AppsScriptPulse

Official News, Solutions, AppSheet, No Code

Google AppSheet rolling out new visual editing features

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We are excited to roll out to GA (General Availability) our first visual editing features to all AppSheet creators, starting today.

This a new way for AppSheet creators to make changes to their apps and navigate the editor. It’s intuitive for anyone to point at what they want to change if they can see it. We are now letting you do that in the editor: you can now hover on visual components of the editor’s app view and see possible editor actions for the outlined component.

Google recently announced the rollout of new new visual editing features in AppSheet. The new feature should help simplify and speed up app development (see the source post for an animated gif / video of what it looks like). In the announcement Google mention that the new feature isn’t available for all components:

Outlines are only available for some components visible in the app. For instance, Detail and Form Views have a lot more controls than the Deck View right now. Additionally, only some Editor actions are available, such as navigating users to Data components, View components, Action components and some of the general Settings.

More updates are planned and if you don’t see this feature in AppSheet yet the rollout has been paused for Google Cloud Next and should be available for everyone soon.

Source: First visual editing in the AppSheet editor

Library, Solutions, Drive, Intermediate

PDFApp and many recipes for ‘cooking’ PDFs with Google Apps Script

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Unfortunately, there are no built-in methods for directly managing PDF data using Google Apps Script. Fortunately, after the V8 runtime has been released, several raw Javascript libraries could be used with Google Apps Script. pdf-lib is also one of them. When this is used, PDF data can be cooked over Google Apps Script. In this report, I would like to introduce achieving this using a Google Apps Script library.

Google Apps Script is a powerful tool for automating tasks. It can be used to process data, create spreadsheets, and send emails. One of the limitations of Apps Script is that it does not have built-in support for PDF files. However, there are a number of third-party libraries that can be used to work with PDF files and in Pulse we’ve featured a number of posts from Kanshi Tanaike where they have explored the pdf-lib is a JavaScript library.

This work has culminated in PDFApp, a dedicated Apps Script library created by Kanshi Tanaike based on the pdf-lib, but optimised for Apps Script. The source post includes a number of recipes for handling PDF files listed below:

  • Export pages from a PDF
  • Get metadata of a PDF
  • Update metadata of a PDF
  • Reorder pages of a PDF
  • Merge PDF files
  • Convert PDF pages to PNG files
  • Get values from PDF form
  • Set values to PDF form
  • Create PDF form using Google Slide as a template
  • Embed objects into a PDF

The source code for PDFApp is also on GitHub if you want to dig further.

Source: Cooking PDF over Google Apps Script

Solutions, Drive, Intermediate

How to programmatically enable push notifications/watches for file changes in Google Drive with Apps Script

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Are you looking for a way to receive notifications in real-time when an important spreadsheet in your Google Drive get modified or is accidently deleted by sometimes? Well, Google Drive offers an API to help you set up a watch on any file in your Google Drive be it a document, presentation or even a PDF file. This means that you can receive instant notifications whenever the content or even permissions of that file changes.

This tutorial explains how you can setup watch notifications on any file in your Google Drive with the help of Google Apps Script.

As part of the Google Drive API you can set up watch notifications on any file in your Google Drive. This means you can receive instant notifications whenever the content or permissions of that file changes. This feature can be useful for a number of scenarios, for example,  if you have sensitive Drive files that you want to closely monitor, or a workflow where you’d like to trigger additional events when a file is updated.

This post from Amit Agarwal explains how you can create a push notification for a Google Drive file using Google Apps Script. As noted in the post you can use Google Apps Script to handle the push notification by creating a doPost Web App, however, not all the response data/headers are available using Google Apps Script. There is a related ticket which had some activity earlier in the year and I would encourage you to star the request to get updates and encourage Google to fix – https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/67764685.

Google Workspace Admins looking for domain/user activity on Drive files might want to look at the Reports API activities endpoint, which can be configured to setup similar watch notifications. You can read more in the Reports API: Drive Activity Report overview.

