The iiindex is built entirely using open infrastructure (Github Actions, Google Sheets), and as such is forkable and usable by anyone with a similar project. This process of forking is something we are actively working to streamline; if you have any issues adapting this code to your use case, please let us know via Github Issues and we can help out.
This part is the hardest to streamline out and will likely always be necessary in some form, partly because of
The iiindex was built around (and is still predominantly managed by) a google sheet, primarily because of the ability to allow anyone to edit, and have a large number of people work collaboratively at the same time.
However -- you don't actually need public editing for this tool to work, as you've got to make a service account in any case, so if you would prefer to restrict edit access you can do so.
In order to sync with a git repo, there's a few additional bits of metadata required.
Add in the fields:
- UUID -- don't put anything here yet, just leave blank. this is where the fields will get filled up. good to make this the first column
- Shortname -- here's where the names of the files corresponding to each entry will go. It's worth filling this out now with recognisable nicknames, but it is also possible to auto-generate (they just might not be very nice). make sure they're unique (next step will enforce this)! In theory the UUIDs are enough for people here, but it's nice to have recognisable names
- Last Edit -- this will record edits to the sheet, leave this blank for now
This prevents duplicate names from being added to the shortnames (if there is a copy the script will create a random name instead). Select the 'Shortnames' column, and go to Data > Data Validation. Add in the following formula under 'Custom Formula Is' (assuming the shortname column is C, if you make it a different column you just need to change the C:C part)
=COUNTIF(C:C, INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN(),)))=1
In order to generate UUIDs and timestamps for the entries, a script needs to be added to the sheet.
Note: if you accidentally log in with a different Google account, it'll look like the script no longer exists -- make sure to log in with the correct account to see this.
The script you need is located here, and should go into a new file (called anything you like) in Extensions > Apps Script.
This part's not very beautiful (and will be the first to improve), but you need to modify the script to reflect your particular sheet. In this instance, add in the names of as many tables in your sheet that you'd like to keep track of, and the corresponding 'Last Edit' columns (lines 9 and 25-26 respectively). Any tables you don't include can still be versioned, but won't be used to directly generate the site.
You need to set a trigger for the script -- set the function onEdit to run when the sheet is edited. When you first try to execute the script, it might ask you to verify the app -- this is fine, just go to advanced settings and click through.
To verify that the script is running properly, try editing a single cell -- the timestamp and UUID cells (if there's no existing UUID) should update!
The final step is to add an account that will allow the script to interact with the google sheet. This is necessary even if your sheet is publicly editable, because of the way google assigns permissions to API based tools.
Google have some instructions for doing this -> when you get to the APIs part, you need to enable Google Drive (rather than Google Sheets specifically), and allow both read and write permissions for this sheet. Save the keys generated by the last step! You will need this for the next part.
The last step, is to share access to the sheet with the service account you just created.
Fork a copy of the repository.
Testing
Changing Tab names
Leave citation for now
schema: tool/software -> title
redo config folder names
make about etc page markdown and thus importable from gh