Build your own functions in Google Sheets that do anything you need them to in a few lines of code.
This is a great tutorial if you are interested in finding out more about developing custom functions in Google Sheets. The post includes everything you need to get started from handling single cell and range inputs, to documenting your function so that users see inline help.
Google Apps Script is an amazing language that can automate a lot of your work. However, working with GAS also means that you have to learn to live with its built-in limitations and quotas. One such quota is the total script runtime. …I have experienced that the time required to complete tasks like copying or even simply listing files on a drive or in a directory can be quite long. Merging hundreds or thousands of documents can also take longer than both thresholds. Now let’s look into how we can build a solution
Another community contribution looking at handling script runtime and this one is also worth looking into for tips on structuring your code. The tutorial includes lots of useful information and an explanation of what is going on and might be a useful example to look if you are interested in moving your Apps Script coding abilities to the next level.
The basic principle behind tracking Google Sheet opens is the same as the one behind email tracking with a transparent pixel. In a Google Sheet, we will use the IMAGE()function, which will call a deployed Google Apps Script web app URL with some parameters in the query string. The web app will be able to do whatever you need among the following: record to a spreadsheet, create a message via a messenger, or simply send an email.
Unit testing is an extremely important practice. It helps developers avoid bugs easily and lets you know when something is broken immediately. … There are numerous libraries that exist for unit testing in JavaScript, including Jest and Mocha; however, they aren’t necessarily well-adapted to run under the Google Apps Script environment. … For that reason, I built my own library with Google Apps Script in mind.
We’ve featured a couple of community contributions around Google Apps Script Unit Testing and if this is a topic that interests you then the related posts section below will link to additional resources. This post from Dmitry Kostyuk is a great addition and the accompanying UnitTestingApp library that is shared in the post has some very useful Google Apps Script related features such as a dedicated method to check your data is a 2D array (particularly useful in the context of handling spreadsheet values). Follow the source link for more details…
A lot of users try and quickly learn GAS and use it to make their lives easier. It’s all great, however the code we sometimes tend to come across on StackOverflow and other sites lacks best practices, hence I thought it was time to start bringing them up and I will start today with design patterns.
As noted by the post author Dmitry Kostyuk the Google Apps Script V8 runtime opens up many new coding opportunities previously not available to Apps Script developers. Using the common use case, fetching data and writing it to a Google Sheet, Dmitry explains how the façade and proxy code patterns can be used to write efficient easy-to-read code.