Source: How to Enable Push Notifications for File Changes in Google Drive with Apps Script – Digital Inspiration

Solutions, Drive, Gmail, Groups, Beginner

Automatically save attachments for a Google Google to Google Drive using Gmail and Google Apps Script

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Imagine you’re managing a Google Group, where important attachments are regularly sent. Manually saving these attachments to your Google Drive can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Is there a way to automate this process and ensure that you don’t miss any crucial documents?

It’s quite easy to tie yourself in knots when it comes to scheduling tasks in Google Apps Script to handle data created since the last run. This Medium post from Pablo Pallocchi shows a nice way your can structure Gmail searches using the after: operator combined with a ‘last execution date’ stored in Apps Script Properties Service. The result is a nice solution design to backup attachments sent to a Google Group to Google Drive. There’s lots of scope for extending and/or modifying this solution. All the details are in the source post.

Source: Automatically Save Email Attachments to Google Drive Using Google Apps Script

Comment, Official News, AppSheet, No Code

AppSheet Core licenses will be included by default for more Google Workspace editions, along with a new Admin security setting

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To bring the power of AppSheet to more users, AppSheet Core licenses will now be included for the following Google Workspace editions…

By including AppSheet Core licenses in more Google Workspace editions, the power of AppSheet is accessible to more users. Further, Admins will have the security features they need to ensure their users are using AppSheet appropriately in their organization.

Previously AppSheet Core licenses were included with Workspace Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, and Education Plus users. Google have recently announced that AppSheet Core licenses will also be included in the following Google Workspace editions:

  • Business Starter, Standard, and Plus
  • Enterprise Starter and Standard
  • Frontline Starter and Standard
  • Non-profits
  • Education Standard

This is great news for Google Workspace users as AppSheet includes a number of out-of-the box features which already integrate into other Workspace products, like dynamic emails, Google Chat and Google Apps Script integration.

Along with the expansion of Workspace editions getting AppSheet Core, is the news that Admins will have basic security controls which can disable external usage of AppSheet apps.

Looking at the associated new security settings support page, it was interesting to see that turning on AppSheet Core security will disable ‘external integration through the app API’:

This caught my eye as the AppSheet API is a feature reported as only being supported on AppSheet Enterprise plans:

Perhaps it’s a mistake in the AppSheet API documentation, but I hope not as the AppSheet API is an incredibly useful addition for developers to do more with AppSheet.

Finally a little plug. If you are interested in AppSheet and would like to find out about training and support services get in touch. At CTS, where I work, we’ve a growing reputation in both products built using AppSheet as well as helping you get the most from the platform in your organisation.

Source: AppSheet Core licenses will be included by default for more Google Workspace editions, along with a new Admin security setting

Add-on, Gotchas, Beginner

A Google Workspace Developer’s notes on publishing a Google Workspace Add-on to the Marketplace

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This guide will walk you through creating a public Google Workspace Add-on, and launching it in the Google Workspace Marketplace for as free as possible. …

I’d never developed or published an add-on before. As I was looking into it, I realized that, while it is not super complicated, it is not readily obvious — especially for anyone just getting into add-on development. Google does have a guide on developing and publishing an add-on but it leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

So I thought I would put together what I learned in this guide — a playbook for anyone else who wants to develop their own add-on.

Following on from a recent Pulse post on How to publish to the Google Workspace Marketplace published by the Google Workspace team, here’s a developer’s take on the process from start to finish. As mentioned in the post the official support resources should be your start point, but these notes spotlight some of the nuances required to publish an add-on and the appendix includes some tips on naming your add-on and where/how to host required documentation including your add-on privacy policy.

