Google Sheets: noticing and acting upon new table added and table renamed - google-apps-script

Question

The title is the question.
I'm working on a spreadsheet in Google Drive where we got a central sheet named Name registry with names of the people who ever visited some place where notebooks are left at for them to write their name down on. The sheet calculates various stats, too.
The sheets for different places will be named as whatever the specific notebooks were named. The name registry saves us writing and fixing by referencing the cell of a particular name.
I'm sure there won't be anywhere like 255 sheets (which should be a lifted limit in the new Sheets), but I came across an idea how to have it automated:
1) Optionally a new sheet is added and the spreadsheet notices it.
2) Once either
2.1) the new sheet is renamed, the `Name registry` will auto-name one of the free columns as the renamed sheet; or
2.2) an old sheet is renamed, the sheet's old column is renamed in the `Name registry`
I did check on things, but the documentation is, frankly, brainlessly organized, so the only option is to use Google on its own resources.
For example, https://developers.google.com/apps-script/understanding_events implies it can't be done anyhow.

Answer 1

You should know that there is, indeed, a trigger that fires when inserting one sheet (I'm guessing that's what you call "table" in your question).
Re-check the docs for the spread sheet Change event, this event only fires if you use an installed trigger. To use it (copied from the docs)
Open or a create a new spreadsheet.
Click the Unsaved spreadsheet dialog box and change the name.
Choose Tools > Script Editor and write the function you want to run.
Choose Resources > Current project's triggers. You see a panel with the message No triggers set up. Click here to add one now.
Click the link.
Under Run, select the function you want executed by the trigger (for example myFunction).
Under Events, select From Spreadsheet
From the next drop-down list, select On Change.
Click Save.
Please notice that this trigger is not the same as the simple onEdit one.
Also, bear in mind that your callback function must receive the event parameter:
function myFunction(e) {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
ss.getSheetByName("Sheet1").getRange("A1").setValue(e.changeType);
}
You'll see that there are different types of changes: EDIT, INSERT_ROW, INSERT_COLUMN, REMOVE_ROW, REMOVE_COLUMN, INSERT_GRID, REMOVE_GRID, OTHER. You're looking for INSERT_GRID for inserting new sheet and OTHER for renaming it.
Having said that, the problem here will be detecting the rename of one sheet as its an OTHER type, so you may easily trigger the function when you don't really want to do it (for example changing background color, also fires the onChange event with OTHER edit type). My advice is that you don't try to detect the createion/change but create a custom menu entries for handling the creation and renaming of sheets:
function onOpen()
{
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var menuEntries = [ {name: "Create sheet", functionName: "createNewSheet"},
{name: "Rename current Sheet", functionName: "renameCurrentSheet"}
];
ss.addMenu("Custom operations", menuEntries);
}
function createNewSheet()
{
// create the new sheet
// also execute the logic you want when new sheet is created
}
function renameCurrentSheet()
{
// rename current sheet
// also execute the logic you want when sheet is renamed
}
Hope I put some light to your problem.