In this report, I would like to introduce the sample scripts for using Microsoft Docs files with Document service, Spreadsheet service, and Slides Service of Google Apps Script.
Users have had the ability to edit MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly in Google Drive for a number of years, Google making this the default behaviour in 2020. There aren’t currently any APIs or Apps Script services that enable you to edit these particular document types. This however hasn’t stopped Kanshi Tanaike for developing and sharing the MicrosoftDocsApp library which makes it possible to edit MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint files using the same methods as you would for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.
The library is able to do this by converting the Microsoft files into the Google equivalent, before using the MS export options in Google Drive to replace the original files. This does create some limitations highlighted in the post. In particular, the original documents are overwritten and not directly edited which means any incompatible feature as part of the Microsoft to Google conversion will be lost. Regardless of these it’s a clever approach and might be useful for users who have to keep feet in both the Google and Microsoft worlds.
Use the Apps Script Lock Service to control Form submissions and prevent data loss
Lock Service code snippet
The following Google Apps Script is a one example of how the Lock Service can be used to prevent concurrent running of code. Here we have a Google Form that can be submitted by users at any point, the code then takes some of those details and appends them to another Google Sheet row. In normal circumstances this will happen relatively quickly and without clashes, but what if multiple people submit the Form at the same time!?
[Editor note: An alternative approach to tryLock() is waitLock(). The only different with a waitLock() is it will throw an exception after the set number of milliseconds. An example of waitLock() with onFormSubmit is included in the reference documentation]
I use Google Apps Script to support staff and students in my job. I enjoy dabbling with creating tools to help with automation and I freely share my learning experiences on my blog, where I also have a number of useful Google Add-ons: www.pbainbridge.co.uk
Avoid downloading private service account keys by using impersonation in Apps Script to obtain access tokens.
For Google Workspace Admins you can gain super powers (and super responsibility) using Google Cloud project service accounts. A common scenario is using service accounts with domain-wide delegation to make API calls impersonating Google Workspace users. With this you can do things like set a user’s Gmail settings including signatures, authenticate as a user in Google Chat and much more.
A quick way to use a service account is to download a JSON key. The challenge then given the potential capabilities of service accounts is securely storing the JSON key. A alternative approach, which is explained in this post by Justin Poehnelt, is using Apps Script to create and fetch a short-lived credential for your service account.
Short-lived credentials are highly recommended for applications requiring robust security and precise access control for service accounts, reducing the attack surface and the risks with accidentally exposing static secrets.
You can find out more include code snippets/setup in Justin’s post which also links to the support documentation.
The post is a great summary of what is possible when combining Google Chat and Vertex AI Search. If you are interested in finding out more about what is possible using Vertex AI Search with follow-ups Google provide a comprehensive guide. Â
Gemini LLM, now a Vertex AI/Studio API, unlocks easy document summarization and image analysis via Google Apps Script. This report details an example script for automatically creating the description of the files on Google Drive and highlights seamless integration options with API keys.
In this blog post, Kanshi Tanaike shows how you can automatically create descriptions for files on Google Drive using the Gemini Pro API with Google Apps Script. The post includes a step-by-step guide on how to set up and use the Gemini Pro API by generating a key is Google AI Studio (formerly Maker Suite). There are geographic restrictions on Google AI Studio, but you can call Gemini Pro from a Google Cloud project with a little more setup (a previous post sharing Tutorial: Respond to incidents with Google Chat, Vertex AI, and Apps Script outlines a general approach for connecting Apps Script to Google Vertex AI services.)
The post includes a couple of examples showing how Gemini can be used to provide responses to both text and visual prompts. Gemini Pro is still in public preview and as Kanshi Tanaike highlights rate limiting will likely prevent putting these solutions into production just now. At this point hopefully there is enough to start experimenting with Google Workspace integrations to Gemini.
This post describes how I designed and ran an audience survey with over 1,700 responses, using Google Forms, Sheets, Apps Script, and ChatGPT. I’ll show you the entire process from end-to-end, including how I:
Created a survey with Google Forms
Used Apps Script to automatically say thank you to 1,700 respondents
Analyzed the response data in Google Sheets
Used AI to help me understand the qualitative data
Presented the results in Google Docs
It’s rather fitting that the 1,000th Pulse post features content by the one and only Ben Collins! Back in late 2019, when I was thinking about creating a new community site for Google Workspace developers, Ben’s encouragement was the spark that ignited AppsScriptPulse.
