Google Apps Script - Macros for Google Docs!

Google has been trying hard to grab more users for its online office applications (Google Docs). As part of that, it has recently launched "Google Apps Script" which allows users to write custom scripts to control Google Products. These scripts come in handy when we are trying to automate certain tasks. So, we no longer need to employ GreaseMonkey scripts to perform some additional tasks for us. These scripts are available only as part of Google Apps for your domain. This feature can be accessed on invitation basis. I have requested access for the same using my domain and just today I got the chance to play around with it.

Though writing custom functions in spreadsheet seems to be the primary use case, there are many more to it. Technically, these scripts are nothing but javascripts and are executed on the server-side (Google's cloud). By that, Google is trying to provide restricted access to javascript and hoping to prevent from client-side javascript security vulnerabilities. Some of the use cases quoted by Google are :

• Creating custom spreadsheet functions .
• Automating repetitive tasks.
• Link with multiple Google Products (Google Cal, GMail, etc). There are APIs provided for this.

Till date, only a limited set of APIs are available (for mail, calendar, user info, etc). A separate Script editor has also been packaged along with this feature. That editor again is in its infant stage. Lets watch out from Google for more. Here is my Hello, World! script.

To summarize, I would say it as the macros for Google Docs. Hope it is used in the right sense. Thanks Google! :-)

-- Varun