google sheet script inserting data into sheet - google-apps-script

Question

So i have a script the gets some data from a server.
I want my script to publish the data to a sheet name "market items".
I got this working if I'm running the script directly from the sheet by using =getMarketItemsTrigger(1).
It posts all 11,669 items to my sheet.
The problem with this is that it refreshes every time the sheet is reloaded; I need it to only run once a month.
I've been trying to create a script which needs no reference in the given sheet but posts directly to a pre-named sheet but I can't figure out how I can get the data into the sheet
this is the script file i'm using
var version = '9a'
function getMarketItemsTrigger(refresh)
{
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getSheetByName("Market Items");
Logger.log(sheet.getMaxColumns());
Logger.log(sheet.getMaxRows());
sheet.clear();
if(sheet.getMaxColumns()>2){
Logger.log('deleting colums');
sheet.deleteColumns(2, sheet.getMaxColumns()-2);
}
if(sheet.getMaxRows()>2){
Logger.log('deleting rows');
sheet.deleteRows(2,sheet.getMaxRows()-1);
}
var marketItemsEndpoint = 'https://crest-tq.eveonline.com/market/types/';
var marketItemsResponse = JSON.parse(fetchUrl(marketItemsEndpoint));
var totalPages = marketItemsResponse['pageCount'];
var itemList = [];
var headers = ['Item Name', 'ID'];
itemList.push(headers);
for (var currentPage = 1; currentPage <= totalPages; currentPage++)
{
Logger.log('Processing page ' + currentPage);
var marketItems = marketItemsResponse['items'];
for (var itemReference in marketItems)
{
var item = marketItems[itemReference];
itemList.push([item['type']['name'], item['id']]);
}
if (currentPage < totalPages)
{
var nextEndpoint = marketItemsResponse['next']['href'];
marketItemsResponse = JSON.parse(fetchUrl(nextEndpoint));
}
}
//sheet.insertRows(1,itemList.length+1);
// var range = sheet.getRange(1, 1,itemList.length+1,3);
// for(var i = 1;i<itemList.length;i++){
// range.getCell(i, 1).setValue([itemList]);
// range.getCell(1, i).setValue(itemList.);
// }
// Logger.log("don");
//sheet.getRange(1, 1, 1, itemList.length).setValues(itemList);
// sheet.getRange(itemList.length+1, 2).setValues(itemList);
// sheet.getDataRange().setValues([itemList]);
// sheet.appendRow(itemList);
// sheet.getRange(12+totalPages, 1, itemList.length, 1).setValues(itemList);
return itemList;
}
/**
* Private helper method that wraps the UrlFetchApp in a semaphore
* to prevent service overload.
*
* #param {url} url The URL to contact
* #param {options} options The fetch options to utilize in the request
*/
function fetchUrl(url)
{
if (gcsGetLock())
{
// Make the service call
headers = {"User-Agent": "Google Crest Script version " + version + " (/u/nuadi #Reddit.com)"}
params = {"headers": headers}
httpResponse = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, params);
}
return httpResponse;
}
/**
* Custom implementation of a semaphore after LockService failed to support GCS properly.
* Hopefully this works a bit longer...
*
* This function searches through N semaphores, until it finds one that is not defined.
* Once it finds one, that n-th semaphore is set to TRUE and the function returns.
* If no semaphore is open, the function sleeps 0.1 seconds before trying again.
*/
function gcsGetLock()
{
var NLocks = 150;
var lock = false;
while (!lock)
{
for (var nLock = 0; nLock < NLocks; nLock++)
{
if (CacheService.getDocumentCache().get('GCSLock' + nLock) == null)
{
CacheService.getDocumentCache().put('GCSLock' + nLock, true, 1)
lock = true;
break;
}
}
}
return lock;
}
/**
* Private helper function that will check for a new version of GCS.
*/
function versionCheck()
{
var versionEndpoint = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nuadi/googlecrestscript/master/version';
var newVersion = fetchUrl(versionEndpoint);
if (newVersion != null)
{
newVersion = newVersion.getContentText().trim();
Logger.log('Current version from Github: ' + newVersion);
var message = 'You are using the latest version of GCS. Fly safe. o7';
var title = 'No updates found';
if (newVersion > version)
{
message = 'A new version of GCS is available on GitHub.';
title = 'GCS version ' + newVersion + ' available!';
}
SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().toast(message, title, 120);
}
}
All the code in the function getMarketItemsTrigger that's commented out is what I have tyred without luck .
The short version of this question is how can i post the values in itemList to column a and b in sheet market items

Answer 1

You can write the array itemList to the sheet by adding:
//your code
ss.getSheetByName('name_of_sheet_here')
.getRange(1, 1, itemList.length, itemList[0].length)
.setValues(itemList)
//more code (if needed)
} //end of code
-->> change sheet name and range to suit.

Answer 2

There are two ways to do this. If you did want it to run as a custom function those have access to the script property service. You could save a time stamp in the script properties and check it every time the custom function runs.
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/properties/
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/sheets/functions#using_apps_script_services
The second is to create a time trigger to run the code as a cron job every month.
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/triggers/installable#time-driven_triggers
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/triggers/installable#managing_triggers_manually