How to hide certain columns for a user? - google-apps-script

On a shared Google spreadsheet:
I don't want a specific user in my domain to view columns with sensitive data, but this person should still be able to edit the rest of the spreadsheet.
I tried creating a 'master' spreadsheet and using importrange to bring the data into a 'shared' sheet, but once I edit any cell in the shared spreadsheet, importrange no longer works as the sheet is emptied out.
Is there a quick way to do this, maybe using scripting?

After some research and trying various different options, I was finally able to achieve what I want using the importrange function.
At first, I tried using a combination of hide columns & protect range, but this wouldn't work because a simple copy & paste would reveal the contents of the hidden columns.
Solution: The 'master' spreadsheet does not have any sensitive column data and can be shared with everyone in the organization... I then ADD the sensitive data to a new spreadsheet and use importrange to grab contents from the 'master'. (Previously I had the roles reversed, but this didn't work)
You may want to add unique keys per row entry so that sorting etc won't mess things up when you zip-up the sensitive data and the 'master' data.

I came here looking for a way to share only certain columns of a spreadsheet with a customer, but not all.
As noted in the other answer, using =IMPORTRANGE works well, but a clever customer could simply edit the function and see the other columns.
My solution was to first create a 'proxy' spreadsheet that imported only the columns I want the customer to see. This proxy spreadsheet is not shared.
Then, I created another spreadsheet that imported the columns from the proxy, and shared that spreadsheet with the customer. This way, even with edit privileges, it's impossible for him to see anything that isn't on the proxy spreadsheet.
A bit clunky to be sure, but it worked perfectly for my situation.

Related

Sharing google sheet with restrictions

I've built my google sheet, and shared it with the team, the sheet has an entry point, where the user is entering some data, and balance data of the sheet is changing dynamically based on this input.
If 2 persons are using the sheet at the same time, the data will be changed based on the last guy who use this entry field, and the data the other guy seeing will be changed accordingly.
my sheet is here
The sheet is locked except the yellow shaded cell, which is allowed to be changed by the user.
Is there a way to allow each user to see the data based on his input parameter, without getting it destroyed when used by others!
I don't think what you're looking for is possible as Sheets is designed to be used for collaboration and edits will always be shown in real time. Consider adding multiple sheets and assign them to each of your team members with the exact formatting and formulas as the original so they can access and input their data independently.

Why do two users sometimes see different values from importrange?

I have a very strange problem, the description can be a bit chaotic.
I have two spreadsheets A and B. One sheet inside A is importing data with importrange from the B. The problem is that sometimes two user see different values in that sheet.
Details:
I have two scripts inside A:
one that copies the values from the imported range to another sheet
one that calls that WebApp that changes data in B.
When two users have the A open and one of them makes changes to the B via script and then uses the other script which copies the values, everything is fine. But if one user closes the A, the other makes changes in the B with the script and when the first user reopens the spreadsheet, he will see new values, but if he uses the values copying script, the range containing the values from importrange will show old values. Oddly enough, the script that copies values from that range will copy the new correct values even if we don't see them.
The problem goes away when I manually make some changes to spreadsheet B. I don't know, it's like spreadsheet B doesn't refresh when I make changes via script or something
Do you have any ideas what is the reason for this and maybe how to solve it. I think that I can get round this problem but I would not.
Two Google Sheets users might see diffent values on the same spreasheet because formula calculation (including those that make API calls like IMPORTRANGE) are triggered by user actions like opening or edited the spreadsheet.
Some function also might recalculated by changes made by scripts so it's actually possible that an script could "see" different values than those that are seeing by the users.
If you need that the users see the same values, should consider to periodically "freeze" them i.e. make a copy of the spreadsheet then replace the formulas by their results.
Another option is to share the screen rather than relaing on the "real time" collaboration feature of Google Sheets.

Is it possible for a GAS script to lock a Google Sheet so nobody else can alter it until the script is done

I am familiar with the Lock Service but that is only for locking scripts.
I have some code that will "process" a large Google Sheet. My script needs to re-order the rows. I need/want to make it so while the script is running nobody else can change the order. However, I still need another script to be able to append rows.
We use a Google Form for our team's intake. It appends rows to a sheet. I have an hourly job that will go through all the rows/records and "process them". I have a column that stores the last time a record/row was "processed". I want to sort on that column such that the "oldest" records are on top and then start processing from the top down. If the script fails or times out then the next iteration will just start over...
I know I could use getValues or getDisplayValues to get an array and then write the array back but I worry what would happen if someone sorted the rows as it would muck things up when writing the array back.
Is there some way to accomplish my goal? I want to be able to process the records, and maintain row order to avoid breaking my processing.
The way to block a spreadsheet "completely" is by changing the spreadsheet sharing settings. Remove all editors or change them to viewers, once your script finish, change them back as editors. In a extreme case, usa a second account to act as the owner of the critical files / spreadsheets and only use it for this purpose,so you could block your regular account for doing changes to the spreadsheet.
NOTE: A Google Form editResponseUrl could be used to edit the linked spreadsheet.
I'm facing a similar situation but I took a different approach, I'm using an index/key column (you could use the timestamp column) and using the index/key to save each edited row to the right position, then write the whole resulting array in a single operation (by using setValues()). In my case this is simple because I only require values, I'm not worried about notes, data validation, conditional formatting, comments, etc. and there isn't a Google Form linked to my spreadsheet.
Related
Google Spreadsheet -- get sharing permissions by script
Any way to share google docs programmatically?

Hiding columns by client Google Sheets

Just wondering if there are any ways to hide columns (client-side) for different users accessing the sheet?
I know you can create filter views that allows users to view and edit without having to change the actual orientation of the sheet, but I can't seem to find any way to hide columns while creating a filter view.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
One solution perhaps to your problem is to structure your data across several spreadsheet documents and give access to different people to each sheet.
Let's say you have a have a master spreadsheet containing all the data as a single source of truth. Then you can use an import formula in a different spreadsheet document to display certain data from the master spreadsheet.
The slave documents can be projected as need and will update automatically when the master spreadsheet is changed. Below are some formulas that can do this
Generic import data formula
=IMPORTRANGE("spreadsheet_url,Sheet1A:A")
Import formula to import only display certain - need to project the whole sheet from being copied etc.
=QUERY(IMPORTRANGE("spreadsheet_url","Sheet1!A1:C"),"SELECT Col1, Col3",0)

Multiple users using spreadsheet without overwriting content

I'm new and appreciate help on my question!
My spreadsheet acts as a sales tool, where info is entered in various cells to run sensitivity analysis. Once the salesperson picks a desired option they "submit it". The data submitted is then stored on a separate sheet in the spreadsheet (call it the "database").
I want the database sheet to store all user submissions. The problem is when multiple users are using the sales tool worksheet at the same time, the info they enter gets overwritten by other user's inputs before they can submit.
I'd like multiple users to be able to use the "sales tool" sheet simultaneously without overwriting eachother, but still be able to submit data to the "database" sheet.
Appreciate ideas?
You can use the Lock Service to take a lock on the spreadsheet and then release it once you've written to it.
Besides the Lock Service (already mentioned by Srik) there's the Sheet.appendRow function, which is way easier to use and much faster. But only makes sense if you're inserting new data to a sheet and not really writing to the same cells.
Can't you use a form?
This way people could insert data without actually modify the spreadsheet...