Make Folders from Spreadsheet Data in Google Drive? - google-apps-script

Question

I am just beginning to learn Javascript and Google Apps Script. I have looked at and played with a few scripts, and so am attempting to create my own. What I want to do is take a list of students (Name and Email) and run a script to create "dropboxes", or folders that uses their name and is shared to their email address. This way, they can easily submit work to me in an organized manner. I have written this rough script, which I know will not work.
I was wondering if anyone can give me some tips?
function createDropbox () {
// Get current spreadsheet
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var data = sh1.getDataRange().getValues();
// For each email address (row in a spreadsheet), create a folder, name it with the data from the Class and Name column, then share it to the email
for(n=1;n<data.length;++n){
var class = sheet.getSheetValues(n, 1, 1, 1);
var name = sheet.getSheetValues(n, 2, 1, 1);
var email = sheet.getSheetValues(n, 3, 1, 1);
var folder = DocsList.createFolder('Dropbox');
folder.createFolder(class . name);
var share = folder.addEditor(email);
}
}

Answer 1

You've got the basic structure of your script right, it's only the semantics and some error handling that need to be worked out.
You need to determine how you want to access the contents of your spreadsheet, and be consistent with that choice.
In your question, you are first getting all the contents of the spreadsheet into a two-dimensional array by using Range.getValues(), and then later trying to get values directly from the sheet multiple additional times using .getSheetValues().
Since your algorithm is based on working through values in a range, use of an array is going to be your most effective approach. To reference the content of the data array, you just need to use [row][column] indexes.
You should think ahead a bit. What will happen in the future if you need to add more student dropboxes? As your initial algorithm is written, new folders are created blindly. Since Google Drive allows multiple folders with the same name, a second run of the script would duplicate all the existing folders. So, before creating anything, you will want to check if the thing already exists, and handle it appropriately.
General advice: Write apps script code in the editor, and take advantage of auto-completion & code coloring. That will help avoid mistakes like variable name mismatches (ss vs sh1).
If you are going to complete the exercise yourself, stop reading here!
Script
This script has an onOpen() function to create a menu that you can use within the spreadsheet, in addition to your createDropbox() function.
The createDropbox() function will create a top level "Dropbox" folder, if one does not already exist. It will then do the same for any students in the spreadsheet, creating and sharing sub-folders if they don't already exist. If you add more students to the spreadsheet, run the script again to get additional folders.
I've included comments to explain some of the tricky bits, as a free educational service!
/**
* Create menu item for Dropbox
*/
function onOpen() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var entries = [{
name : "Create / Update Dropbox",
functionName : "createDropbox"
}];
sheet.addMenu("Dropbox", entries);
};
function createDropbox () {
// Get current spreadsheet
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var data = ss.getDataRange() // Get all non-blank cells
.getValues() // Get array of values
.splice(1); // Remove header line
// Define column numbers for data. Array starts at 0.
var CLASS = 0;
var NAME = 1;
var EMAIL = 2;
// Create Dropbox folder if needed
var DROPBOX = "Dropbox"; // Top level dropbox folder
try {
// getFolder throws an exception if folder not found.
var dropbox = DocsList.getFolder(DROPBOX);
}
catch (e) {
// Did not find folder, so create it
dropbox = DocsList.createFolder(DROPBOX);
}
// For each email address (row in a spreadsheet), create a folder,
// name it with the data from the Class and Name column,
// then share it to the email
for (var i=0; i<data.length; i++){
var class = data[i][CLASS];
var name = data[i][NAME];
var email = data[i][EMAIL];
var folderName = class + ' ' + name;
try {
var folder = DocsList.getFolder(DROPBOX + '/' + folderName);
}
catch (e) {
folder = dropbox.createFolder(folderName)
.addEditor(email);
}
}
}

Answer 2

Even though the question is ~6 years old it popped up when I searched for "create folders from sheets data" .
So , taking the answer as inspiration, I had to update the code to allow for changes in the Google API, i.e. no more DocsList.
So here it is.
function createMembersFolders () {
// Get current spreadsheet
var MembersFolder = DriveApp.getFolderById("1Q2Y7_3dPRFsblj_W6cmeUhhPXw2xhNTQ"); // This is the folder "ADI Members"
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var data = ss.getDataRange().getValues() // Get array of values
// Define column numbers for data. Array starts at 0.
var NAME = 1;
// For each name, create a folder,
for (var i=1; i<data.length; i++){ // Skip header row
var name = data[i][NAME];
Logger.log(name);
if(MembersFolder.getFoldersByName(name).hasNext()){
Logger.log("Found the folder, no need to create it");
Logger.log(Object.keys(MembersFolder.getFoldersByName(name)).length);
} else {
Logger.log("Didn't find the folder so I'll create it");
var newFolder = MembersFolder.createFolder(name);
}
}
}
Note that I'm taking the parent folder directly using it's ID (which you get from the URL when viewing the folder).
You could also do this by name using the DriveApp.getFoldersByName("Folder Name").hasNext() condition which checks if the folder exist. If it does exist then you can access that folder you have found via DriveApp.getFoldersByName("Folder Name").next()
I didn't find that use of hasNext and next very intuitive but there it is.