AppsScriptPulse

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

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

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

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

Introducing ChatGPTApp, a new library for Google Apps Script and ChatGPT (and a new way to generate personalised mail merges)

Last month, OpenAI announced Function calling, “a new way to more reliably connect GPT’s capabilities with external tools and APIs”. Super useful ❤️ and we decided to integrate that with Google Apps Script.

Following on from yesterday’s Pulse post which highlighted Ben Collins reflections on ‘What can AI do for you as a Google Sheets user? Is the hype justified?’, here is a contribution from another Apps Script expert, Romain Vialard, announcing a ChatGPT library for Google Apps Script.

The source post highlights a number of examples, including the standard ‘prompt’ calling. Where this post gets very interesting is integration with Open AI’s function calling features:

In an API call, you can describe functions to gpt-3.5-turbo-0613 and gpt-4-0613, and have the model intelligently choose to output a JSON object containing arguments to call those functions. The Chat Completions API does not call the function; instead, the model generates JSON that you can use to call the function in your code.

To illustrate this below is a screenshot of a very slightly extended example, which has a Google Sheet with the headings email, name and tip topic. The functions are described to ChatGPT and in the case of sendMessage() the parameters it requires. The ChatGPTApp library handles the functions and in the case of the getContactsList() uses it to pass the Google Sheet data for ChatGPT to format a JSON response to correctly call the sendMessage() function.

I found it took me a while to start understanding what is going on and would recommend experimenting with the library and sample code to get a sense what is possible.

Source: Introducing ChatGPTApp, a new library for Google Apps Script

Easily merge data from Google Sheets into Google Docs and Slides with the TemplateApp Google Apps Script

This report introduces the method for easily processing the template of Google Documents and Google Slides using Google Spreadsheet as a database using Google Apps Script. Google Spreadsheet is used as a database. Google Documents and Google Slides are used as templates. The simple method for creating new Google Documents and Google Slides using the database and the templates is introduced.

Latest Apps Script magic from Kanshi Tanaike, this time they turn their addition to an easy way to use data from Google Sheets as a ‘document merge’ for templates created in Google Docs and Google Slides. This is achieved by using the TemplateApp Apps Script library, which has lots of useful features including simply methods for sheetRangeToDocuments() as well as the ability to embeded and fixed width images from placeholders. There are some llimitations documented in the GitHub repo, as well as examples for all the methods available in the library.

[In other ‘merge’ news Google have announced that you can now use Google Sheets with Google official mail merge in Gmail]

 

Source: Easily Processing Templates of Google Documents and Google Slides using Google Spreadsheet with Google Apps Script

New Google Apps Script library to convert files with the Drive API (including OCRing image file formats)

Apps Script library to convert between file types, including OCR for image to documents, with a huge repertoire of conversion combinations.

The Drive API offers a whole range of conversions between mimeTypes, but it’s a little fiddly to figure out exactly how. This library takes a file and an a desired output format and converts it for you. Sometimes, there’s not a direct route – for example if you need to convert a word file to a pdf, it first needs to get converted to a Google Doc, then to a Pdf. This library automatically works out and actions any intermediate conversions required.

For those who are unfamiliar MIME types (mimeTypes) is a standard way of identifying a file’s content type, such as text, image, or audio. The MIME type for a file is usually used by applications to determine how to open and display the file. Google Drive is able to convert various files, such as a MS Word document to Google Docs.

Sometimes there isn’t a direct route and this clever library from Bruce Mcpherson can help alleviate the pain. The library works by first checking if there is a direct route between the input and output file formats. If there is, it simply converts the file. If there is no direct route, the library will use the Drive API to first convert the file to a format that can be converted to the output format. For example, if you need to convert a Word file to a PDF, the library will first convert the Word file to a Google Doc, and then convert the Google Doc to a PDF.

Knowing what mimeType to use can be a bit of a challenge but you can also use the library to give a list of known types, or if you prefer a more readable list of Google Drive export MIME types.

