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Show HN: Collections, a fast multiple-account Google Docs client for Mac

196 points| jordanlee | 13 years ago |beta.collections.me | reply

96 comments

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[+] JoelMcCracken|13 years ago|reply
A desktop client for a web app that replaced a desktop client. Amazing!
[+] mratzloff|13 years ago|reply
He should use this exact phrase on the website. Sarcastic marketing FTW.
[+] thomas-st|13 years ago|reply
psql -h ec2-107-22-171-68.compute-1.amazonaws.com -p 5732 -U u1npugarlguimh -d ddbs2kvmqeieon

Since DEBUG=True, finding the password is left as a trivial exercise for the reader. I wouldn't trust the service until they fix the issue.

[+] tonyx|13 years ago|reply
Hi thomas-st, thanks a lot for bring this up. we just fixed the issue and changed credentials on the server as well. All transmission also happen securely through HTTPS and contents are only stored on Google's server, not ours.
[+] philfreo|13 years ago|reply
Dur.... everybody should revoke their OAuth tokens immediately if you've used this app
[+] 147|13 years ago|reply
How did you get that info and how would I prevent this from happening?
[+] pk|13 years ago|reply
This is a great example of a Minimum Viable Product. It has just enough features to be useful (multiple accounts, search, editing) and no more. From the website, they have plans to iterate quickly, with the help of what I'm sure will be a lot of feedback from the initial release. This kind of discipline in feature selection is admirable, and something we should all strive for in app development.

My only critique is that in the new user dialog, the app showed a screenshot of adding an account _before_ the screen where you could actually add an account. I found this a little confusing (why can't I click to add my account now?). I wouldn't mind seeing that screenshot after adding my first account to let me know how to add another.

[+] xb95|13 years ago|reply
Hi --

I suggest you not use this app right now. It is currently throwing up debug pages that include information that allows someone to connect to Postgres and dump the database containing information about your documents.

App developers -- please update your Heroku settings and/or turn this off immediately. You are exposing confidential company information to the wild.

Thanks.

[+] tonyx|13 years ago|reply
Hi xb95, thanks for alerting us to the issue we've turned off debug mode and reset our database credentials. We are looking through the database server access log right now and going to make sure that 1) all connections were made from our own servers and 2) users in the timeframe affected will be notified of the issue access token revoked immediately.
[+] ernestipark|13 years ago|reply
This is fantastic and solves a huge pain point. Google docs is a crutch for most people, but the interface and accessing it is generally terrible. The onboarding was simple. This is a good start, I'm looking forward to what you guys do next. As for feature requests, I'd like to see collapsible sidebars, the real estate on the editing is a bit small. Good luck guys!
[+] ianstormtaylor|13 years ago|reply
This is awesome. Navigating Google Docs is the worst. But PLEASE do away with the preview mode. I don't want to have to click edit all the time, and I don't really lose anything by just always having the web view.

That and get a nicer app icon :p (seriously)

[+] ianstormtaylor|13 years ago|reply
At least for spreadsheets get rid of it. I could see it being nice to remove all the junk chrome that Google puts around docs though. But if I'm viewing a spreadsheet, not being able to add to cells is useless.
[+] bherms|13 years ago|reply
One small criticism... Calling your app "Collections" leads to some ominous looking emails when you contact customers: "This is Mike from Collections" makes me immediately feel like I've forgotten to pay a bill.
[+] bdittmer|13 years ago|reply
Kind of confused by this heroku error message I received? Are you storing my gmail credentials on heroku? When I tried again I have a google /looking/ login screen?

http://cl.ly/1p0M0o2t0H1E3Z1h3i0n

[+] natrius|13 years ago|reply
I haven't used this so I'm not sure what's going on, but I believe OAuth involves a redirect back to servers controlled by the third party to actually do something with the authentication token. This doesn't strike me as necessarily fishy.
[+] nestlequ1k|13 years ago|reply
I think they are mimicking the Google Login page and just saving your username/password. Seems damn fishy to me.
[+] Wump|13 years ago|reply
Offline editing would be a killer feature.
[+] btipling|13 years ago|reply
Super nice, but I worry about the slower webkit in webview. If it is much slower, you would get a better experience in the browser, despite the nice UI additions in this app.
[+] modeless|13 years ago|reply
Why would an embedded web view be slower than Safari on a Mac? Mac OS doesn't have the restrictions on generated code that iOS does.
[+] Spittie|13 years ago|reply
I know that this isn't really related to the application, but anyway... Please, don't let the browser scale the images for you. I don't like opening a site, and seeing something like this (http://sadpanda.us/images/1078451-DUYING8.png).

Beside that, this client seems something really awesome, especially the ability to easily edit docs from different accounts.

[+] natrius|13 years ago|reply
What browser are you using? I thought modern browsers did a better job of scaling. Chrome does, at least.
[+] barclay|13 years ago|reply
Hmm. Dunno if it was syncing, or what, but it just sat there consuming CPU (170% across both cores) for a while. Finally killed it.
[+] philmcc|13 years ago|reply
One of my favorite things about this is its presentation. You've placed your app in something that people lust after (a macbookair) and then something 'cool' inside of that (x-men).

Probably more compelling than a screen shot of a spreadsheet or a table, I bet it triggered an "I WANT THIS" reflex that I wasn't consciously aware of.

[+] rgbrgb|13 years ago|reply
Last semester I did a big group project using Google Docs but we kept running into an issue where the spacing was different on everyone's computers. The title page would look perfect on one computer and overflow to the next page on another. This was in Chrome on OS X and Ubuntu. It really made me pine for native apps.
[+] dantheman0207|13 years ago|reply
I recently did a small group project in which we shared a .doc on dropbox between users on Windows and Ubuntu. We had the same issue, as well as disappearing page numbers and other spooky trivia. Multi-user document editing is hand-wavy art at best.
[+] ddt|13 years ago|reply
I love it. I have three different Google accounts I use for docs and being able to not have to open up a new tab just to see the other docs is worth the download. The only thing I'd want is a little bit less agnosticism about which docs belong to which accounts.
[+] emmelaich|13 years ago|reply
Curious, why did you use a bit.ly url for the app? Shortened urlsm have their places, but I'm a little leery of them,. (http://bit.ly/MlUfJm)
[+] xwowsersx|13 years ago|reply
An error occurred in the application and your page could not be served. Please try again in a few moments.

If you are the application owner, check your logs for details.

[+] septerr|13 years ago|reply
Awesome! Now I don't have to switch accounts! Sparrow for Google Docs. Now make an app for iphone! It's annoying to open webpage to access google docs on iphone :/
[+] clutteredname_|13 years ago|reply
Looks like this app is getting lots of traffic. FATAL errors abound.

Looking forward to this. Anyone know a reason it can't support offline editing?