I have a dropdown selection of two options. In stock or out of stock. I need the dropdown to stay the same as what was selected after someone leaves the page. Im sorry if there is a simple fix to this. I am new to web development and cant seem to get it to work. Everytime I refresh the page it goes to the default.
Thank you.
HTML alone is great if you want to give everyone the same exact page. But in order to do what you want to do, you will most likely need Javascript. If you haven't used Javascript before, Codecademy can teach you how to use it.
You will need 3 parts if you go with this method.
Part 1. Store a cookie with the drop-down selected value.
<script>
function storeCookie(name, value){
document.cookie = name + "=" + value + "; expires=Fri, 31 Dec 9999 23:59:59 GMT";
}
Part 2. Check if a cookie already exists, and if it does then get the value that should be selected in your drop-down.
function cookieExists(name){
return -1 != document.cookie.indexOf( name + "=");
}
function getCookie(cname) {
var name = cname + "=";
var decodedCookie = decodeURIComponent(document.cookie);
var ca = decodedCookie.split(';');
for(var i = 0; i <ca.length; i++) {
var c = ca[i];
while (c.charAt(0) == ' ') {
c = c.substring(1);
}
if (c.indexOf(name) == 0) {
return c.substring(name.length, c.length);
}
}
return "";
}
Part 3. Tie it all together.
function main(){
var cookieName = "yourcookiename";
if(cookieExists(cookieName){
var value = getCookie(cookiename);
//This is where you set the value in your drop-down with Javascript
}
}
</script>
Furthermore, you should call storeCookie("yourcookiename", "yourcookievalue") when the webpage knows what value should stay selected, and call main() when the page loads.
Related
in my program, the user sets a range of numbers for the computer to guess. The user then has to guess which number the computer chose with a limit of guesses starting at 5. There are several problems in my functioning program in which I do not understand how to fix. These errors include:
-The number of guesses left always remains at 0. It won't start at 5 and decrease by 1 each time I click the btnCheck button.
-Whenever I click the btnCheck button for a new guessing number, the statement if you've guessed too high or too low remains the same.
-When I press btnNewGame, the values I insert in my low value and my high value text inputs will not be cleared.
-How can the computer generate a random whole number based on what I set as the number range?
Revising my code down below will be much appreciated.
// This line makes the button, btnCheckGuess wait for a mouse click
// When the button is clicked, the checkGuess function is called
btnCheckGuess.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, checkGuess);
// This line makes the button, btnNewGame wait for a mouse click
// When the button is clicked, the newGame function is called
btnNewGame.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, newGame);
// Declare Global Variables
var computerGuess:String; // the computer's guess
var Statement:String; // Statement based on your outcome
// This is the checkGuess function
// e:MouseEvent is the click event experienced by the button
// void indicates that the function does not return a value
function checkGuess(e:MouseEvent):void
{
var LowValue:Number; // the user's low value
var HighValue:Number; // the user's high value
var UserGuess:Number; // the user's guess
var CorrectGuess:int; // the correct number
var FirstGuess:String; //the user's guess
// get the user's range and guess
LowValue = Number(txtinLow.text);
HighValue = Number(txtinHigh.text);
UserGuess = Number(txtinGuess.text);
// determine the number of the user
GuessesLeft = checkCorrectGuess(FirstGuess);
lblNumber.text = GuessesLeft.toString();
lblStatement.text = "You have guessed " + Statement.toString() + "\r";
}
// This is function checkColoursCorrect
// g1– the user's guess
function checkCorrectGuess(g1:String):int
{
var GuessesLeft:int = 5; // How many guesses are left
if (g1 != computerGuess)
{
GuessesLeft - 1;
}
else
{
GuessesLeft = 0;
}
return GuessesLeft;
}
// This is the newGame function
// e:MouseEvent is the click event experienced by the button
// void indicates that the function does not return a value
function newGame(e:MouseEvent):void
{
var Guess1:int; // computer's guess in numbers
var UserGuess1:int; // user's guess in numbers
Guess1 = randomWholeNumber(100,1); //It is not (100,1). How do I change this to the range the user put?
