DrawSplat™ — Google Apps Script Setup

Current documentation: DrawSplat Wiki — setup, installation, licensing, pricing, OAuth, and district privacy review.

Use this when you want Google Drive + Sheets as the backend. You get cloud saves, shared collaboration rooms, templates, student turn-ins, the full Compliance Console (Activity Records, Safety Review, Age Band Lock, Family Access Tools, Retention, Time Limits, District Privacy Packet), and the Parent Request Center.

This is the optional Drive/Sheets integration. District MariaDB/MySQL installations have their own account-based saving, classrooms, assignments, and turn-ins; see district installation. Google sign-in for district accounts does not require Apps Script. Capacity depends on Workspace policies and Apps Script quotas; verify your expected load.

Prerequisites

• A Google account (Workspace or personal — school accounts work).
• 10–15 minutes for the initial setup.

Step 1 — Create the Apps Script project

1. Go to script.google.com.
2. Click New project.
3. Rename it (e.g. DrawSplatTM Backend).
4. Delete the starter code in Code.gs.
5. Open apps-script/Code.gs from this repository, copy its full contents, and paste into the Apps Script editor.
6. Save.

Tip: the first line of Code.gs shows DS_VERSION = '1.x.y'. Every time the file changes, the version bumps. Use it to verify the deployment is current — ?action=ping returns this version.

Step 2 — Run setup() once

1. In the Apps Script toolbar, pick setup from the function dropdown.
2. Click Run.
3. Authorize when prompted. The script needs:
   • Drive — to store board JSON and PNG previews.
   • Sheets — to maintain the index of boards, rooms, turn-ins, audit events, etc.
   • External requests — to verify Google sign-in tokens for the Community board.
   • Mail (optional) — to notify the compliance admin on new parent requests.

setup() creates a Google Sheet named DrawSplatTM Saves in your Drive with these tabs:

It also creates a Drive folder named DrawSplatTM Saves to hold the file blobs.

Step 3 — Set Script Properties

In Apps Script: Project Settings → Script Properties → Add script property.

The compliance features (text filter, link allowlist, retention, time limits) all read defaults from compliance.config.json baked into Code.gs. You only need COMPLIANCE_CONFIG set if you want to override those defaults — and you can do that through the Compliance Console UI rather than editing the property directly.

For the public DrawSplat^TM contact form, set [email protected] in the Apps Script project, deploy the Web App, then paste that /exec URL into DEFAULT_CONTACT_SCRIPT_URL in assets/js/contact.js. If that constant is still the placeholder, the contact form falls back to opening a prefilled email draft to the same project contact inbox.

Step 4 — Deploy as a Web App

1. Deploy → New deployment.
2. Select type: Web app.
3. Description: DrawSplat backend v1.0 (or your own).
4. Execute as: Me (the authoring Google account — required so the script has Drive access).
5. Who has access: pick the narrowest setting that still works for your users.
   • Only myself — testing.
   • Anyone with a Google account — strict, but blocks non-Google users.
   • Anyone — what the Community board needs (it uses Google/Microsoft OAuth inside the page). Most school deployments use this.
6. Click Deploy and authorize.
7. Copy the Web app URL (ends in /exec).

Step 5 — Connect the frontend

1. Open the DrawSplat™ site in your browser.
2. Click Teacher Admin in the top nav.
3. Enter the admin gate password (separate from ADMIN_PASSCODE — this just unlocks the admin page).
4. Paste the Web app URL into Google Drive + Sheets → Apps Script Web App URL → Save URL.
5. Click Test Connection. You should see a green success message.

That URL is stored only in your browser. Every teacher repeats this step on their own machine. You can hardcode it once at the top of assets/js/app.js (DEFAULT_GOOGLE_SCRIPT_URL) if you're hosting the site yourself and want every teacher to share one backend without manual entry.

Step 6 — (Optional) Wire the Community board

If you also want the /community/ board with Google + Microsoft sign-in:

1. Follow community/Setup.md. It walks through a separate Apps Script project (the Community backend is independent of the whiteboard backend), Google OAuth client ID setup, optional Microsoft Azure App Registration, and pasting the URL into community/community.js.

Step 7 — Verify everything is wired

1. Hit https://script.google.com/macros/s/YOUR_DEPLOYMENT/exec?action=ping in a browser. You should see JSON with ok: true, app: "DrawSplatTM", and the current version.
2. Open the whiteboard, draw something, Save to Google. Check Drive — the new .drawsplat.json should be in the DrawSplatTM Saves folder, and the Boards sheet has a new row.
3. Open the internal Compliance Console at admin/compliance.html → Activity Records. Enter your ADMIN_PASSCODE. The save you just did should appear as a BOARD_SAVE event.

Upgrading when Code.gs changes

The first line of Code.gs shows the current version. When this file changes in the repo:

1. Open Apps Script editor.
2. Paste the new Code.gs content. Save.
3. Run setup() again (safe to run repeatedly — it adds missing tabs/columns, doesn't destroy existing data).
4. Deploy → Manage deployments → ✏️ Edit → Version: New version → Deploy. Use the same deployment so the /exec URL stays stable.
5. Hit ?action=ping again to verify the version bumped.

Compliance Console quick reference

Once the backend is wired, the internal Compliance Console at admin/compliance.html has eight sections. See COMPLIANCE.md for the full operator guide.

Troubleshooting

Limits

Apps Script has hard quotas — be aware before scaling beyond a few hundred users:

• Script runtime: 6 minutes per execution.
• URL Fetch: 20 MB / call, 20 K calls / day (consumer accounts), 100 K / day (Workspace).
• Sheet reads / writes: efficient for thousands of rows, slow above ~50 K rows.
• Daily request volume: roughly 20 K requests / day on consumer accounts.

For private account-owned online Save/Open on your own database, see the MySQL backend (setup-mysql.md). It does not currently replace Google classroom rooms, templates, moderation, or turn-in/review; plan those workflows separately before switching.