AppsScriptPulse

Solutions, Drive, Sheets, Intermediate

Uploading files without authorizing scopes  with a dialog in Google Sheets using Google Apps Script

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Making the shared users input a value and upload a file without authorization of the scopes with a dialog on Google Spreadsheet.

It’s usually unavoidable when you are creating and sharing Apps Script projects that the user will be required to complete an authentication flow to approve access to the services you include in your script such as reading/writing to Google Sheets, Drive etc.

The process is reliant on OAuth scopes, which are identifiers that specify the level of access an application requests from a user’s Google Account data. They are essentially a way for developers to define the specific actions or data their application needs to access. When a user grants an application access to their Google Account, they are agreeing to allow the application to perform the actions or access the data specified by the scopes.

Sometimes you can restrict the ‘scope’, for example, usually for Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Forms where I need only permission for the current doc I will include the following documented comment to only require access to the doc that the script project is bound to:

/**
 * @OnlyCurrentDoc
 */

There are some limitations when defining the scopes you need. For example if you would like a user to upload a document to Drive usually you would require the very broad https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive scope which will prompt the user to ‘view and manage all of your Drive files’.

Understandably users may become nervous approving such a scope and in some cases Google Workspace Admins may prevent authentication for this type of scope for unverified/unconfigured applications.

There are alternative approaches to allowing users to execute Apps Script projects without having to approve scopes like Google Drive. There are clearly security considerations when you do this, so always proceed with caution.

This post from Kanshi Tanaike has some examples of how users can be prompted to upload files to Google Drive without authorising Drive access. The post includes two approaches, the first using a Web App which is pre authenticated to run as the user who has deployed the Web App, the other using a service account. The source post contains all you need to know include the code.

Source: Uploading Files without Authorizing Scopes by Shared Users with Dialog on Google Spreadsheet using Google Apps Script

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

Solutions, AppSheet, No Code

Discovering Google AppSheet in 48 hours | Part 1 (Data)

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An intense 48-hour tour of AppSheet, Google’s flagship nocode tool, from the perspective of a newcomer to the platform (part 1/4).

When introducing people to AppSheet I like to remind them that whilst it is a no/low code solution, like many other products it still requires you factor in time to learn and understand the product. Spreadsheets are a great example of this there being aspects that are relatively intuitive but other areas like formulas where it requires time to understand how to best use them.

I find learning vicariously, through the eyes of others, helps me understand what other people value in a product. This first post in a series by Pablo Felip in ‘Discovering Google AppSheet in 48 hours’ is a great example of just that. There are three more parts to come, but in part 1 Pablo sets the scene sharing initial impressions and first learning from a weekend in AppSheet.

Perhaps not unsurprisingly data features heavily in this first post. What you want your app to do will often be based on the data you already have or the data you will need. The post also contains this useful reminder:

Google AppSheet is a “core” service of Google Workspace. It is therefore covered by the same legal umbrella as the other core services of this platform with respect to terms of use, security and privacy of the data processed.

Pablo’s next part should be published next week and hopfeully like me you’ll be following along.

Source: Discovering Google AppSheet in 48 hours | Part 1

Solutions, Drive, Gmail, Sheets, Intermediate

Build your own Gmail-based expense tracking solution with Google Sheets and Google Apps Script

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Use Google Apps Script to automate email-based expense tracking. Store and track your receipts entirely through Gmail, Drive and Sheets

Here’s a nice tutorial on how to create an email-based expense tracking system using Google Apps Script. The solution allows users to submit expense reports via email, which are then automatically processed and stored in a Google Sheet with attachments stored in Google Drive.

The blog post by Joshua Mustill provides detailed instructions on how to set up the system, including how to create the Gmail labels and filters, the Google Sheet and the Apps Script code. There are some nice features in the code you might want to use in other projects including the creation of date based Google Drive folders for storing Gmail attachments.

Source: Build your own email-based expense tracking with Google Apps Script

Snippet, Solutions, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Intermediate

Retrieve comments with emoji reactions from Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheet using Google Apps Script

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This report introduces the method for retrieving the Emoji reactions from the comments in Google Docs files (Google Documents, Google Slides, and Google Spreadsheets) using Google Apps Script.

