Tag: onOpen

Google Apps Script: Google Standard Color Palette Picker for Sidebar and Dialog Boxes in Google Sheets, Google Docs and Google Slides (Updated Feb 2022)

Google Apps Script: Dev Tools, Color Picker, Side Bar, Custom Prompt, HtmlService, onOpen, Sidebar, Dialog Box

I wanted to update one of my free Google Add-on apps that works with colour. What I had is just the standard HTML color input element where the user selects from the palette and that hexadecimal colour code is returned to Google Apps Script to be used in the App. The problem is that it is really hard to get a good colour match between the palette and Google’s own colour range that is accessible from the fill or text colour buttons.

Take a look at the comparison between the HTML color input element and the Google Sheet background colour palette in the image below.

Color input vs google sheet palette colours

That’s not a user-friendly tool to match colours with the standard Google palette.

So in the back of my mind, I had always wanted to create a tool for a sidebar or dialogue box that would allow the user to easily access the standard colours or use the custom palette provided by the HTML color input.

After finding a bit of time in my recent summer break I came up with this.

Google Color array picker

And this is how it looks in action:

(Note: add-ons has been updated to Extensions)

Continue reading “Google Apps Script: Google Standard Color Palette Picker for Sidebar and Dialog Boxes in Google Sheets, Google Docs and Google Slides (Updated Feb 2022)”

Google Apps Script: Create an HTML email reminder service from Google Sheet data.

Google Apps Script: SpreadsheetApp, Utilities, MailApp, UrlFetchApp, HtmlService, onOpen

Ever wanted a quick way to send reminders to staff, letting them know that their task is overdue?

I often have to provide Google Sheet checklists that administration team managers can crosscheck to see if their team members have complete a certain task.

Reminding staff to complete a task can be time consuming and irritating. What if you could send an email to all those staff members who haven’t completed the task with a simple click of the button?

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a Google Apps Script HTML email mail merge service that will send an email to a staff member who has not completed their task, indicated by a missing tick on a tickbox.

We will use the sample sheet below:

the badger Google Sheet

The Google Sheets reminder is triggered by a custom menu item.  You can see it at the top right of the image.

When the reminder is sent, it collects the rows of staff that have not indicated that they have completed the task.  It then sends an email to those staff members  with the reminder below:

HTML Email Reminder Google Apps Script
Get it! Badger! Ha!

As you can see, I’ve added some custom HTML to highlight the header and modify the width of the image. The email contains a number of unique pieces of data gathered from the Google Sheet Row:

  • The name of the user.
  • The deadline.
  • The name of the sheet (In this case, Tester).
  • The number of days overdue.

It also contains a link to the check sheet for the user to update once they have completed their task.

Back at The Badger Google Sheet, an alert window appears once the code is completed and also indicates any emails that could not be sent.

To get started you can Make a Copy of the Google Sheet by following this link:

Continue reading “Google Apps Script: Create an HTML email reminder service from Google Sheet data.”

Google Apps Script – Why isn’t my add-on showing up in the add-on menu when I test it? (Updated Feb 2022)

Google Apps Script – AuthMode

I mean, when I run it normally, it works just fine!

This is an interesting problem I came across recently when reviewing one of my Google add-ons.

The Problem

The issue was that when I ran my Google Apps Script add-on code normally – in my case, connected to a Google Sheet – the add-on would appear just fine in my add-on menu. However, when I tested the script as an add-on ( run >>> Test as add-on…), as installed for current user but not enabled, my app would not appear in the add-on menu.

If I were to publish this app in this condition (and I may have…eep!), the user would be able to see my add-on in the add-on menu but not be able to access the link to run the app’s function without going into Add-ons >>> Manage add-ons… then click on Manage >>> Use this add-on. The user would have to do this each time they want to apply my add-on to a new Google doc for the first time. Not a good user experience.

The reason is that the first time the app is run in a new document, the Authorization Mode is set to none:

AuthMode.NONE

When the user opens the document for the first time, the onOpen(e) trigger function is loaded along with any global variables that are in the script.

This is what Google Apps Script has to say about this:

Google Apps Script onOpen AuthMode None
Source: Add-on Authorization.

So the problem was that one of my Global Variables did not abide by the scope of AuthMode.NONE.

How about we look at some example code to see how to identify the problem and work towards a solution.

Continue reading “Google Apps Script – Why isn’t my add-on showing up in the add-on menu when I test it? (Updated Feb 2022)”