AppsScriptPulse

Create and run polls in Google Slides using Google Forms and Google Sheets

Image credit: Prateek Sharma

I wanted to give a presentation to a group of people. In order to make the presentation more engaging & eliminate silences during the slideshow, I thought of conducting polls in between. … Since I am giving presentation using Google tools, I thought let’s try it out with Google Apps Script.

I thought this was a nice little Apps Script snippet from Prateek Sharma which hooks into a .onFormSubmit() trigger to update all charts embedded from Google Sheets in a Google Slides presentation. Prateek provides detailed steps including the code for setting this up. Unfortunately, a limitation of Google Slides is once you go into ‘slideshow’ mode all charts become static images so you need to jump back to the editor view to show real-time results.

Source: Create and Run Polls in Google Slides using Google Forms & Google Sheets

Process only selected Google Sheets rows in Google Apps Script – The Mergo and Publigo Google Workspace Add-on solution

If you selected 1 or more rows, Publigo lets you generate a personalized document for those rows only or all visible rows in your sheet. Image credit: Romain Vialard

It is super easy in Google Sheets to select only specific rows, even if they are not adjacent. Simply hold down the CTRL / command key while making your selections. And those selections are also available in Google Apps Script via the method getActiveRangeList() … For Google Apps Script developers, here is a quick snippet showing how to process only selected rows.

Following the previous Pulse post on Get all selected Ranges in Google Sheets Romain Vialard got in touch to highlight the approach they have implemented to include this feature in the Mergo and Publigo Google Workspace Add-ons. This source post from Romain includes a snippet of code which might be useful for other Google Apps Script developers.

Source: Process only selected rows in scripts and add-ons

Create a To-Do list App using Google AppSheet

In this blog, I am going to show you how to create a To-Do list app using Google AppSheet. A To-do list app lets you write organize and prioritize your tasks more efficiently. In this blog, we will be creating a To-Do list app using Google AppSheet that will allow you to do the same. Additionally, we will be using the automation features in Google AppSheet to send an email as soon a task is completed.

Aryan has written a great tutorial on how to get started and takes us through how we can connect Google Sheets to AppsSheet and how to create a simple to-do list app from it.

Source: Create a To-Do list App using Google AppSheet — Part 1

How I Programmed the Game of Life in a Google Sheet with Google Apps Script

According to Wikipedia, the Game of Life “is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970.”

It begins on a two-dimensional grid of square cells. Each cell can be either alive or dead. Every cell interacts with its eight immediate neighbors. A live cell only remains alive if it has two or three living neighbors. If it has fewer than two living neighbors, it dies as if by underpopulation. Conversely, if it has more than three, it dies as if by overpopulation. A dead cell remains dead unless it has exactly three living neighbors; otherwise, it becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.

There is no immediate practical use for the Game of Life in a spreadsheet; however, it is a fun algorithmic challenge. Moreover, Google Sheets natively provides us with the perfect data structure: a two-dimensional array. This is all the more reason to work on those array skills!

As usual, there is a GitHub repo with the full source code. Alternatively, you can just make a copy of this spreadsheet.

Source: “How I Programmed the Game of Life in a Google Sheet with Google Apps Script

See your Google Calendar events in Google Maps using Google Apps Script

Image credit: KEVIN VAGHASIYA

In this article, I will show you how can you visualize google calendar events in the google maps using Google Calendar, Maps Javascript API, HTML, CSS and Google Apps Script.

This is an interesting project shared by Kevin Vaghasiya which uses Google Apps Script to create a web app to display a range of Google Calendar events on a map. On the backend the script is using the Maps Service and geocode(address) to get the co-ordinates of the event location. This could be an interesting project to modify to send yourself a daily email with a static map image of your appointments.

Source: See your calendar events in Google Maps using Google Apps Script

Get Classroom Data into Google Sheets using Google Apps Script

Image credit: Aryan Irani

In this blog, I am going to show you how to get Google Classroom Data into your Google Sheet using Google Apps Script. Using this, you can keep track of all the classes that you have in your Google Classroom.

This is a nice introductory tutorial from Aryan Irani which looks at exporting basic information about your Google Classroom courses to Google Sheets. The example script imports the main details about your courses but if you are interested in finding out what else is available the official documentation for a course resource outlines what else is available.

Source: Get Classroom Data into your Google Sheet using Google Apps Script

Use a Google Sheets as a database in Google Apps Script without sharing it

Make Google Sheets as your database for your web app or add-on developed in Apps Script without sharing the file. … In order to keep our database secret to end users we will use a Service Account (SA) … This Service Account is not a real account, no Gmail or Drive attached but a service account can access a spreadsheet. We will use this property to manage our data.

As the post author Stéphane Giron indicates before using Google Sheets as a database you need to fully scope out if it’s the right solution for you. For ‘small’ data you can often get away with using Sheets and in this post from Stéphane you can learn how to do it in a way where you can have access control by setting up and using a Service Account.

Source: Use a Google Sheets as a database in Apps Script without sharing it

Use Google Apps Script to pull all Google Shared Drives and permissions into Google Sheets

If you’re a Google Workspace Super Admin, you’ve probably been thinking of ways to inventory and keep a handle on Google Shared Drives. They are a really great addition to the Workspace offering, but there are still some gaps in reporting & oversight that some people have wanted. This solution uses Google Apps Script and the Drive API to pull information about all the Shared Drives in a domain into a Google Sheet. Then, it uses the Drive API again to loop through all the drives and get the top-level permissions.

For Google Workspace admins Nick Young has provided a nice solution for auditing Google Shared Drives within your Workspace domain. This post covers all the steps to setup, a link to the code on GitHub and some notes on limitations to be aware of.

Source: Use Apps Script to pull all Google Shared Drives and permissions into a Google Sheet

How to Build an API Wrapper in Google Apps Script

No Google Apps Script SDK for your favorite API? No problem!

I’ve never seen a Google Apps Script SDK made available as part of an API, as, surprise surprise, it’s not the most popular choice for professional development. It’s time to start changing that, so we will learn to build our own!

[Editor note: Really impressive work from Dmitry providing a framework you can use to develop your own service for interacting with 3rd party APIs. The post includes lots of clear instructions and guidance to help you understand and learn about approaches for structuring your Google Apps Script code projects]

Source: How to Build an API Wrapper in Google Apps Script

Building a Google Calendar add-on and publishing it in the marketplace

Image credit: Gareth Cronin

I’ve long been interested in using one of the big office productivity platforms to build an embedded add-on. For a solo developer it’s a no-brainer: the platform takes care of the requirements above, and when the platform has a marketplace, there’s even a ready to go distribution channel to take it to market! The only real reason I’ve resisted it so far is fear of the slog of platform approval processes and required collateral. In this story I’ll explain how I felt the fear and did it anyway 😀

Google OAuth verification and Workspace Add-on app review can be quite daunting the first time you go through the process. In this post from Gareth Cronin he shares his own personal journey getting his JIT Time Google Calendar Add-on verified and approved. There are some great tips and resources shared in the post including how to show the  OAuth client ID in the add-on demo video submitted as part of the verification processes.

Source: Building a Google Calendar add-on and publishing it in the marketplace