Here’s a clever workaround by Kanshi Tanaike for retrieving comments with emoji reactions in Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets using Google Apps Script. The process to achieve this is a little convoluted in that Google Docs, Slides and Sheets are exported in Microsoft equivalent formats, then re-imported into Google formats. To remove some of the pain the post includes sample code snippets for achieving this, which can easily be adapted.

Source: Retrieve Comments with Emoji Reactions from Google Documents, Google Slides, and Google Spreadsheets using Google Apps Script

Snippet, Gmail, Intermediate

How to send Base64 images in Gmail with Google Apps Script

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Gmail will not render base64 images embedded inside HTML emails but with Google Apps Script, you can use blobs to send the base64 encoded images

Base64 is a way of encoding binary data (like images) as a string of text. This makes it possible to embed images in webpages and HTML emails without hosting images on a server. An issue however, particularly for email, is that not all email services like Gmail support base64 encoded images.

Amit Agarwal’s latest blog post discusses a workaround for Gmail which involves using Google Apps Script to convert the base64 images to a blob and then embedding the blob in the email. There are some nice techniques in this post for handling/searching text strings with regular expressions as well as converting them to a Gmail friendly format.

Source: How to Send Base64 Images in Email with Google Apps Script – Digital Inspiration

Snippet, Solutions, Sheets, Beginner

Dynamic chart heading in Google Sheets 📊 with a little Apps Script

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Image script: Ben Collins'

Today we’ll see how to link a chart title to a cell, so that the chart title automatically reflects whatever value is in the cell

Today’s Pulse snippet comes courtesy of Ben Collins’ excellent Google Sheets Tips Newsletter, Tip 272. It uses a very basic onEdit() trigger to update a chart title based on a cell value. Ben has a great way of highlighting solutions without getting readers lost in complexity. Hopefully this example highlights the how easily you can modify Google Sheet charts using Apps Script.

If you are an Apps Script novice and looking for an easy way to learn what else is possible my own tip is to start the macro recorder, modify an embedded Google Sheets chart and then look at the resulting macro code in the Script Editor.

Source: Sheets Tip 272: Dynamic chart heading in Sheets 📊

Snippet, Beginner, Sheets

Apps Script Pattern. Stop Script Execution on conditions from a Google Sheet

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The common pattern for checking the business logic before executing automation

Here’s a clever little snippet from Max Makhrov which combines Google Apps Script with conditional logic created using Google Sheets functions, the resulting cell value being used for the error message.

/**
 * @param {String} rangeName
 * 
 * @returns {Boolean} toStopExecution
 */
function getStopMessageBoxFromNamedRange_(rangeName) {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
  var r = ss.getRangeByName(rangeName);
  var v = r.getValue();
  if (v === '') {
    return false;
  }
  var stopHeader = 'The script was stopped';
  Browser.msgBox(stopHeader, v, Browser.Buttons.OK);
  return true;
}

If after reading Max’s post you are unsure how this works, here is an example Google Sheet with some test data and logic as well as a ‘My Menu’ open to test the bound script.

Source: Apps Script Pattern. Stop Script Execution on conditions from Sheet

Advanced, AI, Chat

How to built a Support AI Assistant for Google Workspace with Apps Script, Gen AI and Google Chat

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Building a Support AI Assistant for Google Workspace using Apps Script, Gen AI, and Google Chat.

This post from Stéphane Giron highlights one approach for improving responses from LLMs by integrating Google Custom Search Engine responses into the prompt. In this example Stéphane used Google Apps Script to power the AI Assistant, integrating with Google Chat for the user interface and Cloud Functions to reformat data.

This post is another example of the ‘power of the prompt’ and how LLM prompting strategies are a very effective way to utilise LLMs without having to ground or fine tune. If you are interested in understanding more here is a useful notebook produced by Michael W. Sherman which illustrates two powerful LLM prompting strategies: Chain of Thought and ReAct (Reasoning + Acting).

Source: How we built our Support AI Assistant for Google Workspace with Apps Script, Gen AI and Google Chat