Apps Script has deprecated the Contacts service. Instead, use the People API advanced service. Refer to Migrate from Contacts service to People API advanced service.
Having taken bit of a break from Pulse over the festive period I had missed the December release note announcing the deprecation of the Contacts service, ContactsApp. There isn’t much time to update your code as the service will no longer function after April 30, 2023. Google have however provided detailed guidance on migrating from Contacts service to People API advanced service.
Apps Script added a new method to the Utilities class. parseDate(date, timeZone, format) parses a provided string date according to the specification described in the Java Standard Edition SimpleDateFormat class.
Given the popularity of handling data using Google Apps Script I’m sure many will welcome the inclusion of a parseDate() method which was included in the most recent release notes.
Apps Script has turned down the legacy integrated development environment (IDE) in favor of the redesigned IDE that launched in December 2020.
Google have announced the updated Apps Script editor will replace the legacy experience by Q4 2022. Whilst the new IDE was a huge step forward there are some core features from the old Script Editor, which will hopefully make it into the new IDE before Q4. The ones I hear most often are access previous script versions and search/replace across project script files. For the later in the meantime I recommend looking at the Black Apps Script Chrome extension. Whilst this extension primarily enables a true dark mode it also lets you search across script files.
We’ve been a little remiss highlighting the latest Google Apps Script release notes, but in case you missed it there has been an update to the V8 runtime:
You can now call functions in separate files before they’re parsed. Previously, the V8 runtime required a script file to be parsed before any other file could call the functions it defines.
Now, the order of files in the Apps Script editor doesn’t matter. This means that you can call a function in a different file to assign a value to a global variable—the function is always defined before it’s called. This behavior reflects that of the legacy Rhino runtime.
See the source post for more details and an example code snippet.
You can read more about the script editor updates in this related Google Workspace Updates post, which provides more details of note is:
This launch ensures Apps Script users can utilize the legacy features in the new environment:
Script Properties: Allows you to store simple data in key-value pairs scoped to one script. Script properties are typically used to store developer configuration data. The new IDE has now integrated the interface to edit, delete and create up to 50 new script properties.
Add-on Testing: Allows add-on developers to test their add-ons before publishing them broadly.
Time Zone Setting: Allows you to update the time zone of the script and its executions.
Rhino Debugging: Adds the ability to debug Rhino subroutines on V8 debugger, without migrating to V8. If the code is not V8 compatible, users will get a warning message.
For Google Workspace Add-ons, an Attachment class has been added to the Card Service that lets you add custom attachments to Calendar events. You can also set an event trigger that fires when the user clicks on the add-on attachment provider in the Calendar dropdown menu. For more information, refer to EventAttachmentTrigger.
Google Workspace developers can now create Google Workspace add-ons that attach files to a Google Calendar event from any third-party service. This feature enables developers to create add-ons that support attachments from a wide range of sources beyond Google Drive, such as digital whiteboard, content creation, or file management tools.
The update includes the following additional guidance for developers:
The get methods for several color objects in the Spreadsheet Service have been deprecated in favor of a new naming convention. The functionality remains the same. For example, the getFontColor() method from the Range class has been replaced with getFontColorObject().
Check out the source link for details of which Spreadsheet Services have been updated.
As a little experiment for Apps Script Pulse fans we are going to start reposting the official Google Apps Script release notes on this site. Why? The release notes can be incredibly useful to keep up-to-date with latest Google Apps Script developments but currently unless you keep checking the page (or know someone with an unofficial RSS feed), they can be hard to monitor.
The February 14, 2022 release note contains a very useful security update which will let yo know when someone outside your organisation updates a script project. Details and link below:
February 14, 2022
Owners receive email alerts when someone outside the owner’s organization edits a script project in the new integrated development environment (IDE).
For container-bound scripts: If someone outside the container owner’s organization creates or edits a container-bound script project, the container owner receives an email notification.
For standalone scripts: If someone outside the script project owner’s organization edits a standalone script project, the script project owner receives an email notification.
