@Kumar: Thanks for your response. There definitely are JS API's - I did write a complete gadget to retrieve data from a shared spreadsheet and do so with a user response and query based on that response. So it is very powerful (SQL like) in what you can do that way.
I don't seem to see anything relating to updates in the API - though several people elsewhere on the web seem to elude to the fact that they have done it - but I can't find any example code. Lots of Java examples. Is it just the update side of the JS API's that's missing? Maybe it to insecure to do it via JS? I love the simplicity of running everything client side (no server to config, firewall issues...) - just served up as a web app to my users from a local or intranet file - maybe I'm still asking too much? :v/ I could use Django as well, but more complexity and setup and not as flexible as to where it can be stored etc. Karl
