As you probably know, you can use the web UI to embed a range of a google sheet into a google doc as a linked table that makes it easy to refresh the table in the doc to see any updates in the sheet.
I would like to create this connection via an App Script but I don't see a way to create a table taking a sheet range (or anything like it) as a parameter or any other kind of intelligent object linking. Am I missing something or is there no way to do this short of writing the app script to update this table myself and creating it in each document I make?
Related
I have a fairly simple requirement for a Google sheets apps macro script - it basically pulls the values from a couple of cells in another sheet and displays them in an alert box.
I've done the macro for this and it works fine. What I now want is for anyone I've shared the sheet with to be able to run the same macro. This is where things have suddenly got a bit more involved! My questions are:
Is this possible? And if so, what's the best way of achieveing it? At the moment, the macro is not available for the test user I've shared the sheet with. I've had a bit of a look around and it seems like publishing the script as a web app may be the way to go - can anyone confirm if that is correct? Or would there be a better option? I don't know anything about web apps so just want to confirm if this is the best option before trying to wrap my head around it all.
If the sheet in question has been shared with a user, but the second sheet which the script pulls data from has not, is it still possible for the user to run the script and retrieve the data? Or would the second sheet need to be shared with that same user as well? (If it would then it kinda defeats the object of what I'm trying to achieve).
Finally, would the user with whom the sheet is shared have to have a Google account in order to do this? I'm assuming so...which is a bit of a pain, but I guess understandable.
Thanks very much
Wokaround
Following the requirements you have described I get that you want your users to trigger an Apps Script function that will alter or get data from your Spreadsheet while only granting your users viewer-only acccess.
As described here only users with editor level access can run functions on your bounded script or activate it when clicking a button in your Spreadsheet.
To overcome this you can create a simple web app with a button that will trigger your function. Users will have to access this web app to trigger the function. The good point is that they will not have editor level access to the Spreadsheet nor to the actual script of the web app (as they will just interact with its user interface).
The web app would be a different script that can interface any of your Spreadsheets editing them or getting any information from them.
I would like to allow users to use my spreadsheet but not copy it as it contains intellectual property. I tried going to sharing settings and disabling:
Editors can change permissions and share
Viewers and commenters can see the option to download, print, and copy
But the sheet can still be copied. Ideas?
Unfortunately, it is not possible to disable copy / download for editors.
You can only do that for commenters and viewers.
As a workaround, I would advice you to keep your sensitive information into one master file and then importrange or copy via a script the shareable information into another file. So even if they copy or download the latter your sensitive information won't be copied / downloaded.
Related questions:
How to disable copy/ download access for editors in google sheets
Prevent editors from downloading the file
Disable download & Copy to Option in Google Spreadsheet
I think the simplest solution would be to copy and paste from the master file the range of values you want to share with the other document. In this scenario the editors of the other document won't have access to neither the code nor the full data of the master file since the latter won't be shared with them.
The copy and paste part can be done automatically via a script and a trigger mechanism to update the data automatically so you won't have to do anything manually and the master file won't be exposed to any user.
There isn't any sure way to hide your data. Once something is published on the internet, you should consider it saved on many devices all over the world. Consider some ways to get hidden spreadsheet data
Attack scenarios:
By far the easiest way is CTRLC and CTRLV(Copy and Paste)
Editor menu options: File->Copy and File->Export
Once your file id is visible, any editor or even viewer with access to the file can easily copy the file itself through
Url manipulation: Adding /copy at the end instead of /edit
google-drive-api: File:get and File:copy
google-sheets-api: Useful to directly get data as json
google-vizualization-api: Can get data as html,csv or json(google query). See endpoints
Screenshot and use OCR(Optical character recognition)
View source code in the browser and directly copy the table
web-scraping Simulate browser using selenium
Hiding data:
Data may be hidden from naive users. Data cannot be hidden from users, who know the basics of how the web works.
Add ?rm=minimal to url, when sharing the sheets file. This hides all menu options.See here
Frame the edior in a iframe in your own website and use css to hide the top portion of the web page.
Hiding Logic:
You may still be able to hide logic of your code.
IMPORTRANGE: This is a very basic and easy way to hide your logic. But there are limitations and any editor can access any part of your master spreadsheet.
You can implement a IMPORTRANGE like logic using custom functions and webapps. This gives more control over the connector and secures your master spreadsheet much better than IMPORTRANGE. Here,
Two web apps are created, each associated with a spreadsheet(Master and client).
You use two KEYs to communicate between them. One for access and other for encryption.
Once access is verified, the data from master spreadsheet is encrypted and sent back to the custom function. Simultaneously the encryption key is posted to the client webapp.
The key here is the Master/Server webapp posts the encryption key only to the published client web app link. So, no other sheet or anything else can intercept the key or decrypt the data. Furthermore, a random key is generated for each access.
Another option is to let go off the spreadsheet completely and use a single webapp to show the data. This hides the logic in server scripts and linked spreadsheets.
Comment thoughts:
Create a script onOpen to kill sheets if the file is wrong?
onOpen cannot post data anywhere without the new copy owner permission. It's not possible to kill sheets. But data can be erased.
