Show HN: Sheet2Site – Create Websites Out of Google Sheets

https://www.sheet2site.com

by andreyazimov • 8 years ago

145 47 8 years ago

Hi HN,

I made a tool that can generate a website from Google Sheets. It using Google Sheet as a DB.

Examples of sites: https://www.sheet2site.com/s/best-cities-for-digital-nomads/, https://www.sheet2site.com/s/best-coffee-shops-for-work-in-c..., https://www.sheet2site.com/s/top-100-cryptocurrencies, https://darkmodelist.com

drinchev• 8 years ago

This looks like a really cool idea.

What I noticed is that is somehow hard to understand how to create the page. ( Click here, then there, then copy paste, then click publish, etc... ). If this process was more it would be awesome.

Keep going the good work! I checked your $1k goal and wish you all the best in achieving it!

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

yeah, agree this instruction is sucks . Can you maybe suggest how I can improve it?

fragmede• 8 years ago

Move the steps around to remove switching between apps. My recommendation would be: 1, 6, 4, 2, 3, 5, with title and background info/other info as "advanced" config.

Make steps have sub steps, so step 1 is use this template, step 2 is prepare the spreadsheet; sub-step 2a is "press publish", sub-step 2b is "edit title on the main-page sheet" Step 3 is "Publish!" With sub-step 3a being copy url, 3b paste, etc.

It requires changing the code a bit, but should feel simpler, since there's no switching back and forth, and some complexity is hidden inside the sub steps.

danvoell2• 8 years ago

The site is down for me. HN Hug.

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Yeah probably with HN traffic, now seems work. Can you please try one more time?

danvoell2• 8 years ago

Yep working now. thanks! Cool idea, best of luck!

prats019• 8 years ago

All of the links seem to throw application error.

prakster• 8 years ago

I love your idea. And there's a huge market of individuals living on Excel that will pay you for doing this. Congrats!

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Thanks. I hope!

ada1981• 8 years ago

Looks like HN broke your server ;) Looking forward to checking it out when you get it running.

Is there a service that can easily stress test your app? Like a "TEST HN" service? Would be nice to run a project through that before posting to HN.

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Just checked and seems work, can you please try one more time?

jedimastert• 8 years ago

Checked it just now. Broke for me.

ndethore• 8 years ago

Awesome work Andrey!

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Thanks!

overcast• 8 years ago

Reaffirming that Excel truly is the universal format for everything. Good work!

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Agree! Go Excel! :)

benpixel2• 8 years ago

I like the simplicity. Also, I'm assuming it's not free, it would be nice to know what's the price before signing up. Maybe you could just add some sort of a disclaimer, e.g. Generate / Create new site (free up to 1k visitors/month, $5 after). Good luck!

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Agree! I've just added that for 1 custom domain it's for $5 /mon and for unlimited domains $10 / mon

faitswulff• 8 years ago

Oh! If you don't mind my asking, how do you go about selling custom domains? Or if there are resources you can point me to, that would be helpful, too.

svenvdz• 8 years ago

Nice work Andrey! Good luck with your $1000 MRR challenge.

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Thanks!

derwiki• 8 years ago

Too funny -- about a month ago I built a web site backed by a Google Sheet so that my father could easily update content. Great idea with Sheet2Site and good luck!

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Thanks :)

staticvar• 8 years ago

FWIW, YC funded startup Cloud Stitch does something similar https://cloudstitch.com/

starikovs• 8 years ago

One cool thing about sheet2site is that the sheet2site's idea is presented clearer than the cloudstitch's one. I mean when I opened sheet2site website I understood what it does in a moment. But in case of cloudstitch I have to force my brain to work to understand what this means: "Cloudstitch lets you manage websites & run your business, all from your office suite."

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

haha, thanks :) Maybe if you are "true" startup you can't be simple and clear? :)

AngeloAnolin• 8 years ago

Tried to access the site, but getting the error. Screenshot [1]

[1] https://ibb.co/kYtL5H

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Fixed. Please try now

nvusuvu• 8 years ago

Your copy:

They are working but I need to explain you how :)

could be improved to

They are working but I need to explain to you how to use it. :)

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Done! Thanks!

callahanrts• 8 years ago

Great idea! Any ideas for expansion? I imagine you could map rows/columns to a bootstrap-like grid system for more custom layouts.

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Thanks) I'm thinking to add a custom script from the sheet. Like Google Analytics or chat

seanwilson• 8 years ago

Can you explain the backend? When the spreadsheet is updated, is the generated website automatically updated?

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

It's just getting a JSON from a spreadsheet.

georgeoliver2• 8 years ago

Fun idea. I learned recently that Sheets also works as a JSON service to post and get data if you have a static site and don't want to stand up a DB server.

hckern3ws• 8 years ago

Any resource for this you can point me to?

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

I used this https://googlesheetjson.herokuapp.com

georgeoliver2• 8 years ago

There's a bunch on the web actually. The gist is that you create a Google App Script linked to your Sheet and deploy it publicly, which can receive GET and POST requests and respond as you like. See:

  http://chriszarate.github.io/sheetrock/

  http://douglasduhaime.com/posts/crud-operations-on-static-file-sites.html

  https://github.com/liddiard/google-sheet-s3

  https://www.johnastewart.org/coding/twine-game-data-to-google-sheets-via-javascript/

  https://medium.com/@dmccoy/how-to-submit-an-html-form-to-google-sheets-without-google-forms-b833952cc175

lzy• 8 years ago

Typo on your homepage image;

https://www.sheet2site.com/img/tabs.png

"backgroung"

andreyazimov21• 8 years ago

Thanks. Fixed

adamwi• 8 years ago

Great work!

An alternative I have been using recently for some projects is Molnify [1], it has more focus on exposing calculation logic in the app created and less control over background images and layout. Takes either a Excel file or a google sheet doc as input.

[1] http://www.molnify.com/

Show HN: Sheet2Site – Create Websites Out of Google Sheets

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