Google Apps Script - Always allow app to run - google-apps-script

I wrote a script in GSheets we use at my work that uses custom menus. Because everyone is set to "Can view" on the template, they are forced to make a copy as to not affect the template.
The downside of that is each spreadsheet will require authorization to run every single time the form is sent in and the menus need to be used which makes the process more cumbersome. Is there a way I can provide authorization to run the code, whether it be through an onOpen trigger or some other means?
The code includes moving sheets into folders, extracting data to a central spreadsheet, and sending emails. The email does not need to come from the user, it can be sent as a no-reply/anonymous user if that helps.

Related

Best way to share inside my domain a script embedded in a spreadsheet

I have a spreadsheet, with 2 scripts embedded, that monthly is sent to some accounts (teachers) inside my domain. One script reads a form (exam) and write the results in the spreadsheet, the second script transfer the final evaluation (the teacher must add other info to the exam scores) to another public spreadsheet where the people can see the results.
Everything works fine, except that the first run of one of the scripts, asks for Authorization. I'd like to avoid that and I read many articles about Authorize scripts, but I couldn't find the solution.
I don't need to Publish an App, that is far away from my needs and my abilities.
I explored Add-on feature, but in some forums I read that there are limits for the Add-on capabilities and possibly it doesn't work between forms and spreadsheets.
So, is there any option to distribute a script inside my domain and the people are not required to Authorize it?
You can add an installable onEdit trigger from your account, trigger script function if specific cell is updated by the rest of the user.

Start a script from Custom Menu, ask user questions, create new sheet without needing permissions?

I have a shared Google Sheet which is an Installation Schedule for a small company. Each sheet is a week. I've created script actions that do things like look for data changes, and if appropriate, hide and unhide rows. This works for everyone that the spreadsheet is shared with, with no prompting for permission.
The function to create a new weeks is executing by clicking on a entry in a Custom Menu. It then prompts the user for the date of the first week and the number of weeks to create. After some user entry error checking, it copies a hidden template sheet to a sheet named after the week's date range, updates a date entry cell, copies sheet protections and then unhides the newly copied sheet. This works for me as the sheet owner, however, it is creating authentication dialogs for any other user to which the sheet has been shared.
I could get around this by deploying this as a test app in the Google Cloud Platform interfaces, but then I would have to specifically share it with the users, which a) are not part of a Google Workspace and b) are likely to change, therefore requiring on-going maintenance.
Given that the script is modifying "my" sheets file, I don't understand why permission would be needed and am hopeful there is a way around this.
I have searched for and tried many possibilities, but none seem to solve the problem.
Anyone have any expertise? I am a competent coder, but relatively new to Google Apps, so please be as detailed as possible.
Functions called from Google Workspace editor custom menus executes under the active user. If the function use any method that requires authorization to run it will show the OAuth consent screen for your script.
Unfortunately there is no way to avoid this. Even making calls to APIs through UrlFechApp by passing the appropriate credentials, in this case to call the Google Sheets API, it will be required authorization of the active user for https://www.googleapis.com/auth/script.external_request.
The option to use the custom menu to open a dialog or sidebar to run client side code will also require the user to authorize the script.
Considering the above iF you really want to avoid to ask the user to authorize anything, forget about using custom menus. You might consider to use installable triggers, i.e. use edit / change installable triggers to call functions when edit is made like clicking a checkbox or selective a value from a data validation dropdown.
Related
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/sheets

Enable Google Sheet Protection via Google Script

I have been searching for a solution to a Sheet Protection issue, I have a Sheet that includes automated scripts to write data into the Sheet below from some fields at the top. I want the user to be able to provide the data in the fields at the top and then to run a script that adds the data below. The script to add the data works fine for the owner of the sheet if Protection is enabled, but fails for any user that has Edit rights as the Protection cannot be cleared by script for the data to be written to the bottom of the sheet.
https://developers.googleblog.com/2015/02/control-protected-ranges-and-sheets-in.html
I found this code from a Google blog post a few years ago and have tried variations without success....is this type of approach just not possible with Google Sheets and Google Script ?
Unfortunately, that is not currently possible to run a bound script as the owner without using a workaround. Scripts can only be run as the owner when they use Triggers or when you make a standalone Script Web App. You can see this for more information.
This should bypass fooling around with scripting protection ranges!
The Workaround!
There is a way you can get around this by creating a web app so that your bound script talks to the web app which runs on the spreadsheet. See this answer for more information.
So the process looks like this: User clicks a button that runs a function on a bound script. This function makes a web call to a web app that can run a function as the person who created the script.
I would also recommend you pay attention to a comment by Augustine C:
...you may also find it helpful to have a shared secret key saved in your spreadsheet and then verify it using the backend webapp script, or to perhaps verify that the recipient of the email is, in fact, also an editor of your Google Sheet.

Authorization on spreadsheet script for own use

I have a system (I'm the only user of this system, and that's not expected to change, ever) in which spreadsheets are copied from a template file. This template has a script, which populates a few menus to perform some operations. So each new copy of the template spreadsheet has its own copy of the script. The problem with this is that every time a new spreadsheet is used, the user (me) has to authorize the execution of the script. This didn't use to be that bad, but the authorization process has recently become way more annoying (see for example https://developers.google.com/apps-script/images/unverified-app-ui.gif). Given that I'm the only user of these spreadsheets, I think this process is unnecessary and wish to get around it.
I have tried to get around this by extracting the code into a standalone script file and publishing as an add on (https://developers.google.com/apps-script/quickstart/docs) but actually publishing it requires me to pay 5 dollars, and I think this is ridiculous given that I am the only user.
Any other ideas?
Thanks in advance.
AFAIK, that's the intended behavior. Check guide to the authorization lifecycle for add-ons.
Add-on automatically runs its onOpen(e) function to add menu items when a document opens — but to protect users' data, Apps Script restricts what the onOpen(e) function can do.
Note that only published add-ons can be in AuthMode.NONE.
The concept of authorization modes applies to all Apps Script executions.

Make a Google web app that's triggered from a Google Spreadsheet form?

I have a Google Apps script (written in a Google Spreadsheet) that creates a separate calendar and events for it with respect to a university course and the university calendar. The GUI is a Spreadsheet form, which triggers the execution of my script. The script gets its input from the spreadsheet form entry.
The trouble I have is that I can't easily deploy my solution to other users. Yes, they can make a copy of my sheet/form/scripts, so that they can run it on their account. Several problems, however, result from this approach:
triggers don't get copied - this is because authorization to access local info (calendars, contacts, etc.) must be given by the users before a trigger is enabled. So users have to re-connect the form submission trigger to the Apps Script for it to work (this is not user friendly).
if I change the code of my apps script, the users are using a copy and won't see the changes.
The solution seems to be Google Web Apps, but from what I've read, I can't re-use the form-based GUI of my approach. Or can I?
Google Spreadsheet Forms have the advantage that they are very easy to create, and you can already specify what fields are mandatory, etc. I don't want to have to re-write all of this in a complicated GUI front-end to my Google Apps Script (Edit: even the GUI builder tool seems way more complicated than a Spreadsheet Form), yet I want other users to be able to create the calendars and events in their own Google accounts. Is there a way to keep my form, but have it hooked to a Web App version of my code?
Try adding the form on a google sites (intranet). This way, any user having access, will be able to use the form as it is. All logic you created will remain the same.
Creating a script however will allow the user to execute the script "under their login", thus enabling access to calendars, contacts......