Hi James,
Thanks for the detailed explanation of the behavior you are seeing.
Recalculating a spreadsheet uses some computational resources, so we
probably will never be at a point where we recalculate on every API
request. Additionally, recalculation can take some time and we don't want
to block the API request until that is complete. I've started a dialog with
the engineering team to see if there are any changes we can make to the API
to make it easier to deal with recalculation.
For context, can you provide some more information about your use case?
Understanding how you use the API will help ensure we build the right
solutions.
Thanks,
- Eric
On Monday, January 23, 2017 at 10:22:52 PM UTC-5, James Dobson wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I have a sheet with a value is computed from external data, so it is
> constantly changing. This works well when running Sheets in a browser
> window. But I’m observing that the value returned by
> *sheets.spreadsheets.values.get* is often stale. I’m hoping that someone
> reading this forum can provide some insight as to what’s going on and how I
> can get fresh data via the API.
>
> Here's a simple example:
>
> - Create a spreadsheet with the formula *=NOW()* in cell *A1*
> - In *File* > *Spreadsheet settings…* choose the *Calculation* tab and
> ensure *Recalculation* is set to *On change and every minute*.
> - Use the Google APIs Explorer to perform
> *sheets.spreadsheets.values.get* to get the value of that cell (*range*
> parameter is typically *Sheet1!A1*)
> - I’d expect every time I press the *Authorize and execute* button,
> I’d get a new value for the cell.
> - What actually happens is that I typically get an old value.
>
>
> I wrote a Python script to poll the API every minute. The median time
> elapsed before a new value appears is about 70 minutes, but I have seen as
> high as 1006 minutes, and as low as 1 minute.
>
> When the sheet is loaded in a browser window, the cell gets updated every
> minute as expected. Using the browser to edit another cell causes the API
> to return the most recent version of the computed cell.
>
> It seems that the computation of formulae is a complex process that can
> execute entirely on the server, entirely on the browser, or in combination:
>
> - When the formula is *=NOW()*, there seems to be zero communication
> between the browser and the server when the formula is recomputed.
> - When the formula is *=GOOGLEFINANCE("GOOG")*, it seems that the
> server sends a push notification to the browser about new external data
> being available, the browser retrieves the external data from the server,
> and then any dependent cells are computed entirely in the browser.
>
>
> What I’d like to do is be able to force the back-end to recompute the
> formula when the get API is called. Does anybody know how to do this?
>
> The best hack I have is to *get* the formula from the cell using
> *valueRenderOption=FORMULA*, and then *update* the same formula back to
> that cell with *valueInputOption=USER_ENTERED* and
> *responseValueRenderOption=FORMATTED_VALUE*. This forces the server to
> recompute the formula and returns the result in the response to the
> *update* call. It also doesn’t seem to pollute the history of the
> document too much. Unfortunately, this approach creates a race condition
> that I'd rather avoid.
>
> Thanks,
>
> James
>
>
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