AppsScriptPulse

Add-on, Solutions, Beginner

Restricting the number of times an account can use a feature in a Google Workspace Editor Add-on with Google Apps Script 

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One model of monetization for a Google Addon is to allow a certain number of free uses before restricting that feature. This post shows one way to restrict a feature in a Google Editor Addon sidebar.

John McGowan is continuing his Google Workspace Add-on development tips at pace. You can read the story so far on the Automagical Apps Blog. In the latest post you can find out how John uses the Properties Service, to record the number of times an account has used a feature in your add-on by communicating between the sidebar and Apps Script using google.script.run. A reminder as well that you can see how you can boost User Property read/write with the SpeedStore library.

Source: Restricting the number of times to use a feature in a Google Addon Sidebar | Automagical Apps Blog

Add-on, Solutions, Intermediate

SpeedStore: Blazingly fast Properties storage for Google Apps Script ⚡

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Retrieving and saving properties in Google Apps Script can be slow, especially if there are a lot of them. SpeedStore is a blazingly fast in memory properties store which you can use to make retrieving and saving properties much easier.

Continuing yesterday’s theme highlighting some of the components for developing a Google Workspace Add-on where John McGowan highlighted  how Properties Service can be used to store and use a “licence” property to customise your add-on UI, we continue by looking at how you can handle property storage.

There have been a number of community contributions in this area such as Bruce Mcpherson’s bmCrusher. Another option is SpeedStore from Joshua Snyder. Not as feature filled as bmCrusher but the benefit is the library is more compact. SpeedStore still comes with some very useful features including automatically handling properties over 9kb and JSON encoding/decoding. Perhaps the biggest benefit is speed particularly when you are using a single store for all your properties.

Source: GitHub – joshsny/SpeedStore: Blazingly fast Properties storage for Google Apps Script ⚡

Add-on, Solutions, Beginner

Differentiating Google Workspace Add-on sidebar features based on a user licence property in Google Apps Script

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I always get requests as to how people can add a license to their Google Add-on. There are a few different steps and here I will show how you can share different information in the Sidebar based on a license status.

In Pulse we’ve previously featured a couple of community contributions on how to monetize your Google Workspace Add-On. Corentin Brossault’s How to monetize your Google Workspace add-on? provides some great code snippets and tips for handling user authentication and payment. We’ve also featured Riël Noterman’s solution for Using JWT as a license key in Google Apps Script Google Workspace Add-ons. This related  post from John McGowan (Automagical Apps) provides another piece to the puzzle demonstrating how you can use templates in HTMLService to switch user messaging based on stored user properties.

Source: Differentiating Google Addon Sidebar features based on a license | Automagical Apps Blog

Add-on, Solutions, V8, Intermediate

Using JWT as a license key in Google Apps Script Google Workspace Add-ons

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Image credit: Zzapps

Many developers want to offer specific, additional functionality for specific users. One very common scenario is to differenciate in users that pay for this functionality.

When you deliver an add-on, you want to know whether this user has this special access. We know this as a license.

In this blog, I will show you how we can let the add-on know what the user’s license is. We are going to do this by giving the user a key, where they can ‘unlock’ functionality by pasting this in their add-on.

Here’s an elegant solution from Riël Notermans (Zzapps) for letting users unlock premium functionality in your Workspace Add-on without relying on an external fetch or database by using an encrypted JWT web token.

You can include various data in the token and this example a subscription email and expiry is included which can be checked locally, for example, comparing the email from Session.getActiveUser().getEmail().

Source: Use JWT as a license key in Google Apps Script add-ons

Add-on, Solutions, V8, Intermediate

[Workaround] An alternate to displaying more than 100 widgets/sections in a Google Workspace Add-on

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Working around the 100-widget limit in Card Services, used when building Workspace Add-ons.

Like it says on the tin a way to display more than 100 items in a Google Workspace Add-on. The solution also has a nice UX friendly search feature to make it easier to find stuff in the UI. The source post from Sourabh Choraria includes additional information and links to the code on GitHub.

Source: [Workaround] An alternate to displaying more than 100 widgets/sections.