UserGuess1 = randomWholeNumber(100,1); //It is not (100,1). How do I change this to the range the user put?
if (Guess1 > UserGuess1) {
Statement = "TOO HIGH";
} else if (Guess1 < UserGuess1) {
Statement = "TOO LOW";
} else if (Guess1 == UserGuess1) {
Statement = "CORRECTLY";
}
txtinGuess.text = "";
lblStatement.text = "";
}
// This is function randomWholeNumber
// highNumber – the maximum value desired
// lowNumber – the minimum value desired
// returns – a random whole number from highNumber to lowNumber inclusive
function randomWholeNumber(highNumber:int,lowNumber:int):int //How do I make a whole random number based on the range the user made?
{
return Math.floor((highNumber - lowNumber + 1) * Math.random() + lowNumber);
}
To answer your questions...
You've declared GuessesLeft inside checkCorrectGuess() which means its a local variable that's being redefined every time you call the function. Futhermore, because you're passing in var FirstGuess:String; (an uninitialized, non-referenced string variable), (g1 != computerGuess) is returning false, and the answer is always 0.
GuessesLeft - 1; is not saving the result back to the variable. You need to use an assignment operator such as GuessesLeft = GuessesLeft - 1 or simply type GuessesLeft-- if all you want is to decrement. You could also write GuessesLeft -= 1 which subtracts the right from the left, and assigns the value to the variable on the left. See AS3 Operators...
You've already assigned values to these TextFields earlier; simply repeat the process inside of newGame() with a txtinLow.text = "" (same with high)
Use your variables. You defined them earlier in checkGuess() as UserGuess, LowValue, and HighValue
Be mindful that you only need to split out functionality into separate functions if that piece of code is likely to be called elsewhere. Otherwise, every function on the stack incurs more memory and performance hits. checkCorrectGuess() falls into that category and is therefore unnecessary.
Also, you are printing your feedback to the user in the newGame() function instead of checkGuess(). It seemed like an oversight.
btnCheckGuess.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, checkGuess);
btnNewGame.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, newGame);
// Global Variables
var computerGuess:int;
var remainingGuesses:int;
newGame();
function newGame(e:MouseEvent):void {
// Reset our guess limit
remainingGuesses = 5;
// Generate a new number
computerGuess = random(int(txtinLow.text), int(txtinHigh.text));
// Reset our readouts.
txtinGuess.text = "";
lblStatement.text = "";
}
function checkGuess(e:MouseEvent):void {
var guess:int = int(txtinGuess.text);
var msg:String;
if (guess == computerGuess) { // Win
remainingGuesses = 0; // Zero our count
msg = "CORRECT";
} else { // Missed
remainingGuesses--; // Decrement our count
if (guess > computerGuess) {
msg = "TOO HIGH";
} else if (guess < computerGuess) {
msg = "TOO LOW";
}
}
lblNumber.text = remainingGuesses.toString();
lblStatement.text = "You have guessed " + msg;
}
function random(low:int, high:int):int {
return Math.floor((high - low + 1) * Math.random() + low);
}
Update #2: Okay, I'm pretty sure my error in update #1 was because of indexing out of bounds over the array (I'm still not used to JS indexing at 0). But here is the new problem... if I write out the different combinations of the loop manually, setting the page index to 1 in moveItem() like so:
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[0][0], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[0][1], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[0][2], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[1][0], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[1][1], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[1][2], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[2][0], 1);
...
...I don't get any errors but the items end up on different pages! What is going on?
Update #1:: Using Sandy Good's answer as well as a script I found at this WordPress blog, I have managed to get closer to what I needed. I believe Sandy Good misinterpreted what I wanted to do because I wasn't specific enough in my question.
I would like to:
Get all items from a page (section header, images, question etc)
Put them into an array
Do this for all pages, adding these arrays to an array (i.e: [[all items from page 1][all items from page 2][all items from page 3]...])
Shuffle the elements of this array
Repopulate a new form with each element of this array. In this way, page order will be randomized.
My JavaScript skills are poor (this is the first time I've used it). There is a step that produces null entries and I don't know why... I had to remove them manually. I am not able to complete step 5 as I get the following error:
Cannot convert Item,Item,Item to (class).
"Item,Item,Item" is the array element containing all the items from a particular page. So it seems that I can't add three items to a page at a time? Or is something else going on here?
