Access Google Apps Scripts from an external site

Question

I currently have a website that automates Instagram actions: http://instapromobiz.com . It is almost all javascript based, with some php to post to databases. Users login and an entry is created in a mySQL database, containing their username and how many credits they have (1 credit = 1 action). Then users add tags and press start, then the javascript makes requests via Instagrams API, and ajax+php is used to update their database.

The issue is that when the user leaves the page, or even refreshes it, the script will stop. Otherwise it will run forever.

I have a javascript file that contains all the functions needed to run the script until the user stops it.

My question is, can I use Google Apps Scripts to host this .js file so that when the user leaves the page the script continues to run. I've uploaded the code and published it, but I can't figure out how to access it from an external website.

node.js is out of the question, and I'd rather not convert the whole site to php(I don't know php well) and a cron wont work because of all the javascript.

Any help would be great, thanks!

Answer 1

Apps Script is going to be limited to a 5 minute execution time. You could create time based triggers to contend with that functionality to some extent, but the script will stop 5 minutes after being invoked.

If you still think Apps Script is a good fit, you would just need to deploy your script as a web app , and utilize a doGet(event) function or a doPost(event) function to receive the request from your external application. If you need to return content, there is ContentService to help facilitate that part of the process.

To maintain the different data points for each user, you will need to utilize ProertiesService.getUserProperties() , to store persistent string values for each user.

The other part of Apps Script that may come into play with your Javascript, is that Apps Script uses caja sanitization for javascript (just something to be mindful of, if you run into issues).

Answer 2

If you MUST defeat the execution time problem in google apps script. You can monitor the execution time and at a certain point before time expires invoke the script recursively and pass it the parameter of wherever it left off.