Multi Search for different Users

[gseyfried]

My app is a housing navigation guide. It lists different types of affordable, subsidized and market place rental Locations. The major drive to put this together was that folks have a tough time finding housing that suits them. I put together a robust search using a form, and a results spreadsheet. I used app scripts to match the search criteria with the housing Data, but I just ran into the issue where only one person can search at a time, since the results sheet gets reupdated.

My question is, is this something that can be fixed with the the local/private tables? It doesn't seem likely since I would have to run my script on the table.  Is it possible to alter the private tables? or copy a table to a private table immediately?

I have also thought up the idea of making a new sheet each time the search is run, and clearing them at the end of the day.

My app is supposed to be a public resource so it's really frustrating about all of the security checks there are in place!

[WillowMobileSys]

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@gseyfried wrote:

My app is supposed to be a public resource

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First, in a non-secured public app, the app does not know who each user is so there would be no expectation of saving something privately per user.  I'll venture a guess that you are using a public app to save on cost.  Any app that has private tables will require secured access and associated licensing fees.

You can introduce a psuedo-registration and login process.  I say "psuedo" because the security is very weak and nothing prevents other users from creating fake accounts or from hacking an account.  Only you can judge if the risk is worth it.

If you do mimic some login process, you can then have a table to save filter requests based on the logged in user.  When that user logins in, the app can show their previously saved filters.  Just know that security can be compromised and some malicious person could gain access to someone else's filtering criteria and any personal details you might have been capturing in the app - if they should so desire.   So avoid capturing personal details altogether.

[gseyfried]

This sounds interesting. Would something like this work:

Log in: John -> Johns search form submits -> results are created by app script -> results with 'john' in user column (viewable only by john)
Log in: adam -> Adams search form submits -> app script runs on form submission -> results with user 'john' and user 'adam' (only adam column is visible)?

It sounds like there may be some issues if forms are submitted at the same time, or before the script finishes processing. Any tips on making a bot run queue for multiple users? Also what sort of logic is used to say user has to match column for view. 

[OptimiX_XcrY]

I don't know if user settings option exists in public apps, but if it does,it cand be used as a basic search form, generating a slice for results