topic Re: Apps Script collaboration in Peer-Peer Topics

Apps Script collaboration

GuruGabe1 — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 22:11:48 GMT

All right stop
Collaborate and listen
Yoda is back with a brand-new invention
Something grabs hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop?
Yo, I don't know.

OK, enough of that. I was thinking of collaborating with everyone on a Google Apps Script utility we could all use. A utility for selected staff to have some control of students on their campus. I have something for our AD accounts but nothing for our Google-only accounts, and I thought, "Well, it's about time I did something about it." But my Apps Script-fu is still on a white belt level.

Here is my thinking. Have a page that runs Apps Script in the background. Your staff have various permissions according to what you want to allow them to do, like move the student or change their password. When the page loads, you have a basic search box. Staff member enters the information for who they are looking for, which can be first name, last name, grade level if you have separate Orgs for each grade level, or any other field you want to search. When the staff member clicks the search, it lists all students they can access (like only high school students) that meet that criteria. Then, they can select the student they want and modify whatever they need to, like changing the student's password or their Org. If that staff member does not have access to something, like changing Orgs, that field is greyed out but visible. For those that use GCDS, you could have an option in the code to disable Org moving.

I developed something similar with the legendary Kim Nilsson for Chromebooks where our techs can modify Location and Asset ID, but I can't wrap my head around this one for some reason. If you don't know who Mr. Nilsson is, you should.

Re: Apps Script collaboration

Kim_Nilsson — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 22:40:06 GMT

Oh, I know of a tool like this!

It's called the admin console. 😎

Just give your designated users a relevant admin right (or several), and restrict it to the OUs of their students. Then they can do almost everything you want them to, with only the students they should do it to.

Yes, I know that simple approach doesn't cover 100% of everything that you want them to do, but it'll save an enormous amount of time and energy, which can be used to build a tool that does the few things that it doesn't cover.❤️

Re: Apps Script collaboration

icrew — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 22:51:24 GMT

+1 to Kim. We actually built a fully-custom admin tool about a decade ago (in python), and it's a major weight around our necks to keep it maintained. The admin console, possibly with the addition of a third party tool like BetterCloud, is a much happier path.

Re: Apps Script collaboration

GuruGabe1 — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 23:09:29 GMT

Dang, I lost track of this post. I know the admin console is easier, for us, but I have staff that touched their first computer this school year and others that are not much more computer savvy. Things can get too confusing in the Console. That is why I liked the simple URL they can go to, find X student, and change their password.

Re: Apps Script collaboration

Kim_Nilsson — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 10:17:07 GMT

You should be able to fairly "easy" repurpose the code you created for CBs, and just point it to search for users instead of devices.