AppsScriptPulse

Official News

Google Workspace Developer News: Google Meet Web Add-ons SDK, tutorial for genAI Chat app, and more

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Welcome to the second edition of the Google Workspace Developer News! Find out what’s new on the Google Workspace Platform.

I like to think I keep a close eye on Google Workspace development, but with so much happening it’s easy to miss what’s new. Here’s a really comprehensive recap put together by Chanel Greco from the Google Workspace DevRel team. As well as covering the recent release notes Chanel spotlights some additional new resources and changes worth finding out about. The episode covers:

  • 0:12 Delete versions in your Apps Script project
  • 0:35 Update to Google Chat API: User’s read state in spaces and threads
  • 1:06 Google Meet Web Add-ons SDK
  • 1:41 Directory API update (changes to ChromeOS management)
  • 2:06 Apps Script + Calendar API solution update
  • 2:20 Google Chat API update
  • 2:45 Extend the Google Workspace UI – overview page
  • 2:59 Google Drive API v3 available for Apps Script
  • 3:23 Update to the Card service
  • 4:11 Tutorial and code sample for building a genAI Chat app

Source: Google Meet Web Add-ons SDK, tutorial for genAI Chat app, and more

Official News

New developer documentation helps discover options to extend the Google Workspace UI

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Hopefully you are already subscribed to the official Google Workspace Developer Newsletter. If not, or in case you missed the last edition the headline story highlights some new documentation to help developers understand and compare different options for extending the Google Workspace UI:

A major challenge for developers is understanding their options for extending the UI of Google Workspace: Google Workspace Add-ons, Editor Add-ons, Chat apps, Drive apps, and more! Each option has unique strengths, challenges, and limitations. Until now, there hasn’t been a central place for developers to learn what’s possible for extending the Google Workspace UI and to compare the limitations that exist in terms of coding options, UI frameworks, and which options can be published to the Google Workspace Marketplace.

The page includes a nice table included in this post as the feature image.

Source: Extend the Google Workspace UI  |  Google for Developers

Official News, Docs, Sheets, Slides

New Smart Chips (including AppSheet apps) plus third-party @menu resources in the Google Workspace Editors 

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There have been a number of recent updates and announcements around Smart Chips and other integrations to Google Docs, as well as Sheets and Slides. Some have just gone into the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program (DPP), whilst in the case of AppSheet smart chips for Google Docs they are generally available!

AppSheet smart chips for Google Docs

Starting with AppSheet smart chips for Google Docs if you already had the AppSheet Google Docs add-on installed you already have AppSheet smart chips enabled. More details including a link to the Workspace Marketplace Add-on are included in the related Workspace Updates post. The AppSheet smart chips are great way to integrate some of your app functionality in your Google Docs.

Preview links with smart chips in Sheets and Slides

We’ve had custom smart chip link previews for Google Docs for some time, but Google have recently added the same functionality to Sheets and Slides. If you have already developed link previews for Google Docs the good news is there isn’t much more you need to do to enable these for Sheets and Slides (mostly updating your manifest). More details are included on the updated Preview links with smart chips documentation page.

Create third-party resources from the @ menu

Finally, also gone into preview is third-party resource integration which you can use to “let users quickly create resources, such as tasks, support cases, or issues, in your service right from Google Docs. The new resource is then inserted into Google Docs as a smart chip.”. You can read more in the create third-party resources from the @ menu documentation page.

In the case of the preview features a reminder that this is your opportunity to test and give feedback to Google. Links to join and provide feedback are included in the Google Workspace Developer Preview page. Enjoy!

Official News, Chat, Intermediate

Generally available: You can now call the Chat API from Apps Script with the Advanced Chat Service

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The Advanced Chat service lets you use the Google Chat API in Apps Script. This API allows scripts to find, create, and modify Chat spaces, add or remove members to spaces, and read or post messages with text, cards, attachments, and reactions.

There have been a number of updates to the Google Chat API summarised in the linked release notes page. A recent announcement which might interest Google Apps Script developers is the generally available of a new  Advanced Chat Service. As noted in the official documentation:

The Advanced Chat service lets you use the Google Chat API in Apps Script. This API allows scripts to find, create, and modify Chat spaces, add or remove members to spaces, and read or post messages with text, cards, attachments, and reactions.

There are some perquisites to use the Advanced Chat service besides the usual turning it on before use, the main one being the requirement to use a standard Google Cloud console project rather than the default project created automatically.

Source: Google Chat developer platform release notes  |  Google for Developers

Official News, Meet

Google Meet API is available in Developer Preview

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Image credit: Google

We’re happy to announce that the Google Meet API is now available for the members of the Developer Preview Program.

