Learning Google Apps Script

Ramalingam Ganapathy

• Verlag: Packt Publishing
• Jahr: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781785882517
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Computer Science
• Thema: Programming in JavaScript

Customize and automate Google Applications using Apps Script

About This Book

• Gain insight into customizing and automating Google applications with JavaScript
• Create add-ons for Google Sheets, Docs, or Forms; automate your workflow; integrate with external APIs; and more.
• A step-by-step guide to building real-world solutions

Who This Book Is For

Newbies to google apps script but having practical experience in Javascript.

What You Will Learn

• Learn about the Google Apps script platform and work with scripts to develop Google apps
• Create custom menus and dialogs
• Parse and send emails
• Generate Google calendar events
• Build Translator and RSS reader applications
• Develop interactive web pages
• Design interactive web-forms
• Form a workflow application

In Detail

Google Apps Script is a cloud-based scripting language based on JavaScript to customize and automate Google applications.

Apps Script makes it easy to create and publish add-ons in an online store for Google Sheets, Docs, and Forms.

It serves as one single platform to build, code, and ultimately share your App on the Web store.

This book begins by covering the basics of the Google application platform and goes on to empower you to automate most of the Google applications.

You will learn the concepts of creating a menu, sending mails, building interactive web pages, and implementing all these techniques to develop an interactive Web page as a form to submit sheets

You will be guided through all these tasks with plenty of screenshots and code snippets that will ensure your success in customizing and automating various Google applications

This guide is an invaluable tutorial for beginners who intend to develop the skills to automate and customize Google applications

Style and approach

An easy-to-follow yet comprehensive guide, filled with many code examples and screenshots illustrating various Google Apps scripts.

Learning Google Apps Script

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Table of Contents

Learning Google Apps Script

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Introducing Google Apps Scripts

Google Applications

Google Apps Script

Visual Basic for Applications

The advantages of GAS over VBA

The limitations of GAS

Google Drive

Gmail

Google Calendar

Google Docs

Google Sheets

Google Apps services

Creating Google Sheets in Drive and sharing them with your friends and the public

Script projects

Creating standalone script projects

Creating new projects in Sheets

Creating a custom formula in Sheets

Google Forms

Creating Forms within Google Sheet

Some research

Summary

2. Creating Basic Elements

Creating a clickable button

Showing toast when a button is clicked

Creating a custom menu

Creating a sidebar

Creating an Add-ons menu

Creating a modal dialog

Creating a modeless dialog

Debugging your script

Summary

3. Parsing and Sending E-mails

Creating Gmail Contacts by script

Accessing Sheet, cell, range, and offset

Reading and writing the Sheet data

Building a Gmail Contact search application

Building the Gmail parser application

Properties service

Downloading Gmail attachments to Drive

Sending e-mails using the MailApp service

Sending an e-mail notification on Form submission

Creating triggers manually

Creating and deleting triggers by script

Forwarding e-mails if the specific keyword is found in the message body

Sending e-mail with attachments

Embedding inline images in an e-mail message

Building an e-mail merger application

Summary

4. Creating Interactive Forms

Creating Forms using script

Publishing the script as a web application

HtmlService

Creating a Form using HtmlService

Submitting form using Google script API method

Creating forms using add-ons CSS and jQuery libraries

Creating an e-voting application

Creating a ticket reservation application

Summary

5. Creating Google Calendar and Drive Applications

The CalendarApp class

Creating Calendar events from a simple description

Creating simple Calendar events

Creating events with options

Creating events from Sheets data

Creating events from an external CSV file's contents

Enabling advanced Google services

Listing all the Calendars

Listing Calendar events in Sheets

Syncing events from one Calendar to another Calendar

The DriveApp class

Creating customized PDF files

Creating a Drive file routing application

Creating a Drive file search application

Summary

6. Creating Feed Reader and Translator Applications

The UrlFetchApp class

Creating a Google search application

Creating a stock quote ticker application

Logging Bitcoin quotes

RSS and Atom feeds

Skeleton of a RSS feed document

Creating an RSS reader application

Skeleton of an Atom feed document

Creating an Atom feed reader application

Using optional parameters with the UrlFetchApp class

The LanguageApp class

Creating the language translator application

Creating a document reviewing and instant inline commenting application

Summary

7. Creating Interactive Webpages

Creating a web app to render Sheet data as HTML

Creating a web app to return JSON

Converting Sheet data as a PDF file

Sending an HTTP/HTTPS request with query string

Creating RSS feed using ContentService

Creating a file upload application

Creating an employee timesheet application

Summary

8. Building a Workflow Application

Order processing workflow – steps explained

Configuring Google Sheets

Creating the Order form

Enhancing the Order form

Creating the dispatch form

Dispatching the articles

Enabling the user to acknowledge the article delivery

Summary

9. More Tips and Tricks and Creating an Add-on

Overcoming the "script exceeded maximum execution time" error

Configuring your script project to use external libraries

Using JSDoc annotations

Using the OAuth open source library

Creating, testing, and publishing add-ons

Installing add-ons from Chrome Web Store

Creating custom add-ons

Testing your add-on

Creating an add-on that uses an OAuth2 external library

Other useful links

Summary

Index

Learning Google Apps Script

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: March 2016

Production reference: 1140316

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78588-251-7

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Ramalingam Ganapathy

Reviewer

Serge Gabet

Commissioning Editor

Priya Singh

Acquisition Editors

Vinay Argekar

Pratik Shah

Content Development Editor

Sachin Karnani

Technical Editor

Prajakta Mhatre

Copy Editor

Charlotte Carneiro

Project Coordinator

Neha Bhatnagar

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Indexer

Rekha Nair

Graphics

Abhinash Sahu

Production Coordinator

Aparna Bhagat

Cover Work

Aparna Bhagat

About the Author

Ramalingam Ganapathy is an independent computer software professional with more than 15 years of working experience of JavaScript and Google Apps Script. In 1985, he started his career as a digital electronic circuit designer and service engineer. Highly interested in reading technical books and building electroni...