Google Apps Script for Beginners

by Serge Gabet

Google Apps Script is a JavaScript-based programming language that works on the cloud and is 100% free to use. It provides all the tools necessary for Google services to work. Users can easily transfer any data from one service to another, save their important e-mails as files, save and share files with anybody, and even build their own website. It's a great way of allowing people with minimal technical knowledge to create great solutions for their company.This book is a practical hands-on guide which is presented and explained with working examples to help you get started with Google Apps Script. You will create custom functions in your spreadsheets, design your own forms, filter your emails, and publish web applications that you can use every day.

Genres: Computers

178 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[David Fulmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only read chapters 1, 8, and 9 of this book, because I was only interested in using Google Apps Script for working with Google spreadsheets, but I wanted to leave a review of the book because I found it to be excellent. I really enjoyed the author’s tone and enthusiasm and found this to be an excellent tutorial. The book is a few years old by now (2023) but all the examples of code from the book that I tested worked pretty much perfectly. The book was written at the time (December 2013) of some major changes to the Google Apps Script platform and the author does note that. Additionally, there have been some major changes since the book was published, especially to the IDE in December 2020, but again, I still found this a great tutorial with many working examples and no major problems resulting from the evolution of the platform. The author even mentions some of the changes that were happening around 2013 and offers alternative code in the book. One last thing I loved about the book: the author is really motivated to teach people and he writes a great pep talk for the reader encouraging learning and outlining how to go from a novice to an expert and how to keep learning. In addition to the practical hands-on examples, I really appreciated this feature of the book and wish more programming textbooks were like this.

[Glenn Schmelzle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good set of recipes that outline the language's potential

[Philip Arad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Google Apps Script is a JavaScript-based programming language that works on the cloud and is 100% free to use.
It provides all the tools necessary for Google services to work. Users can easily transfer any data from one service to another,
save their important e-mails as files, save and share files with anybody, and even build their own website.
It’s a great way of allowing people with minimal technical knowledge to create great solutions for their company.

If you intend to dive into it, I suggest you the new book from 'Packt publishing', 'Google Apps Script for Beginners' (see http://bit.ly/Q8neTD)
This book is a practical hands-on guide which is presented and explained with working examples to help you get started with Google Apps Script.
You will create custom functions in your spreadsheets, design your own forms, filter your emails, and publish web applications that you can use every day.

You will be able to share just about anything that can be shared:
from basic spreadsheet functionality and customization to fully automated workflows.
You will learn to embed scripts and text documents in Google sites,
and will also be taken through standalone applications and user interfaces.
This book will gives you an overview of the many resources available to help improve your learning experience.

If you are an application developer with no knowledge of App Script, and would like to learn to build apps using Google Apps script from scratch, then this book is for you.

[Grant Swertfeger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given the opportunity to review this book and I think the title matches exactly what the book contains. I would contend that the Google Apps scripts contained in the book are good examples of what can be accomplished using the technology. I would offer a word of caution for those who are unfamiliar with Google Apps, there is an unspoken prerequisite to this book wherein you need to be familiar with the in's and out's of Google Apps in order to grasp the concepts being taught. I find most of the examples are based upon the assumption you understand the formulas and tasks associated with common use of these applications.

However, if you are aquainted with the inner workings of Google Apps, this book will provide useful to you when you have a complicated task or calculation and cannot find a solution provided by Google. Therefore this book would best serve those who have run into difficulties and wish to create a custom solution.

[Tomáš Jurman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought the book because I needed to automate some tasks in Spreadsheets, Sites and Forms. The book is in my opinion very clear and comprehensively explains all the key options GAS. I very much appreciated the chapter on creating a GUI script to run as Web applications.

I think it is necessary to know the basics of Javascript.

I like this book.