Here is my code:
function shuffleForms() {
var itemsArray,shuffleQuestionsInNewForm,fncGetQuestionID,
newFormFile,newForm,newID,shuffle, sections;
// Copy template form by ID, set a new name
newFormFile = DriveApp.getFileById('1prfcl-RhaD4gn0b2oP4sbcKaRcZT5XoCAQCbLm1PR7I')
.makeCopy();
newFormFile.setName('AAAAA_Shuffled_Form');
// Get ID of new form and open it
newID = newFormFile.getId();
newForm = FormApp.openById(newID);
// Initialize array to put IDs in
itemsArray = [];
function getPageItems(thisPageNum) {
Logger.log("Getting items for page number: " + thisPageNum );
var thisPageItems = []; // Used for result
var thisPageBreakIndex = getPageItem(thisPageNum).getIndex();
Logger.log( "This is index num : " + thisPageBreakIndex );
// Get all items from page
var allItems = newForm.getItems();
thisPageItems.push(allItems[thisPageBreakIndex]);
Logger.log( "Added pagebreak item: " + allItems[thisPageBreakIndex].getIndex() );
for( var i = thisPageBreakIndex+1; ( i < allItems.length ) && ( allItems[i].getType() != FormApp.ItemType.PAGE_BREAK ); ++i ) {
thisPageItems.push(allItems[i]);
Logger.log( "Added non-pagebreak item: " + allItems[i].getIndex() );
}
return thisPageItems;
}
function shuffle(array) {
var currentIndex = array.length, temporaryValue, randomIndex;
Logger.log('shuffle ran')
// While there remain elements to shuffle...
while (0 !== currentIndex) {
// Pick a remaining element...
randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * currentIndex);
currentIndex -= 1;
// And swap it with the current element.
temporaryValue = array[currentIndex];
array[currentIndex] = array[randomIndex];
array[randomIndex] = temporaryValue;
}
return array;
}
function shuffleAndMove() {
// Get page items for all pages into an array
for(i = 2; i <= 5; i++) {
itemsArray[i] = getPageItems(i);
}
// Removes null values from array
itemsArray = itemsArray.filter(function(x){return x});
// Shuffle page items
itemsArray = shuffle(itemsArray);
// Move page items to the new form
for(i = 2; i <= 5; ++i) {
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[i], i);
}
}
shuffleAndMove();
}
Original post: I have used Google forms to create a questionnaire. For my purposes, each question needs to be on a separate page but I need the pages to be randomized. A quick Google search shows this feature has not been added yet.
I see that the Form class in the Google apps script has a number of methods that alter/give access to various properties of Google Forms. Since I do not know Javascript and am not too familiar with Google apps/API I would like to know if what I am trying to do is even possible before diving in and figuring it all out.
If it is possible, I would appreciate any insight on what methods would be relevant for this task just to give me some direction to get started.
Based on comments from Sandy Good and two SE questions found here and here, this is the code I have so far:
// Script to shuffle question in a Google Form when the questions are in separate sections
function shuffleFormSections() {
getQuestionID();
createNewShuffledForm();
}
// Get question IDs
function getQuestionID() {
var form = FormApp.getActiveForm();
var items = form.getItems();
arrayID = [];
for (var i in items) {
arrayID[i] = items[i].getId();
}
// Logger.log(arrayID);
return(arrayID);
}
// Shuffle function
function shuffle(a) {
var j, x, i;
for (i = a.length; i; i--) {
j = Math.floor(Math.random() * i);
x = a[i - 1];
a[i - 1] = a[j];
a[j] = x;
}
}
// Shuffle IDs and create new form with new question order
function createNewShuffledForm() {
shuffle(arrayID);
// Logger.log(arrayID);
var newForm = FormApp.create('Shuffled Form');
for (var i in arrayID) {
arrayID[i].getItemsbyId();
}
}
Try this. There's a few "constants" to be set at the top of the function, check the comments. Form file copying and opening borrowed from Sandy Good's answer, thanks!
// This is the function to run, all the others here are helper functions
// You'll need to set your source file id and your destination file name in the
// constants at the top of this function here.
