Podio Spreadsheets with ProcFu

ProcFu’s new Mini Apps recently got a new feature: Spreadsheets. These sheets can be hugely useful in specific applications, reducing the amount of click-through required to edit larger data sets.

In this example, we’re going to look at timesheets - a pretty common business use-case.

Given a Podio Timesheet app:

We want to give users a simple spreadsheet-like interface to input their time:

The Podio Setup

In Podio we need a simple timesheets up to capture the required data.

For this example, we have:

• Date (date)

• User (contact / workspace members)

• Hours (number)

• Type (category)

• Customer (relationship)

• Description (single-line text)

The important part though, is to have a public view that limits the data to the logged in user and the current date:

The Mini App

The mini app is pretty straight forward.

We set the authentication to Podio with no linked app so that only Podio users with access to the Timesheets app in Podio can use this mini app:

The app itself will only have one screen for the sheet:

Note that:

• “From View” is the view created earlier for the current user and date only

• “Display As” is set to “SpreadSheet”

• “Date” defaults to @[pf_current_date] for the current date

• “User” is hidden and defaults to the logged in user [{"id":"@[pf_auth_profile_id]","text":"@[pf_auth_username]"}] (this should be pre-filled for you)

• We allow insert and delete

Using a Sheet

Mini App sheets work pretty much like any spreadsheet with a few exceptions and Podio-specific functions:

• Category fields become drop-down selects

• Relationship fields become drop-down selects with AJAX-enabled search

• Complex fields like multi-line text fields, images, etc, are discouraged and/or not supported

• To insert a line press CTRL+SHIFT+I (new lines appear at the top, like in Podio)

• To delete a line press CTRL+SHIFT+D

• On mobile screens or touchpads, tap with 2-fingers to bring up a menu to insert / delete rows

The Resulting Sheet

The resulting sheet is easy-to-use, responsive, and mobile-friendly:

And updates are reflected in Podio in real-time:

Don’t forget you can embed these mini-apps pretty much anywhere 😊