AppsScriptPulse

Solutions, Sheets, Slides, Beginner

Creating a book recommendation engine using Google Apps Script — Thoughts from a Technologist turned School Librarian

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

Don’t have time to get to all your library duties? Need more staff? Create them using code! I work in a school library and could definitely do with some help around here, so let’s write some programs to streamline a few library duties and add some “virtual staff”.

In this post, we’ll create a small tool to help get word out to the school community about book recommendations and new releases/purchases in the library. The plan is to make use of a Google Sheet to pre-populate a bunch of data as time goes on and then have a Google Apps Script pull that data periodically, display it on our digital displays using Google Slides as well as to send email updates to the community.

Nice example for creating Google Slides from Google Sheets for digital signage. The post has a useful explanation of what is going on in the code for those interested to learn more.

Source: Creating a book recommendation engine using Google Apps Script — Thoughts from a Technologist turned School Librarian

Snippet, V8, Intermediate, Slides

Inserting Text on Image using Google Apps Script

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

This is a sample script for inserting a text on an image using Google Apps Script. The flow of this sample script is as follows:

  1. Retrieve the image size using ImgApp.
  2. Create new Google Slides with the custom page size using DocsServiceApp.
  3. Put the image and text.
  4. Export the result image

Source: Inserting Text on Image using Google Apps Script

Add-on, Solutions, Docs, Gmail, Sheets, Slides, Intermediate

Content generation with Google Workspace Add-ons

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

Google Workspace Add-ons

Image credit: Google

Back when G Suite, err… Google Workspace Add-ons launched, support for Docs, Sheets, and Slides was conspicuously absent. Sure, they’ve long supported their own flavor of add-ons, but the idea of building an add-on two different ways didn’t sit well with me. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait too long for the editors to catch up. … Now that add-ons work in the editors I had the chance to build a few small demos to try them out.

Recently it was announced that Google Workspace Add-ons now support the extension of the Editors (Docs, Sheets and Slides). Steven Bazyl (Google, DevRel) has shared an overview to help you get started with Workspace Add-ons. The examples Steven shares are particularly useful if you want to start developing add-ons that work across editors as well as in Gmail. This post is particularly useful for tips on handling different host applications. Follow the link to the source for all the code and more details…

Source: Content generation with Google Workspace Add-ons

Library, Solutions, Docs, Sheets, Slides

New Google Apps Script library for working with Google Docs, MS Word, Google Sheets, MS Excel and Google Slides when core/advanced service methods are not available

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

This is a Google Apps Script library for supporting Document service, Docs API, Spreadsheet service, Sheets API, Slides service and Slides API. The aim of this library is to compensate the processes that they services cannot achieve.

The purpose of this contribution from Tanaike is to extend Google Apps Script to interact with certain types of Google Drive files using methods not included in the existing core or advanced services. Features worth noting are:

  • Google Docs:
    • Retrieve table width and column width from the table. The tables inserted with the default width are included.
  • Google Sheets:
    • Retrieve all images in Google Spreadsheet as an object including the cell range and image blob.
    • Retrieve all comments in Google Spreadsheet as an object including the cell range and comments.
    • Insert images in cells of Google Spreadsheet using the image blob.
    • Create new Google Spreadsheet by setting the custom header and footer.
  • Microsoft Word:
    • Retrieve table width and column width.
  • Microsoft Excel:
    • Retrieve all values and formulas of the cells.
    • Retrieve all sheet names.
    • Retrieve all images as an object including the cell range and image blob.
    • Retrieve all comments as an object including the cell range and comments.

For more details about this library visit the source on Github

Source: tanaikech/DocsServiceApp

Solutions, Sheets, Slides, V8

Google Apps Script: Automated PDF Certificate Creator That Is Emailed to the Attendee – Yagisanatode

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

Use Google Apps Script, Google Slides and Google Sheets to quickly automate creating a Certificate of Attendance and send it to attendees.

Nice example using Google Apps Script to generate and share .pdf documents via email. The source has all the code you need to get going on this.

Source: Google Apps Script: Automated PDF Certificated Creator That Is Emailed to the Attendee – Yagisanatode

Snippet, Solutions, Slides, V8

Retrieving Data from QR code on Google Slides using Google Apps Script · tanaike

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

This is a sample script for decoding a QR code put in Google Slides using Google Apps Script. In this case, Javascript is used at the opened dialog. And Canvas API and jsQR are used.

This is a nice example of how you can easily drop in existing JavaScript libraries into your Apps Script project by using a HTML dialog. The post also has some nice tricks for handing image data, in particular, from getDataFromQRCode() the image data is passed into the HtmlService :

const html = HtmlService.createTemplateFromFile("index");
html.image = JSON.stringify(blob.getBytes()); // adding image data
SlidesApp.getUi().showModalDialog(html.evaluate(), "sample");

This is added in client side with a printing scriptlet:

image.src = `data:image/png;base64,${btoa(String.fromCharCode(...new Uint8Array(Int8Array.of(...JSON.parse(<?= image ?>)).buffer)))}`; 

Another way you could achieve this is base64 encoding the image server side with Utilities.base64Encode() .

