I've talked a few times about mashing, superusers and spreadsheets. Now I've discovered EditGrid, which might give a glimpse into what a Web-enabled, spreadsheet-based mashing solution for the average user might look like. The kiler-app in this case is what EditGrid call Remote Data.
The example they provide shows a built-in function to pull live stock quotes into a spreadsheet, but Remote Data is quite capable of pulling in a URL and then you can in theory manipulate that data with cell functions. Unfortunately what it appears to lack is native functions to parse HTML or XML data, or macros. However, EditGrid does provide an API so the potential to extend its Remote Data capabilities are endless.
BTW EditGrid has some other great features to check out, and certainly raises the bar in terms of what a Web 2.0 spreadsheet solution should look like.
So, which approach is likely to win in terms of providing mashing capabilities for the average user - drag and drop GUI or a next generation Web 2.0 era spreadsheet?
Hello James,
ReplyDeleteThanks for covering EditGrid. We do provide a feature called My Data Format, which allows users to submit an XSLT to transform the spreadsheet data exported in XML format into whatever you like. We also plan to support JSONP. Take a look at https://www.editgrid.com/article/tour/mdf and see if it fits your need!
Yours,
P. K.