And today’s post by Ben is a nice example of Apps Script’s power to automate repetitive tasks. As part of this he shows how to craft personalised “thank you” emails for Google Form survey response with Google Apps Script. Ben’s insights go beyond ‘thank-you’s as he outlines how he administers and analyses customer surveys, highlighting his design choices for Google Forms and data analysis using built-in Google Sheets functions.
To take things a step further, Ben also highlights how he used ChatGPT to categorize qualitative survey responses. With Google’s recent announcement of their new AI model, Gemini, which outperforms ChatGPTÂ in a number of academic benchmarks, it would be interesting to see how these two platforms compare for this type of analysis.
Raising a glass (or an espresso :) to Ben and this 1,000-post milestone!
You’ve made a formula, but someone deleted it. It may be annoying to restore your formula. You are not always able to protect a range with formulas, as protection will also forbid users from sorting range, adding new rows, hiding rows, etc.
Let’s create our formula protection with the help of a few formulas and app script code.
Google Sheets are fantastic for collaboration, the downside however can be that other people can break stuff. The Protected Sheets and Ranges can help with this, but there might be times when you need an alternative solution. If you find yourself in this situation Max Makhrov has come to the rescue with a solution to rewrite formula if they are accidentally deleted. You can find out more in the source post link. As a bonus Max includes a named Google Sheets function, FormulasMap, which can be used to export functions in a range to another sheet.
Imagen: An photo image which has a laptop with a spreadsheet application which appears to have rays of light
This is the second part exploring the GenAI capabilities in Google Sheets. In this part learn how you can make an Enhanced Smart Fill for Google Sheets
Google recently announced the latest feature for Duet AI for Google Workspace with Enhanced Smart Fill, which uses GenAI in Google Sheets to generate content based on data and the patterns entered by the user.
Continuing a previous post exploring the PaLM 2 API and LLM capabilities in Google Sheets, this post looks provides a Google Sheet template for experimenting with LLM prompts and spreadsheet data, including how you could make a ‘Enhanced Smart Fill’-like star review generator.
The post includes everything you need to get started, with you only having to make your own MakerSuite API key.
From one simple prompt with Duet AI for AppSheet you are able to create a well structured application.
I recently had the pleasure of the opportunity to speak at DevFest Scotland. My topic was how you can use code with Google’s ‘no-code’ solution AppSheet. You can see some of the ways this is achievable in my shared slides. Whilst there are coding opportunities with AppSheet and having some coding/data schema knowledge is useful, I would argue that this is increasingly becoming less important.
In this post on the CTS Medium I share how Duet AI for AppSheet has hugely reduced the entry point for app creation. As part of this I share how a simple request to the Duet AI for AppSheet assistant of ‘an easy way for volunteers to borrow a laptop’ becomes the starting point for a well structured application. Having introduced AppSheet to a number of customers I can’t emphasise enough how big a step this is in the democratisation of app creation. Exciting times!
[Thanks to Christian Schalk and the AppSheet team for early access to Duet AI for AppSheet and providing input on the source post].
An intense 48-hour tour of AppSheet, Google’s flagship nocode tool, from the perspective of a newcomer to the platform (part 4/4).
The forth and final part in Pablo Felip’s AppSheet in 48 hours series 😟. I’m sure there will be more from Pablo on AppSheet, but the rumour is he’ll be next publishing some Apps Script posts.
For the final part Pablo discusses the different types of actions available in AppSheet, including system actions and user-defined actions, and how to use them to create custom functionality in apps. There is a lot you can do with actions from writing data, navigation and more.
Something else touched upon in Pablo’s post is the intelligent assistant available throughout AppSheet. Using the assistant to help you create actions can also save you a lot of time, particular with toggling actions for yes/no checkboxes. If you can find the good way to describe what you want the assistant can handle creating the action, related icons and behaviour to toggle the appearance of one of the actions.
