Instant search using TextBox and onKeyUp and onKeyDown - google-apps-script

Question

I would like to make Google Apps Script webapp that search spreadsheet instantly as you type in the TextBox.
The implementation I"m using now is following. For each key up event new search is lauched with the current search string. I'm using delay on the function that onKeyUp is calling and if the onKeyDown is called I try to kill the previous function call and just go with the new. This works sometimes but the search takes different time to complete so the last one to finish is not allways the right one.
I don't know how to solve this task in Google Apps script. This can be implemented using something like this but these functions are not awailable:
var timer;
function up(){
setTimeout(mySpreadsheetSearchFunction, 500);
}
function down(){
clearTimeout (timer);
}
This is the code of the current implementation that is not working correctly:
function up(){
var cache = CacheService.getPrivateCache();
var now = parseInt(cache.get('iterate'));
Utilities.sleep(500);
if(parseInt(cache.get('iterate')) !== parseInt(now)){
return;
}else{
search();
}
showInGui();
}
function down(){
var cache = CacheService.getPrivateCache();
cache.put('iterate', 1+parseInt(cache.get('iterate')));
}
The CacheService is probably wrong tool for this job, what could be beter? Is this the right way to implement something like this?

Answer 1

Not sure you have to use the cache feature to get a fast result... I made such a script that works pretty well, I use variants of it all the time ;-)
you can test it on this test sheet
here is how it works, the script is maybe quite long but look only at the handler part (click)
On other version I read the spreadsheet outside of the function so the array of data becomes a global variable and mostly to limit the number of spreadsheet calls (it can hit the quota limit in this version sometimes)
// G. Variables
var sh = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var lastrow = ss.getLastRow();
// ...
function onOpen() {
var menuEntries = [ {name: "Search GUI", functionName: "searchUI"},
];
ss.addMenu("Search Utilities",menuEntries);// custom menu
}
// Build a simple UI to enter search item and show results + activate result's row
function searchUI() {
var app = UiApp.createApplication().setHeight(130).setWidth(400);
app.setTitle("Search by name / lastname / adress");
var panel = app.createVerticalPanel();
var txtBox = app.createTextBox().setFocus(true);
var label=app.createLabel(" Item to search for :")
panel.add(label);
txtBox.setId("item").setName("item");
var label0=app.createLabel("Row").setWidth("40");
var label1=app.createLabel("Name").setWidth("120");
var label2=app.createLabel("Lastname").setWidth("120");
var label3=app.createLabel("Street").setWidth("120");
var hpanel = app.createHorizontalPanel();
hpanel.add(label0).add(label1).add(label2).add(label3)
//
var txt0=app.createTextBox().setId("lab0").setName("0").setWidth("40");
var txt1=app.createTextBox().setId("lab1").setName("txt1").setWidth("120");
var txt2=app.createTextBox().setId("lab2").setName("txt2").setWidth("120");
var txt3=app.createTextBox().setId("lab3").setName("txt3").setWidth("120");
var hpanel2 = app.createHorizontalPanel();
hpanel2.add(txt0).add(txt1).add(txt2).add(txt3)
var hidden = app.createHidden().setName("hidden").setId("hidden");
var subbtn = app.createButton("next ?").setId("next").setWidth("250");
panel.add(txtBox);
panel.add(subbtn);
panel.add(hidden);
panel.add(hpanel);
panel.add(hpanel2);
var keyHandler = app.createServerHandler("click");
txtBox.addKeyUpHandler(keyHandler)
keyHandler.addCallbackElement(panel);
//
var submitHandler = app.createServerHandler("next");
subbtn.addClickHandler(submitHandler);
submitHandler.addCallbackElement(panel);
//
app.add(panel);
ss.show(app);
}
//
function click(e){
var row=ss.getActiveRange().getRowIndex();
var app = UiApp.getActiveApplication();
var txtBox = app.getElementById("item");
var subbtn = app.getElementById("next").setText("next ?")
var txt0=app.getElementById("lab0").setText('--');
var txt1=app.getElementById("lab1").setText('no match').setStyleAttribute("background", "white");// default value to start with
var txt2=app.getElementById("lab2").setText('');
var txt3=app.getElementById("lab3").setText('');
var item=e.parameter.item.toLowerCase(); // item to search for
var hidden=app.getElementById("hidden")
var data = sh.getRange(2,2,lastrow,3).getValues();// get the 3 columns of data
for(nn=0;nn<data.length;++nn){ ;// iterate trough
Logger.log(data[nn])
if(data[nn].toString().toLowerCase().match(item.toString())==item.toString()&&item!=''){;// if a match is found in one of the 3 fields, break the loop and show results
txt0.setText(nn+2);
txt1.setText(data[nn][0]).setStyleAttribute("background", "cyan");
txt2.setText(data[nn][1]);
txt3.setText(data[nn][2]);
sh.getRange(nn+2,2).activate();
subbtn.setText("found '"+item+"' in row "+Number(nn+2)+", next ?");
hidden.setValue(nn.toString())
break
}
}
return app ;// update UI
}
function next(e){
var row=ss.getActiveRange().getRowIndex();
var app = UiApp.getActiveApplication();
var txtBox = app.getElementById("item");
var subbtn = app.getElementById("next").setText("no other match")
var hidden=app.getElementById("hidden");
var start=Number(e.parameter.hidden)+1;//returns the last search index stored in the UI
var item=e.parameter.item.toLowerCase(); // item to search for
var txt0=app.getElementById("lab0");
var txt1=app.getElementById("lab1").setStyleAttribute("background", "yellow");
var txt2=app.getElementById("lab2");
var txt3=app.getElementById("lab3");
var data = sh.getRange(2,2,lastrow,3).getValues();// get the 3 columns of data
for(nn=start;nn<data.length;++nn){ ;// iterate trough
if(data[nn].toString().toLowerCase().match(item.toString())==item.toString()&&item!=''){;// if a match is found in one of the 3 fields, break the loop and show results
txt0.setText(nn+2);
txt1.setText(data[nn][0]).setStyleAttribute("background", "cyan");
txt2.setText(data[nn][1]);
txt3.setText(data[nn][2]);
sh.getRange(nn+2,2).activate();
subbtn.setText("found '"+item+"' in row "+Number(nn+2)+", next ?");
hidden.setValue(nn.toString())
break
}
}
return app ;// update UI
}

Answer 2

Using the HtmlService you can instead implement this in pure HTML and JavaScript. This gives you the ability to load the spreadsheet data once, and then do the search client-side, where the performance should be better.