pre-beta-alpha version 0.0.0.0.1 do not expect this to work or make any sense

gdocs-database

Use Google Docs to host your website's (or app's) content. See this repo for an example using Reactjs and Typescript.

Why?

Have you ever had someone you're making a website for ask you to change one word in a paragraph? Add one image to a page? These simple yet very specific tasks are what clients often most care about, and what developers least care about.

I wanted to have a way for non-developers to change and add content to their website in a way they are already familiar with. With gdocs-database, Google Docs can be used to host the parts of the website that clients should have control over, taking away unnecessary responsibility from the developer.

How?

Google Docs are exported as txt files which are then parsed into custom objects that you can use to build your view.

Installation

npm install gdocs-database

Getting Started

The basic steps are these:

• Format a Google Doc
• Get the public URL for the doc
• Pass the public URL and a path to docToContent(docsUrl, filePath)
• Read the resulting JSON file with getContent(jsonFile)
• Write your own function to parse the resulting ContentObject array into divs for your website (see here for an example).

Google Doc Formatting

There are different types of content that can be added to the Google Doc to be displayed on your website.

• Different types of content should be seperated by a line break.
• Inline links should be formatted in Markdown style: [Click here!](https://<whataver-url-you-want>)
• Media like images and videos can all just be added by putting the URL/URI on it's own line in the doc.

See this Example Google Doc, and the corresponding webpage.

Get the public Google Doc export URL

A Google Doc represents a section of content to be displayed. To get a public Google Doc URL:

• While editing a Google Doc, click 'Share' in the top right
• Under 'Get Link' click 'Copy link'
• Make sure 'Anyone with the link' is set to 'Viewer', as this URL will be public

Module Exports

Classes and Types

Class Page

Used to help store information about a page of content. Properties:

• name?: string an optional name for the page
• path: string a path the JSON file will be written to
• docsUrl: string the public google docs URL

Class Link

Used to represent the text and URL of a link. Properties:

• text: string the text to click on
• url: string the public google docs URL

Class ContentObject

Stores the data associate with content from the Google Doc. Properties:

• contentType: ContentTypes denotes a 'type' for the content data
• data: string | Link | Para the data

Enum ContentTypes

Defines the types of content possible

Type jsonType

The type declaration for the resulting JSON file. Useful if you want to write your own function to parse the JSON to something other than a ContentObject array.

Functions

docToContent

async function docToContent(url: string, filePath: string = TEMP_FILE_NAME): Promise<ContentObject[] | null>

Downloads a Google Doc as a text file, then parses the text file into a ContentObject array. Returns a promise of an array of ContentObjects and writes it as JSON to the file path if specified.

getContent

function getContent(json: jsonType): ContentObject[]

Parses the JSON file (resulting from a call to docToContent) to a ContentObject array. You can then write your own function to iterate through the ContentObjects and build your view.