// It appears that the "Title" page does not count as a page, so you don't need
// to include it in the PAGES_AT_BEGINNING_TO_NOT_SHUFFLE count.
function shuffleFormPages() {
// UPDATE THESE CONSTANTS AS NEEDED
var PAGES_AT_BEGINNING_TO_NOT_SHUFFLE = 2; // preserve X intro pages; shuffle everything after page X
var SOURCE_FILE_ID = 'YOUR_SOURCE_FILE_ID_HERE';
var DESTINATION_FILE_NAME = 'YOUR_DESTINATION_FILE_NAME_HERE';
// Copy template form by ID, set a new name
var newFormFile = DriveApp.getFileById(SOURCE_FILE_ID).makeCopy();
newFormFile.setName(DESTINATION_FILE_NAME);
// Open the duplicated form file as a form
var newForm = FormApp.openById(newFormFile.getId());
var pages = extractPages(newForm);
shuffleEndOfPages(pages, PAGES_AT_BEGINNING_TO_NOT_SHUFFLE);
var shuffledFormItems = flatten(pages);
setFormItems(newForm, shuffledFormItems);
}
// Builds an array of "page" arrays. Each page array starts with a page break
// and continues until the next page break.
function extractPages(form) {
var formItems = form.getItems();
var currentPage = [];
var allPages = [];
formItems.forEach(function(item) {
if (item.getType() == FormApp.ItemType.PAGE_BREAK && currentPage.length > 0) {
// found a page break (and it isn't the first one)
allPages.push(currentPage); // push what we've built for this page onto the output array
currentPage = [item]; // reset the current page to just this most recent item
} else {
currentPage.push(item);
}
});
// We've got the last page dangling, so add it
allPages.push(currentPage);
return allPages;
};
// startIndex is the array index to start shuffling from. E.g. to start
// shuffling on page 5, startIndex should be 4. startIndex could also be thought
// of as the number of pages to keep unshuffled.
// This function has no return value, it just mutates pages
function shuffleEndOfPages(pages, startIndex) {
var currentIndex = pages.length;
// While there remain elements to shuffle...
while (currentIndex > startIndex) {
// Pick an element between startIndex and currentIndex (inclusive)
var randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * (currentIndex - startIndex)) + startIndex;
currentIndex -= 1;
// And swap it with the current element.
var temporaryValue = pages[currentIndex];
pages[currentIndex] = pages[randomIndex];
pages[randomIndex] = temporaryValue;
}
};
// Sourced from elsewhere on SO:
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/15030117/4280232
function flatten(array) {
return array.reduce(
function (flattenedArray, toFlatten) {
return flattenedArray.concat(Array.isArray(toFlatten) ? flatten(toFlatten) : toFlatten);
},
[]
);
};
// No safety checks around items being the same as the form length or whatever.
// This mutates form.
function setFormItems(form, items) {
items.forEach(function(item, index) {
form.moveItem(item, index);
});
};
I tested this code. It created a new Form, and then shuffled the questions in the new Form. It excludes page breaks, images and section headers. You need to provide a source file ID for the original template Form. This function has 3 inner sub-functions. The inner functions are at the top, and they are called at the bottom of the outer function. The arrayOfIDs variable does not need to be returned or passed to another function because it is available in the outer scope.