Google recently announced new Google Meet API capabilities are now available via the Google Workspace Developer Preview Program:

Launching through our Google Workspace Developer Preview Program, you can now use the Google Meet API. Specifically, among other things, you’ll be able to:

  • Programmatically create and configure Meet calls.
  • Retrieve meeting metadata, such as the meeting times and attendees.
  • Access meeting artifacts, such as transcripts and video recordings.
  • Subscribe to real time updates on meetings, such as when a participant joins or leaves.

The new API open the potential to both customise and get records from Google Meets. The source link provides an overview of the API and methods.

Source: Google Meet API overview  |  Google for Developers

Official News, AppSheet, No Code

Become a recognized AppSheet Google Developer Expert (GDE)!

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Image credit: Google

If you have strong AppSheet technical skills along with solid Google Workspace skills and would like to share your expertise globally as a recognized “Google Developer Expert” (GDE), we would like to invite you to apply to become an official GDE member specializing in AppSheet and Workspace!

The Google Developer Experts program is a great way to get recognised for your abilities, but more importantly an opportunity to get close to the Google product teams to learn and share your day-to-day experiences. Whilst AppSheet is positioned as a no/low code solution it doesn’t mean there aren’t individuals out their developing sophisticated apps and supporting the community along the way.

If this sounds like you the AppSheet team are looking for community experts to become the next AppSheet GDEs. This source post includes some more information as well as a form where you can note your interested. As a GDE of 9+ years I’m also happy to share my experience of the program and what I think it takes to stand out from the crowd.

Source: Become a recognized AppSheet Google Developer Expert (GDE)!

Gotchas, New IDE, Official News

[Official] Apps Script project history – New Feature overview!

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We are excited to announce the general availability of project history for Apps Script! Find out how you can get started using this feature.

In Pulse we’ve previously featured the announcement that the new project history was rolling out to Google Apps Script. This feature should have finished following out and this video from the Google Workspace team covers how you can use project history in the Apps Script IDE. As well as the video there is also an update to the Google Apps Script Versions documentation page.

The key takeaway for Google Apps Script users is unlike Google Docs which can automatically save a version history of a document, Apps Script project history requires the user to use deployments (Deploy > Manage deployments) to create a version should you want to see get a highlights or code changes between the current and previous versions. This will be less of an issue if you are using Google Apps Script to  deploy web apps, Workspace Add-ons or libraries, which already use deployments, but for other situations like container bound scripts you might want to get into the habit of using the Deploy button to create a version.

Source: Apps Script project history – New Feature!

Official News, Video Tutorial

[Live] Tips and tricks to getting the most out of Google Workspace with Apps Script – October 06, 2023 @ 9am PT / 4pm UTC

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Join the experts on October 6th to learn Apps Script tips and tricks to combine APIs, automation, configuration as code, and more to improve your productivity using Google Workspace. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just getting started with low-code development, this event will provide you with the insights and information you need to start building custom solutions with Google Apps Script.

Recently on Pulse we highlighted the ‘Getting the most out of Google Workspace with Apps Script, tips and tricks’ session as part of Google Cloud Next ’23. This wasn’t one of the livestreamed sessions, but the good news is the session is being rerun online on October 06, 2023 @ 9am PT / 4pm UTC, hosted by Charles Maxson and Kara Ireland from the Google Workspace team.

As well as using the source link to register for the event there is a form link where you can submit your questions in advance. If you can’t make the live session registering will also mean you’ll get notified about the recording. Looking forward to seeing other community members in the YouTube Live chat!

Source: Tips and tricks to getting the most out of Google Workspace with Apps Script

Official News

More Google Workspace Developer Summits in Singapore, Bangalore, Amsterdam and Zürich

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Whether you are a seasoned Workspace developer, just getting started, or somewhere in between, the Google Workspace Developer Summit is a great opportunity to learn more about how you build creative and unique solutions for your business or even the world.

The Google Workspace Developer Relations team are back on the road with in-person summits scheduled for Singapore, Bangalore, Amsterdam and Zürich. These events are a great opportunity find out what is new in the Google Workspace developer ecosystem as well as meeting other people interested integrating and extending Google Workspace products.

Given the nature of Google Workspace, don’t feel you have to be a pro-coder to classify yourself as a ‘Workspace Developer’. Products and features like AppSheet and the Duet AI increasingly blur the lines creating opportunities for a growing audience for Google Workspace centred workflows and solutions.

The full day events are free to attend and you can register to join at the following dates/locations:

Source: Join a Google Workspace Developer Summit near you

 

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