Source: Convert any file with Apps Script – Desktop Liberation

Management of rich text cell formatting in Google Sheets with Google Apps Script

In order to add and delete a text for the rich text in a cell, it is required to create a script while the current text style is kept. This is actually complicated. In this post, I would like to introduce the enriched management of rich text on Google Spreadsheet using Google Apps Script. In order to enrich the management of Rich Text using Google Apps Script, I created a library RichTextAssistant.

Some very clever work from Kanshi Tanaike which can help with the management of cell text formatting in Google Sheets.  The RichTextAssistant Apps Script library included in the post has some nice methods for both handling and preserving cell text formatting. It’s worth spend a little time checking the various samples provided to see what is possible and how these might enhance one of your own script projects.  If you are curious the source code for the library is also on GitHub and linked from the post.

Source: Enriched Management of Rich Text on Google Spreadsheet using Google Apps Script

Generating XML and HTML from JSON objects using Google Apps Script

A useful library to create prettified HTML, XML GraphML and other markups directly from Apps Script or JavaScript.

A long, long, long time ago Apps Script had a Xml class which was deprecated in favour of the current XML Service. One of the nice features of the old Xml class was the Xml.parseJS() method, which “given a JavaScript array … returns an XmlDocument representation”.

The current XML Service doesn’t have a JavaScript to XML parser, but Bruce Mcpherson has recently shared a library that can be used to easily convert JSON objects into XML and it’s many recognised formats like HTML. Bruce’s post shows how to can create various HTML page elements including head sections and tables. It’s also worth checking out Bruce’s other post on “Create GraphML markups from Apps Script” which is included in the source link.

Source: Markup HTML from JSON with Apps Script or JavaScript

Calculate contrasting font colors for Google Sheets with Google Apps Script

If you are playing around with Sheet colors with Apps Script, you sometimes find yourself with font colors that don’t go well with the background colors you’ve chosen. However, we can use Yiq values to decide whether the luminance of the background color would be best with a light or a dark foreground font color. Here’s a small Apps Script library to figure it out for you.

Nice little helper library from Bruce Mcpherson if you’ve like to automatically apply contrasting colours to Google Sheets ranges. The source post from Bruce provides the background to the YIQ colour system as well as how to use the library. Follow the source link for more details.

Source: Calculate contrasting font colors for Sheets. – Desktop Liberation

Introducing AppSheetApp: A Google Apps Script library/helper class for the AppSheet API

AppSheet is headlined as a no-code platform but this doesn’t mean for developers there aren’t coding opportunities. In this post I’ll be sharing AppSheetApp, a Google Apps Script helper library we’ve made at CTS which makes it easy to use the AppSheet API in your own AppSheet apps. As part of this I’ll highlight how this library has made our AppSheet powered Grab n Go Chromebook loaner solution immediately scalable and data source agnostic.

In this post the worlds of AppSheet and Apps Script collide, the resulting fusion is a library which makes it easier to integrate external data and events into your AppSheet app. This solution hopefully makes it a lot easier for developers and low coders to do more with AppSheet creating the possibility to use one (or a couple) of lines of code to interact with your app and not worry which data source your app is using. This post has more details of how you can get started and an example of the impact its already making with an alternative Grab n Go Chromebook loaner solution I’ve been part of at CTS.

Source: Introducing AppSheetApp: A Google Apps Script library/helper class for the AppSheet API

FilesApp is a GAS library for retrieving file and folder list in Google Drive

When I create some applications using Google Drive, there are often the case which is required to retrieve the file list and folder list. I had prepared the script each time for each case so far. But recently, I thought that if there is a library for retrieving the file and folder list (as a tree), it will be useful for me and other developers.

The FilesApp library by Kanshi Tanaike has been around since 2018. I have to confess I wasn’t aware of this library until I read a more recent post, Retrieving Total File Sizes in Specific Folder of Google Drive using Google Apps Script. Similar to my own post on Creating a Google Drive report in Google Sheets the FilesApp library directly communicates to the Drive API, this library however goes a step further in terms of performance by using UrlFetchApp.fetchAll to handle some asynchronous Drive API calls.

Source: GAS Library – FilesApp