 9y ago

You have a hacienda server, you're just not managing it.

jimktrains2 9y ago
Wow, I have no idea where that came from. Hacienda should be backend.

pmlnr 9y ago

That is not without a server... it's not your server, but it does have a server side.

m88m 9y ago
Yeah. You are right. Should have use a different terminology.
Isamu 9y ago
In fairness, "serverless" architecture involves servers. I am appalled by the constant erosion of meaning in the tech field, but there you are.
- goblin89 9y ago
  How do we refer to the type of architecture without server-side component proper[0][1][2] though? Makes it surprisingly hard to find material and research on those topics. Recently I was looking for one insightful talk (with a PoC) where websites run completely on users’ machines. It’s been a couple of years since I saw that talk for the first time, “cloud” was the term of choice to refer to what’s “serverless” now. I had to give up after pages upon pages of search results talking about Lambda or Azure (otherwise I’d have linked the talk here, of course). [0] https://github.com/jhiesey/peercloud https://github.com/jhiesey/peercloud [1] https://github.com/lucaspiller/shortly https://github.com/lucaspiller/shortly [2] https://paul.kinlan.me/serverless-sync-in-web-apps/ https://paul.kinlan.me/serverless-sync-in-web-apps/
drumttocs8 9y ago
I think "serverless" always just implies there's not a server that you yourself have to spin up and manage. Of course there's still a server...

charred_toast 9y ago

How difficult, if at all possible, would it be to add images to each question?

m88m 9y ago
Hi. Should be easy! I have another demo that actually send images, rich messages and other elements. However, I can't share its source code yet. Sorry!

wnevets 9y ago

I did something similar with AWS's S3, Lamba and a google spreadsheet.

justboxing 9y ago

This is beautiful. Also - side-note but often overlooked on open-source & github projects - the documentation / getting started guide on home page is EXCELLENT!

m88m 9y ago
Thanks. <3 GitHub!

nikolay 9y ago

They didn't approve my developer account, so, I have no incentive to look into this when Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and many others are widely available.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
m88m 9y ago
Hi Nikolay. Viber's DevRel here. Super sorry to hear that. Can you please shot me an email over devsupport[at]viber[dot]com? I'll try to fix this.
- nikolay 9y ago
  Why do you need to manually approve at all? I have a bunch of public accounts and I want to take full advantage of those.
  - m88m 9y ago
    We are working on a new better system. Should be out anytime now.
    - nikolay 9y ago
      A week late - no change!
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]

DanI-S 9y ago

If you're interested in this approach, there's a similar spreadsheet-based pattern available for building trivia-style games for the Google Assistant platform: https://triviatemplate.com/ https://triviatemplate.com/