Google Apps Script is a scripting platform developed by

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

for light-weight application development in the

Google Workspace Google Workspace (formerly known as Google Apps and later G Suite) is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It consists of Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Meet ...

platform. Google Apps Script was initially developed by Mike Harm as a side project while working as a developer on Google Sheets. Google Apps Script was first publicly announced in May 2009 when a beta testing program was announced by Jonathan Rochelle, then Product Manager for Google Docs. In August 2009 Google Apps Script was subsequently made available to all Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers. It is based on

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

1.6, but also includes some portions of 1.7 and 1.8 and a subset of the

ECMAScript ECMAScript (; ES) is a JavaScript standard intended to ensure the interoperability of web pages across different browsers. It is standardized by Ecma International in the documenECMA-262 ECMAScript is commonly used for client-side scripti ...

5 API. Apps Script projects run

server-side In the client–server model, server-side refers to programs and operations that run on the server. This is in contrast to client-side programs and operations which run on the client. General concepts Typically, a server is a computer applicati ...

's infrastructure. According to Google, Apps Script "provides easy ways to automate tasks across Google products and third party services." Apps Script is also the tool that powers the add-ons for

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google's servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files. In add ...

Benefits

# Based on

1.6 and a selection of JavaScript 1.7 and 1.8 # Cloud based

debugger A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program used to test and debug other programs (the "target" program). The main use of a debugger is to run the target program under controlled conditions that permit the programmer to track its executi ...

for debugging App Scripts in the web browser. # It can be used to create simple tools for an organization's internal consumption. # It can be used to perform simple system administration tasks. # Community-based support model

Limitations

# Processing limitations As a cloud-based service, Apps Script limits the time that a user's script may run, as well as limiting access to Google services. # Currently Google Apps Store does not allow direct connection to internal (behind-the-firewall) corporate databases, which is key to building business apps, however, via the use of the JDBC service, this can be overcome, if connections are allowed from Google servers to the internal database server. Similarly, lack of other connectivity, such as LDAP connectivity, limits the level to which GAS can be used in the enterprise. # Due to the cloud nature of Apps Script, functions related to date and time will produce results that seem to be incorrect due to the data crossing

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it ...

s. Using Date/Time objects and functions without very precise declaration and thorough testing may result in inaccurate results.

Add-ons

In March 2014, Google introduced add-ons for Docs and Sheets (soon followed by Forms). The add-on stores let users add extra features to Google editors, such as mail-merging, workflows, and diagrams builders. All add-ons are either 100% built with Apps Script or simply use Apps Script to display a UI in the Google editors while relying on an external back-end to perform some tasks. For example, MailChimp, a mail-merging tool, has an add-on for Google Docs that communicates with MailChimp platform to send emails. Before add-ons, it was possible to publish scripts for Google Sheets in the Script Gallery. When users installed scripts through this gallery, a copy of the Apps Script code was installed on the user's Sheet. With add-ons, the source code is not visible to the end user and everyone is using the latest version published by the developer. This new approach makes it easier to support existing code and helped convince several companies, such as MailChimp or LucidChart to invest in Apps Script. As part of the add-ons release, Google also introduced a UI Style Guide and CSS package to help developers built add-ons that integrate smoothly into the editors. Each add-on is also reviewed by Google before its publication and developers can benefit from advice from Googlers to provide a better user experience. It is not possible to embed ads in add-ons but it is possible to monetize them.

References

External links

*
Google Apps Script case studies
{{Google LLC Apps Script Cross-platform software JavaScript Prototype-based programming languages Object-based programming languages Scripting languages Web frameworks Computer-related introductions in 2009

Benefits

Limitations

Add-ons

See also

References

External links