Do docs/tables created from template dynamically update when template changes -OR- Automation Rule to alert when new Packs are published

Making Packs
1

I’d like to be alerted when new Packs are added to coda. Today I explored various ways to accomplish this goal within coda; since I’m a new user, I thought it might be helpful to the developers if I shared my assumptions & processes for doing so:

1st attempt:

  • opened Packs Starter Kit Template: https://coda.io/t/Packs-Starter-Kit_tDpsxMCm1or/preview

  • navigated to “:heart_eyes: All the Packs” section / table

  • clicked :robot: Automation icon; opened Automations rules editor

  • created rule that triggered on changes to “:heart_eyes: All the Packs” table name column, sending me alert with name

  • later on realized that probably none of my actions had been persisted since I had been interacting with the ‘preview’ mode of the template

2nd attempt:

  • clicked “Copy Doc” button in Packs-Starter-Kit template to make my own private doc copy of the template

  • created new table with intent to set column content dynamically by using “Lookup from Table” column type and referencing “:heart_eyes: All the Packs” table in source template

  • slowly realized “Lookup from Table” is confined to document-level scope :cry: (so are all non-api operations?)

3rd attempt:

  • Signed up for Google Apps Scripts & provisioned coda.io Api auth token

  • created Google Apps Script to one-way-sync the table I created earlier in my copy of the template with the “All the Packs” table in the original template;

  • realized there are no CodaAPI methods for querying public templates :cry:

  • :thinking: what about using CodaApi.listFormulas() to enumerate all formulas, filtering for ‘::’ (which may be unique to Pack-specific formulas), and updating my table based on result?

    • oh dang, listFormulas endpoint is /docs/{docId}/formulas - it’s only for getting list of formulas included in specific doc :cry: (not templates don’t be silly)

4th attempt:

conclusion:
Guess I’ll just wait for cross-doc features to be implemented (hopefully there will be some cross-template features too :slight_smile:

:shushing_face: shhh… 5th attempt…

// from developer js console when logged into coda & browsing 
// https://coda.io/t/Packs-Starter-Kit_tDpsxMCm1or/preview:

await fetch('https://coda.io/internalAppApi/packs')
.then(res => res.json())
.then( ({manifest: {packs}}) => 
  packs.reduce( (acc, curr) => 
    acc.concat(curr.versions[0].name), [] 
  )
)
// resolves to ["Spotify", "Debug", "Slack", "Intercom", "GitHub", "Weather", "Gmail", "Greenhouse", "MLB", "Stocks", "Google Calendar", "Figma", "YouTube", "Instagram", "Walmart Shopping", "Wikipedia", "Twilio", "Google Natural Language", "NBA", "FullContact", "Dropbox"]

:smile:

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2

Hey @100ideas, we’re quite late to this post, but nice exploration you’ve done here! As you’ve discovered, we currently don’t have any public APIs or meta-formulas for showing the available formulas or Packs that we support. One thing we do have is this page, which lists available formulas, including Packs formulas: https://coda.io/formulas

When you create a copy of a template, it’s made at that point in time. Your copy won’t update as the original template is updated.

For your “5th attempt”, note that our internal APIs are not intended for public use and can break at any time. Our goal for the future is to have more Packs, and once we find the resources to work on that we’ll probably have a better experience that lets you see new Packs, etc. without the need for something like this.

P.S. One thing we ask you (and anyone else reading this) to keep in mind is our Terms of Service, specifically 2.6, Acceptable Use. :slight_smile:

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