function shuffleFormSections() {
var arrayOfIDs,shuffleQuestionsInNewForm,fncGetQuestionID,
newFormFile,newForm,newID,items,shuffle;
newFormFile = DriveApp.getFileById('Put the source file ID here')
.makeCopy();
newFormFile.setName('AAAAA_Shuffled_Form');
newID = newFormFile.getId();
newForm = FormApp.openById(newID);
arrayOfIDs = [];
fncGetQuestionID = function() {
var i,L,thisID,thisItem,thisType;
items = newForm.getItems();
L = items.length;
for (i=0;i<L;i++) {
thisItem = items[i];
thisType = thisItem.getType();
if (thisType === FormApp.ItemType.PAGE_BREAK ||
thisType === FormApp.ItemType.SECTION_HEADER ||
thisType === FormApp.ItemType.IMAGE) {
continue;
}
thisID = thisItem.getId();
arrayOfIDs.push(thisID);
}
Logger.log('arrayOfIDs: ' + arrayOfIDs);
//the array arrayOfIDs does not need to be returned since it is available
//in the outermost scope
}// End of fncGetQuestionID function
shuffle = function() {// Shuffle function
var j, x, i;
Logger.log('shuffle ran')
for (i = arrayOfIDs.length; i; i--) {
j = Math.floor(Math.random() * i);
Logger.log('j: ' + j)
x = arrayOfIDs[i - 1];
Logger.log('x: ' + x)
arrayOfIDs[i - 1] = arrayOfIDs[j];
arrayOfIDs[j] = x;
}
Logger.log('arrayOfIDs: ' + arrayOfIDs)
}
shuffleQuestionsInNewForm = function() {
var i,L,thisID,thisItem,thisQuestion,questionType;
L = arrayOfIDs.length;
for (i=0;i<L;i++) {
thisID = arrayOfIDs[i];
Logger.log('thisID: ' + thisID)
thisItem = newForm.getItemById(thisID);
newForm.moveItem(thisItem, i)
}
}
fncGetQuestionID();//Get all the question ID's and put them into an array
shuffle();
shuffleQuestionsInNewForm();
}
I want to see how much of my team's code has been integrated into a large scale site.
I believe I can achieve this (albeit roughly), by getting statistics on the number of occurrences certain CSS selectors appear across all the HTML pages. I have some unique CSS class selectors that I would like to use when scraping the site to analyze:
On how many pages the selector occurs.
On any page it does, how many times.
I've looked around but can't find any tools - does anyone know of any, or could suggest any idea's that may help me quickly achieve this ?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks to everyone for their advice.
In the end I decided that there was no one tool that could help me gather the statistics in the way I described so I already started to build up the application I needed in Node. Although I've not used Node before I've found it quick to grasp with an intermediate knowledge of Javascript.
For anyone looking to do the same:
I've used Simplecrawler to run over the site and Cheerio to find selectors and from this I can create a simple report created in Json using FS.
I'd recommend you to use Google App Scripting. You might manage to crawl site's pages and count the CSS selector occurrences with regex. Modify he following code to search each page for CSS selector. The code explanation is here.
Code
function onOpen() {
DocumentApp.getUi() // Or DocumentApp or FormApp.
.createMenu('New scrape web docs')
.addItem('Enter Url', 'showPrompt')
.addToUi();
}
function showPrompt() {
var ui = DocumentApp.getUi();
var result = ui.prompt(
'Scrape whole website into text!',
'Please enter website url (with http(s)://):',
ui.ButtonSet.OK_CANCEL);
// Process the user's response.
var button = result.getSelectedButton();
var url = result.getResponseText();
var links=[];
var base_url = url;
if (button == ui.Button.OK) { // User clicked "OK".
if(!isValidURL(url))
{
ui.alert('Your url is not valid.');
}
else {
// gather initial links
var inner_links_arr = scrapeAndPaste(url, 1); // first run and clear the document
links = links.concat(inner_links_arr); // append an array to all the links
var new_links=[]; // array for new links
var processed_urls =[url]; // processed links
var link, current;
while (links.length)
{
link = links.shift(); // get the most left link (inner url)
processed_urls.push(link);
current = base_url + link;
new_links = scrapeAndPaste(current, 0); // second and consecutive runs we do not clear up the document
//ui.alert('Processed... ' + current + '\nReturned links: ' + new_links.join('\n') );
// add new links into links array (stack) if appropriate
for (var i in new_links){
var item = new_links[i];
if (links.indexOf(item) === -1 && processed_urls.indexOf(item) === -1)
links.push(item);
}
/* // alert message for debugging
ui.alert('Links in stack: ' + links.join(' ')
+ '\nTotal links in stack: ' + links.length
+ '\nProcessed: ' + processed_urls.join(' ')
+ '\nTotal processed: ' + processed_urls.length);
*/
}
}
}
}
function scrapeAndPaste(url, clear) {
var text;
try {
var html = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url).getContentText();