Add-on, Solutions, No Code

r/GoogleAppsScript – AutoScript – create Google Apps Script code with help of AI #nocode

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I’ve seen a couple of proof of concept solutions for AI generated Google Apps Script code, but this one is the most well developed I’ve seen to date. The AutoScript Add-on isn’t fully verified so if you are trying this out I would recommend using disposable credentials (as a Google Workspace admin I created/used a Cloud Identity account). I’ve only done limited testing but was able to get the add-on to generate a functional Google Apps Script code snippet. Simultaneously both amazing and scary to think a chunk of what I do for a living could be replaced by one of our robot friends.

Add-on, Solutions, Intermediate

How to monetize your Google Workspace add-on?

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You’ve built a great add-on for the Google Workspace ecosystem (Google Docs, Google Sheets, Gmail & co.). It’s getting a lot of traction and you feel like you can monetize it. This is the guide I wish I had found a few years ago when I was researching how to monetize our own add-on for Google Sheets.

Here is a very concise and incredibly useful guide written by Corentin Brossault, co-founder and CTO at Mailmeteor, on the practical steps you can take if you are interested in monetizing your Google Apps Script solution. The post includes some code snippets and guidance on protecting personal information of your users, storing licence data in Firebase and integrating with Stripe as a payment processor.

Source: How to monetize your Google Workspace add-on?

Add-on, Solutions, No Code

How to send personalized text messages from Google Sheets (and make user friendly add-ons)

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The Document Studio add-on helps you automatically send text messages when a new Google Form is submitted or when new rows are added to Google Sheets. You can thus build workflows that send text reminders when the invoices are due. Or you can get notified instantly when people fill out your Google Forms.

There was some speculation this week about how much revenue Amit Agarwal (Digital Inspiration) makes through his suite of Google Workspace Add-ons. I can neither confirm or deny the reported figures, but what I’m certain of is Amit is not only an expert developer but also clearly very talented at spotting opportunities and creating very slick user experiences.

This latest post from Amit is a case in point. No code, but plenty of screenshots demonstrating how users of his Document Studio add-on can integrate a SMS text service into Google Forms/Sheets. As this is achieved with a Webhook integration users aren’t limited to SMS services. Click through to the source link to see more screenshots similar to the one below:

Source: How to Send Personalized Text Messages from Google Sheets – Digital Inspiration

Add-on, Solutions, Beginner

Starter guide for creating a Google Drive Card Service Add-on with Google Apps Script

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Let’s extend Google Drive with Apps Script to create a simple add-on, use CardService for the UI, where we’ll select a few spreadsheets and pass them to the next card with navigation.

For those unfamiliar add-ons for Google Workspace come in a couple of flavours. The Google Editor Add-ons have been around the longest created with Google Apps Script and it’s HTML Service.  Google Workspace Add-ons can also be created for the Google Editors (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms) as well as Gmail, Calendar and Drive using the Card Service with either Google Apps Script or another runtime environment. This post from Nibesh Khadka provides a great overview of how to create a Google Drive Add-on using Google Apps Script and the Card Service. It covers the basic setup with lots of references to relevant parts of the official developer documentation.

Source: Managing Google Drive with Google Apps Script

Add-on, Gotchas, Intermediate

Alice Keeler’s top tips for getting your Google Workspace Add-on published | Google Cloud Blog

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If this is your first attempt at submitting an add-on for the Google Marketplace, it—like all new experiences—can take longer than expected as you learn and get comfortable with all of the requirements. You should expect pushback from both the OAuth team and the Marketplace team, as they are on the frontline of ensuring that end users have a positive experience installing Add-ons. Taking the time to slowly go through and make sure you have each of the elements along with a willingness to update and improve your application will surely result in the successful publication of your Add-on published in the Google Marketplace.

Alice Keeler knows a thing or two about publishing Google Workspace Add-ons to the Marketplace with over 20 entries. In this post on the Google Cloud Blog Alice shares some of her top tips for surviving the publication process. This includes website essentials, tips on artwork as well as creating your verification video. Follow the source link for these tips and more.

Source: Google Cloud Workspace Add-On Customization | Google Cloud Blog