/**
* Deletes all sheets on the copy, if a copy is made
*/
const onOpen = () => {
const ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
const id = ss.getId();
const sheets = ss.getSheets();
ss.insertSheet(sheets.length);//insert a blank sheet at the end
if (id !== '###Original ID###') sheets.forEach(s => ss.deleteSheet(s));//will fail at the last sheet(doesn't matter)
};
But editor can modify the original script before making a copy. And a revision of the original spreadsheet will still be available. The new owner can revert to the original version, use api endpoints mentioned above to get the data. Also mobile apps don't support onOpen. New owners can simply use mobile versions to access data.
Use formula web-app to notify file owner, ?
Possible, but data is already copied and there's no specific information that can be used to accurately identify the new owner. You maybe able to get locale information though.
I have a Google Doc, within which I linked a Sheet. So, a table and/or a chart, that updates when the corresponding range in the linked spreadsheet updates.
Now, I want to make a copy of this document, so that the copy is linked to a (new) google sheet, which also is a copy of the original google sheet.
My first idea was using the Docs API to update some sort of reference, but it seems it's not possible to update an .. EmbeddedObject. I also tried using a Google Apps Script, but there I could also not figure out how to do this. I looked at a few more things, like creating a new doc using the Doc API, but I can't pass the inlineObjects or positionedObjects1, and apparently can't insert it afterwards either.
Did I just miss something? How can I make a duplicate of a Doc and a linked Sheet?
Any tricks, as hacky as they may seem, are very welcome!
1 While documents.create does accept both in the request body, the reference says "[...]any provided content, are ignored." (and indeed it is)
In the end, I want to make a script that creates a folder that has other folders in it with a bunch of copies of a custom data sheet our school is using for data analysis.
As of now, I have created a whole system of Google Data Sheets that are connected through the IMPORTRANGE feature of Google sheets that our school uses to compare data. I would like to implement this system in other schools and wanted to try and write a Google App Script to set it up.
I have a couple of questions:
Is it possible to use a script to create a document is automatically set up to use the IMPORTRANGE feature to import data from another document?
If I have a sheet set up already (the standard data sheet we use) that I want to make 400 copies of in different folders, do I have to code the script to generate this document from scratch? Do I code it to pull a copy from somewhere? What do you guys think?
Does this even seem like something that's possible?
Thanks so much for your help guys!
Brandon
Sure. After you create the document, you'll just insert =IMPORTRANGE() using setFormula() or setFormulas(). You will have to manually grant permission for the sheet to import ranges the first time you open it, and any time after when you insert =IMPORTRANGE() with a reference to a new sheet, though.
This is no problem either. You can use the Drive Service and makeCopy() to copy a file into a destination folder you specify.
After reading up a lot on the Google Spreadsheet API I have come to the conclusion that formatting (such as merging cells, changing fonts etc) is only available throught the Apps scripts.
Since we need to create and fill the spreadsheets with data programatically using Java on the back-end I guess I need to somehow either;
link the new sheet to a Apps script that trigger on-load or
create a Apps script that creates the spreadsheet for me.
Anyone knows?
If you want to just "create" the spreadsheet, you don't need a script to load whenever it spreadsheet is opened. It's probably easier to develop a script that runs once and create the spreadsheet for you.
Another tip is to have a template file that you can copy with most of the formatting (if not all) already there. Possibly pending just little things that are related to the real data the new spreadsheet will have.
Edit to answer the question in the title.
No, you can not add a script to an existing spreadsheet programatically, only manually. What you can do is previously set up a template spreadsheet with a script in it and create new spreadsheets by copying this template.
(answering the comment)
You can run a script programatically, but not upload it. To run a script you can deploy it as a web-app and call its url with either a http get or post (will call its doGet or doPost functions, that you must have declared). Also, you could set this script to run on form submit of any spreadsheet-form and just submit a set of answers to this form. At last (that I can think of now) you could just add the script as a library in another Apps Script and call it directly.
(Aug 2016) There is no way programmatic way to link a Google Sheet and Apps Script code other than manually. Based on what it seems you want ("create and fill the spreadsheets with data programatically using Java"), you can now do it without Apps Script.
TL;DR: Above, #Henrique has answered multiple questions and even questions that weren't asked! The good news is that today, we have more answers representing alternate possible solutions to what you're seeking.
It's now possible to "upload" Apps Script code programmatically with the
import/export system, say with Eclipse since you're a Java developer (2013 announcement).
I agree with Henrique's suggestion that if you create a spreadsheet
template, i.e., Excel file, you can use the Google Drive API to
programmatically import/create identical Google Sheets with all your
desired formatting.
"Formatting (such as merging cells, changing
fonts etc)" can now be done outside of Apps Script, as there is a
"new" Google Sheets API v4 (not GData).
In order to use the new API, you need to get the Google APIs Client Library for Java and use the latest Sheets API, which is much more powerful and flexible than any previous API. Here's one code sample to help get you started. If you're not "allergic" to Python, I also made a video with a different, slightly longer example introducing the new API and gave a deeper dive into its code via a blogpost that you can learn from.
Note the v4 API allows you to create spreadsheets & sheets, upload & download data, as well as, in the general sense, programmatically access a Sheet as if you were using the user interface (create frozen rows, perform cell formatting, resizing rows/columns, adding pivot tables, creating charts, etc.), but to perform file-level access such as uploads & downloads, imports & exports (same as uploads & downloads but conversion to/from Google Apps formats), you would use the Drive API instead.