I am trying to build an online repository for simple information, where a user can enter/edit their own data, and view the rest of the data. Essentially, each user would have edit access to their own single-row in a table. I want to minimize set up/maintenance of “accounts”; I want this to be a no-cost solution.

I imagine a set of solutions — google sheets, google sheets with forms, an online survey setup. Beyond by-user edit permissions, ease of maintenance is my primary goal.

I would have full authority over the whole data set.

If plausible, I imagine a publicly available spreadsheet, available to anyone with a google account, where google ID is a column, and with other, simple columns (e.g., name and an integer).

Each person logging in and accessing the spreadsheet would:

• have edit access to their own row, except the account column.
• find their google account in the first column (which automatically has their own google account in the first column), and
• have view access to the entire spreadsheet, except the first column (google account column).

Anyone using the sheet:

• for the first time would do so by logging in to google, and a row would be created with their google account in the first column.
• would be granted the appropriate row edit permission, automatically.
• on returning later, they would have permission on an already existing row (their own); therefore the google account column is normalized.

A potentially useful gloss is a way to exclude a subset of google accounts, based on abuse — I imagine a simple interface where I mark column with an “X” which (if present) denies views to the whole spreadsheet to that row’s user.

I am program and spreadsheet hardy, from years of various use, including VBA in excel, but no experience in the google docs / sheets world (other than editing my own spreadsheet, there).

I considered surveys, but need edit permissions. If I had a survey type setup, I imagine that the data, or summaries (counts, avg of a number column) would not be accessible as people filled out or later edited their own answers. Because of this, a spreadsheet seems to fit the bill, better.

Suggestions? Don’t need a ginned up spreadsheet, unless its simple to do, but a description of the specific steps involved would help. Alternative solutions, appreciated.

Again, my goals are initial simplicity to set up, and then simplicity of use/maintenance. I am aiming at … free, otherwise.

Thanks…