// some html pre-processing
if (html.indexOf('</head>') !== -1 ){
html = html.split('</head>')[1];
}
if (html.indexOf('</body>') !== -1 ){ // thus we split the body only
html = html.split('</body>')[0] + '</body>';
}
// fetch inner links
var inner_links_arr= [];
var linkRegExp = /href="(.*?)"/gi; // regex expression object
var match = linkRegExp.exec(html);
while (match != null) {
// matched text: match[0]
if (match[1].indexOf('#') !== 0
&& match[1].indexOf('http') !== 0
//&& match[1].indexOf('https://') !== 0
&& match[1].indexOf('mailto:') !== 0
&& match[1].indexOf('.pdf') === -1 ) {
inner_links_arr.push(match[1]);
}
// match start: match.index
// capturing group n: match[n]
match = linkRegExp.exec(html);
}
text = getTextFromHtml(html);
outputText(url, text, clear); // output text into the current document with given url
return inner_links_arr; //we return all inner links of this doc as array
} catch (e) {
MailApp.sendEmail(Session.getActiveUser().getEmail(), "Scrape error report at "
+ Utilities.formatDate(new Date(), "GMT", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"),
"\r\nMessage: " + e.message
+ "\r\nFile: " + e.fileName+ '.gs'
+ "\r\nWeb page under scrape: " + url
+ "\r\nLine: " + e.lineNumber);
outputText(url, 'Scrape error for this page cause of malformed html!', clear);
}
}
function getTextFromHtml(html) {
return getTextFromNode(Xml.parse(html, true).getElement());
}
function getTextFromNode(x) {
switch(x.toString()) {
case 'XmlText': return x.toXmlString();
case 'XmlElement': return x.getNodes().map(getTextFromNode).join(' ');
default: return '';
}
}
function outputText(url, text, clear){
var body = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getBody();
if (clear){
body.clear();
}
else {
body.appendHorizontalRule();
}
var section = body.appendParagraph(' * ' + url);
section.setHeading(DocumentApp.ParagraphHeading.HEADING2);
body.appendParagraph(text);
}
function isValidURL(url){
var RegExp = /^(([\w]+:)?\/\/)?(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?#)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,4}(:[\d]+)?(\/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?$/;
if(RegExp.test(url)){
return true;
}else{
return false;
}
}
I have a html page "first" playing 1.swf and on the next page
"reload" it plays 2.swf. How do I do that?
Code i now use for the first one:
<center><object width="500" height="500" data="1.swf"></object></center>
One really simple solution would be to create a cookie incrementer:
var number = parseInt(getCookie("number"));
if (number == "") {
document.cookie="number=1";
} else {
document.cookie="number=" + (number + 1);
}
function getCookie(cname) {
var name = cname + "=";
var ca = document.cookie.split(';');
for(var i=0; i<ca.length; i++) {
var c = ca[i];
while (c.charAt(0)==' ') c = c.substring(1);
if (c.indexOf(name) == 0) return c.substring(name.length,c.length);
}
return "";
}
Now, every time the page reloads, number gets incremented by 1.
You can now remove the previous swf and create a new swf with the new source.
JSFIDDLE
I'm trying to set a feature to update images on a Google Document, the same way Lucidchart Add-on does on its "Updated inserted diagram" feature. For this, I'm current doing the following:
Creating a Named Range and storing its id on document properties, together with the data to generate the image, for later retrieve.
On update, call body.getNamedRangeById() and replace the element with the new generated image.
This works, but I have the following problems that does not happen with Lucidchart:
Every update, a blank line is added after the image.
If the user drag and drop the image inside document for reposition it, the Named Range disappears and I'm not able to retrieve it later.
If the user centralize the image, after update the image comes back to left position, even copying its attributes
Does anybody knows a good strategy to replace/update a referenced image on Google Docs, the same way Lucidchart add-on update feature works?
Thanks
NamedRanges indeed get lost when the range is moved, so they're not very good for your scenario. But there's no other way of identifying elements (which is a great misfeature of Google Docs).
In the case of an image you could use its LINK_URL to identify it, which seems to be what Lucidchart uses. It does not get in the way of the user, so it may be a good solution.
About getting a blank line and losing attributes when inserting an image, I imagine (since you haven't shared any code) you're inserting the image directly in the document body instead of a paragraph. Then a paragraph gets created automatically to wrap your image resulting in the blank line and lost of attributes.