Source: Developing a GAS Powered Google Workspace Add-on And Launching It To The Marketplace

Solutions, AI, Intermediate

Let Bard answer your questions in Google Sheets with the PaLM API and Google Apps Script

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Discover the magic of combining Palm API’s extraordinary capabilities with the limitless potential of Google Apps Script. In this blog we will be taking a look at how we use the PaLM API and Google Apps Script inside of a Google Sheet. We will be passing prompts from a Google Sheet and getting back a response. 

Learn how to integrate Google Bard responses inside of Google Sheets using the PaLM API and a little bit of Google Apps Script. Using Google’s MakerSuite it is easy to create an API key which you can use with a custom function in Google Sheets. Whilst the solution focuses on creating a custom function which would automatically refresh, using it programmatically to store responses could be a quick way to collaboratively experimenting with LLM text prompts.

Source: Let Bard Answer Your Questions from Google Sheets with the PaLM API and Google Apps Script

Add-on, New IDE, Snippet, Solutions, Docs, V8, Intermediate

Creating your on preview ink Smart Chips in Google Docs: The Untold Potential of Apps Script

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Alright, folks, we’re talking about something quite hot off the press in the realm of Google Apps Script — “Smart Chips.” This feature is available within Google Docs and can build previews of pasted links using the Card Service. Think of it as a little preview window of what lies beyond the link — a sneak peek, if you will. 🕵️‍♂️

Editor: Smart chips are a recent feature in Google Workspace that help you quickly insert information into your Docs and Sheets. They can be used to insert people, places, dates, and more. It’s also possible for Google Workspace developers to publish their on ‘Preview links’ smart chips as Workspace Add-ons. In this post from Dmitry Kostyuk you can learn about publishing your own smart chips and some creative ways to get the data you need using Google Apps Script.

Source: Previewing Links with Smart Chips: The Untold Potential of Apps Script

Add-on, Official News, Video Tutorial, Beginner

How to publish to the Google Workspace Marketplace [Video Tutorial]

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In this video you will find out how you can publish your app to the Google Workspace Marketplace.

Publishing a Google Workspace Add-on or Chat App can be a bit daunting. We’ve feature a couple of ‘how-to’ guides, which go into the detailed steps of the process, and my favourite has to be Alice Keeler’s top tips for getting your Google Workspace Add-on published. If you are still unsure about the Google Workspace Marketplace publication options and information required this video from Chanel Greco gives an overview of the entire process from start to finish.

Source: How to publish to the Google Workspace Marketplace

Library, Intermediate

Easily managing time-driven triggers using Google Apps Script and the TriggerApp library

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Google Apps Script can be executed by time-driven triggers. This is one of the very important points for taking cloud computing. But, the scenarios using time-driven triggers are different for each user, and there are a lot of situations for using time-driven triggers. But, when a script for implementing time-driven triggers is developed, each script is different and complicated. In this report, I would like to introduce easily managing time-driven triggers using a Google Apps Script library.

In Google Apps Script time-driven triggers are a powerful way to automate tasks including Google Sheets. However, managing them can be difficult, especially if you have a lot of triggers and need triggers to run at different times and frequencies. The TriggerApp library from Kanshi Tanaike makes this a lot easier and this post includes a number of examples that are easy to copy/modify for your own script projects. The post covers the following scenarios:

  • Execute 2 functions at specific dates and times
  • Execute a function with a specific cycle between specific times between specific dates
  • Execute 3 functions with a specific cycle between specific times on weekdays
  • Send an email on a birthday every year
  • Execute specific functions on specific weekdays in a week
  • Execute 6 different functions every 10 minutes from “09:00:00” to “11:50:00” in order
  • Opening hours of Google Form from 09:00 to 17:00 on Weekdays
  • Opening Hours of Google Spreadsheet from 09:00 to 17:00 on Weekdays
  • Execute specific functions at 09:00 on Monday to Friday at the beginning of specific months

The source code for the library is on GitHub and includes documentation on all the methods it uses.

Source: Easily Managing Time-Driven Triggers Using Google Apps Script