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 wrote:

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?

[ShirleyN]

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

[Jedigran]

It seems to me the Database now (November 2022) already stores images inside?

[Karan_Agarwal]

I can't seem to find where my images are stored. How do I back them up ?

[dbaum]

Image storage

[MatthewDavid122]

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

[MarApp]

For Google Data Studio, there should be a connector as there was one previously for Google Tables which is where this feature was coming from.

[zito]

It is possible to connect to an AppSheet database w/ Data Studio via a connected app - this post talks about how that works generically with data sources.  Given that the AppSheet database is a significant change from the Tables beta, I don'.t believe that the existing Tables connector will work directly

[Jedigran]

I tried to used it.!

My intuition was that the connections will be directed to the "database" (set of tables interrelated by indexes) but it seems the connections were directed to the AppSheet application (Tables/ Columns). Having now the Database Feature, any plan to connect the Looker Studio to the data schemedirectly?

[Remi]

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.

[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. 

[dbaum]

Thanks for chiming in to clarify. Responsiveness from AppSheet staff is invaluable in these discussions that arise from the many questions that inevitably arise with the rollout of important new features.

[dbaum]

---

@dbaum wrote:

Google Tables underlies AppSheet databases

---

@ShirleyN, my assumption was based on references to Tables that I saw in the main UI during the early alpha preview period. Those are certainly gone now.

Nonetheless, ICYMI, various remnants remain in logs and error messages. Follwoing is one I just encountered. Other examples appear elsewhere in this announcement's myriad replies.

[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. 🙏

  

[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]

Hi there, the privacy policy for this feature is consistent with Google Cloud and AppSheet's policy. Zito also went into this in a few of his responses here. For using existing column structure, we're actively working on a Sheets import feature that will help with that. GA is targeted for early next year but yes I understand you and many others here are eager to learn about the limits. We can't disclose anything specific yet because we're still making changes/optimizations to the product that would change this, but stay tuned. 

[JonathanSeow]

Hi there,

I understand that the current limit is 10k rows per table and will change during the public launch.

Just requesting if it is possible to increase the current limit to 300k as currently my team requires it for our operation which is running on google sheets at the moment. 

Thanks 

[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.

 

[lizlynch]

@takuya_miyai - As per creating an AppSheet database table, I believe you have uncovered a bug. I will report this to the team. Thank you so much for reporting this!

Liz

[lizlynch]

@takuya_miyai - When you enable the Disable AppSheet databases team setting, you will be prevented from creating a database or blank database. Looks like you need to refresh the My Apps page in order for the options to be hidden. Let us know if this is not consistent with your experience. Thank you!
Liz

[takuya_miyai]

Thanks @lizlynch 

After adding policy and reloading my app page, That create menu is not hidden in my enviroment.
When I create blank app, I get error message, so That policy is enable.
However, AppSheet database is still created in that case. 

 

[lizlynch]

@takuya_miyai - Thank you for the screencast. Can you confirm one thing before I raise this issue to the team? Did you enable the following setting on the My team > Settings page?

Thank you and apologies for the inconvenience!

Liz

[takuya_miyai]

Hi @lizlynch 
Sorry, I missed that setting.🙏
When I set it, the Create menu in Database was hidden.

Thank you very much.

[lizlynch]

@takuya_miyai You are welcome! Glad it worked!

[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?

[andrew_caff]

I can second this and would be appreciative of hearing how users can access their data from an external connection. My use cases for appsheet are generally using it as a data logger into an SQL data base wherein the data is queried in R, python, or connected google sheets for data analysis. 

I think this database feature in Appsheet can really push it forward for company's but more transparency as it moves out of preview is needed so data scientists can access the data. Good work overall making appsheet even more capable as a LIMS system.

[zito]

I'll defer to Shirley on specifics around this, but I would say that accessing data from an external connection for large data volumes or complex analysis is not the primary use case for the AppSheet database.   Given that we already support SQL databases that scale to very large data volumes, I think that's probably going to be the best path forward, at least for the near- to mid-term.

As I mentioned elsewhere, we want AppSheet database to be the right solution for people that need something more structured than sheets, but perhaps not as sophisticated as a SQL database.  If we get a lot of customer demand that suggests customers want AppSheet databases to scale to the same level as the existing SQL datastores, we'll obviously revisit this.  

[Christopher_Wil]

Please do visit getting to the level of SQL datastores.  This will allow users to be able to grow staying on your services.

[zito]

Hey Yumei,  thanks for the questions - and you're not a downer, these are great questions to ask.  Export is coming, either with or prior to the GA, we wouldn't make this a production database without that.  As far as where the database lives, it's stored in one of Google's geographically distributed and redundant data stores.  

I believe we are still finalizing the data retention, and it's also subject to the limits we set for each SKU - but there will be a path to export data for at least a defined period of time after account cancellation.  I'll make sure that we clearly articulate this as we get closer to GA.

As far as the direction AppSheet is headed, we're definitely not ditching Google Sheets, we have a great relationship with the Sheets team and its far and away the most common data source for AppSheet apps.  However, we heard from users that Sheets isn't always as performant as they would like, or they would like something more structured than Sheets, but not as complex to manage as a SQL database, and we wanted to make sure we can address that.  

[pmansy1]

Is there or will there be a tool to query the data and do mass changes in the tables? Is there or will there be a way to issue reports and dashboards with the data?

[yumei]

This is a much delayed thank-you to your response. I recently tested the AppSheet database and found it rather unwieldy, almost crude (for lack of a better word). Google Sheets has its limitations, but it's the devil you know. AppSheet database seems to fall into no-man's land--it has neither the familiarity of Google Sheets, nor the power of SQL. So I for one hope for breakthroughs in AppSheet's database development.