Here's some code example:
function initialInsert() {
var data = Charts.newDataTable().addColumn(
Charts.ColumnType.STRING, 'Fruits').addColumn(
Charts.ColumnType.NUMBER, 'Amount').addRow(
['Apple',15]).addRow(
['Orange',6]).addRow(
['Banana',14]).build();
var chart = Charts.newPieChart().setDataTable(data).build();
var body = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getBody()
body.appendImage(chart).setLinkUrl('http://mychart');
//here we're inserting directly in the body, a wrapping paragraph element will be created for us
}
function updateImage() {
var data = Charts.newDataTable().addColumn(
Charts.ColumnType.STRING, 'Fruits').addColumn(
Charts.ColumnType.NUMBER, 'Amount').addRow(
['Apple',Math.floor(Math.random()*31)]).addRow( //random int between 0 and 30
['Orange',Math.floor(Math.random()*31)]).addRow(
['Banana',Math.floor(Math.random()*31)]).build();
var chart = Charts.newPieChart().setDataTable(data).build();
var img = getMyImg(DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getBody(), 'http://mychart');
//let's insert on the current parent instead of the body
var parent = img.getParent(); //probably a paragraph, but does not really matter
parent.insertInlineImage(parent.getChildIndex(img)+1, chart).setLinkUrl('http://mychart');
img.removeFromParent();
}
function getMyImg(docBody, linkUrl) {
var imgs = docBody.getImages();
for( var i = 0; i < imgs.length; ++i )
if( imgs[i].getLinkUrl() === linkUrl )
return imgs[i];
return null;
}
About the link_url, you could of course do like Lucidchart does and link back to your site. So it's not just broken for the user.
Take a look at my add-on called PlantUML Gizmo.
Here's the code to the insert image function, which deals with replacing images if there's already one selected:
function insertImage(imageDataUrl, imageUrl) {
/*
* For debugging cursor info
*/
// var cursor = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getCursor();
// Logger.log(cursor.getElement().getParent().getType());
// throw "cursor info: " + cursor.getElement().getType() + " offset = " + cursor.getOffset() + " surrounding text = '" + cursor.getSurroundingText().getText() + "' parent's type = " +
// cursor.getElement().getParent().getType();
/*
* end debug
*/
var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var selection = doc.getSelection();
var replaced = false;
if (selection) {
var elements = selection.getSelectedElements();
// delete the selected image (to be replaced)
if (elements.length == 1 &&
elements[0].getElement().getType() ==
DocumentApp.ElementType.INLINE_IMAGE) {
var parentElement = elements[0].getElement().getParent(); // so we can re-insert cursor
elements[0].getElement().removeFromParent();
replaced = true;
// move cursor to just before deleted image
doc.setCursor(DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().newPosition(parentElement, 0));
} else {
throw "Please select only one image (image replacement) or nothing (image insertion)"
}
}
var cursor = doc.getCursor();
var blob;
if (imageDataUrl != "") {
blob = getBlobFromBase64(imageDataUrl);
} else {
blob = getBlobViaFetch(imageUrl);
}
var image = cursor.insertInlineImage(blob);
image.setLinkUrl(imageUrl);
// move the cursor to after the image
var position = doc.newPosition(cursor.getElement(), cursor.getOffset()+1);
doc.setCursor(position);
if (cursor.getElement().getType() == DocumentApp.ElementType.PARAGRAPH) {
Logger.log("Resizing");
// resize if wider than current page
var currentParagraph = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getCursor().getElement().asParagraph();
var originalImageWidth = image.getWidth(); // pixels
var documentWidthPoints = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getBody().getPageWidth() - DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getBody().getMarginLeft() - DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getBody().getMarginRight();
var documentWidth = documentWidthPoints * 96 / 72; // convert to pixels (a guess)
var paragraphWidthPoints = documentWidthPoints - currentParagraph.getIndentStart() - currentParagraph.getIndentEnd();
var paragraphWidth = paragraphWidthPoints * 96 / 72; // convert to pixels (a guess)
if (originalImageWidth > paragraphWidth) {
image.setWidth(paragraphWidth);
// scale proportionally
image.setHeight(image.getHeight() * image.getWidth() / originalImageWidth);
}
}
}