improve the ordering of json or pretty html data in the email #380

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opened 2025-10-14 16:57:37 -06:00 by navan · 0 comments

navan commented

2025-10-14 16:57:37 -06:00

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Originally created by @mckennapsean on 1/27/2017

The spreadsheet has an implicit ordering based on the headers. The email just gets a random order, I think because the underlying data is scraped and put into a Javascript array (which is not ordered by default). As a result, if we prettify the email like in #74 , then the order will be based on the input data.

We could order data in the email based on the form data, or the spreadsheet data. I think it is best to have it be MOST flexible to the data someone uses in their form, as it is a lot easier to tweak and add form elements in HTML than in a Google Spreadsheet (and live changing columns could result in loss of data...). But this is a bit of an opinion I wanted to start a discussion on first, to see what others think. :)

One challenge for this tutorial and approach is that you can change a lot of things right now, the spreadsheet, the Google script code (and saving/publishing it appropriately), the Javascript code, or your form in HTML, plus you can also be just sending an email or do both email & the spreadsheet. It is complex. Anyways, with many points of entry and of updating, it gets tricky for someone to walk through the tutorial.

*Originally created by @mckennapsean on 1/27/2017* The spreadsheet has an implicit ordering based on the headers. The email just gets a random order, I think because the underlying data is scraped and put into a Javascript array (which is not ordered by default). As a result, if we prettify the email like in #74 , then the order will be based on the input data. We could order data in the email based on the form data, or the spreadsheet data. I think it is best to have it be MOST flexible to the data someone uses in their form, as it is a lot easier to tweak and add form elements in HTML than in a Google Spreadsheet (and live changing columns could result in loss of data...). But this is a bit of an opinion I wanted to start a discussion on first, to see what others think. :) One challenge for this tutorial and approach is that you can change a lot of things right now, the spreadsheet, the Google script code (and saving/publishing it appropriately), the Javascript code, or your form in HTML, plus you can also be just sending an email or do both email & the spreadsheet. It is complex. Anyways, with many points of entry and of updating, it gets tricky for someone to walk through the tutorial.