Source: Retrieving Data from QR code on Google Slides using Google Apps Script · tanaike

Snippet, Solutions, Slides, V8

Cropping Images in Google Slides using Google Apps Script

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

This is a sample script for cropping images in the Google Slides using Google Apps Script.

Useful snippet from Tanaike which shows how you can crop images in Google Slides by using the replace(blobSource, crop) method. The post also highlights a limitation with the image manipulation methods available around crop centering.

Source: Cropping Images in Google Slides using Google Apps Script · tanaike

Solutions, Slides, V8

How to Download Speaker Notes in Google Slides – Digital Inspiration

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

With Creator Studio, you can easily convert your Google Slides presentation into animated GIFs and video slideshows. The add-on can also extract speaker notes from your slides and export them as a text file in Google Drive. Internally, the app uses Google Apps Script to export Speaker Notes from your Google presentation and writes them to a text file inside Google Drive.

In this post Amit Agarwal share some very clean code for iterating across each slide in Google Slides and export the speaker notes into a single file. Click through to the post for the source code.

Source: How to Download Speaker Notes in Google Slides – Digital Inspiration

Solutions, Slides

Google Slides API — a deep dive on its powerful image manipulation methods

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

A post dedicated to devs and highlighting the power of the Slides API.

Use Google Apps Script and the Google Slides API to create a card game like Dobble.

Source: Google Slides API — a deep dive on its powerful image manipulation methods

Solutions, Slides

Make your own Dobble / Spot It game with Google Slides and Apps Script

Tags:
| | 1 Comment |

Upload a few images to Google Drive, press a trigger to start a little Apps Script code and get your own Dobble game on Google Slides.

This tutorial will guide you into creating your own Dobble card deck with Google Slides, which you can easily print for use in your day to day life.

Source: Make your own Dobble / Spot It game with Google Slides and Apps Script

Solutions, Slides

AutoSlides | A multi-functional tool that refreshes Google Slides automatically without reloading

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

AutoSlides is a Google presentation template powered by Apps Script code design to be used in unattended information points, although it can also be used as an informational element, linked or embedded, on any website.

Google presentations have a publishing feature that facilitates their dissemination. In this way they can be linked or embedded in web media with ease. However, if the presentation slides are modified it is necessary to reload the page that contains its versions published in the browser so that these changes are manifested. AutoSlides is capable of generating a self-hosted slide show, visible using a browser, that automatically refreshes at predetermined intervals without reloading the web page manually in the browser.

Source: pfelipm/autoslides

Solutions, Forms, Slides

How to use GCP service accounts with Google Apps Script projects to automate actions in G Suite

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

A Google Apps Script and Google Cloud Platform tutorial to learn how to use GCP Service Accounts to scale and protect automations

Examples of Google Apps Script being used in an enterprise setting tend to be few and far between which means this tutorial by Jeffrey Daube is an interesting insight to how script projects can be setup to serve the entire company. In particular, Jeffrey details how the use of service accounts can be used so that G Suite documents can be created with a non-human user allowing you to make calls to Google APIs without the usual authentication flow.

Source: How to use GCP service accounts with Google Apps Script projects to automate actions in G Suite

Docs, Forms, Sheets, Slides

TSDynamicUrls (#1) — Leverage the URL Power of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings & Forms 💥

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

In my previous post, I outlined the power of Google document URLs to perform “Simple, Powerful, Work” and promised to share several tools I’ve developed to aid in building them.

Source: TSDynamicUrls (#1) — Leverage the URL Power of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings & Forms 💥

Solutions, Gmail, Sheets, Slides

Send bullk emails with personalised images in G Suite using Google Apps Script

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

Earlier in the year I managed to get a bulk emailing script published in the G Suite Developer Solutions Gallery. In this post I want to show you how you can extend this script so that you can send personalised images using Gmail, Sheets and Slides.

Source: Send bullk emails with personalised images in G Suite using Google Apps Script

Solutions, Sheets, Slides

How to Inject Data from Google Sheets Into a Google Slides Presentation | UpBuild

Tags:
| | 0 Comments |

Stop copying and pasting data from Google Sheets. Have it automatically injected into a Google Slides presentation with this Apps Script.

Nice introduction post which covers the basics of Google Apps Script development using a project to populate Google Slides from Sheets as an example

Source: How to Inject Data from Google Sheets Into a Google Slides Presentation | UpBuild

Subscribe to Apps Script Pulse...