This talk was part of a full day Google Devfest at Oasis500.

1. Google Spreadsheet
scripting
Google DevFest
Ra’ed Marji @hla3mi

2. Content
● Simple Google Functions
● Simple Web Scraping
● Making Live Forms
● Adding Scripts to your Forms
○ Featured Scripts
○ Hands On Example: Yet Another Mail Merge

3. Simple Google Functions
DETECTLANGUAGE(range)
Identifies the language in which the text within
the specified range is written.
For example:=DetectLanguage("‫"ﻣﺮﺣﺒﺎ‬ ) would
give "ar" as a result

4. Simple Google Functions : Cont.
GoogleTranslate(text, source language,target
language)
Translates text in the specified range from the source
language into the target language.
Entering "auto" instead of the source language and target
language parameters automatically identifies the language
of the source text and translates into a language based on
your locale settings.

5. Simple Google Functions : Cont.
GoogleFinance(symbol, attribute)
Retrieves market information from Google
Finance. Learn more, or view an example.
Example: =GoogleFinance("goog","price")
other attributes would be :
● “eps”
● “close”

6. Simple Scripting Functions
● ImportFeed(URL, query, headers,
numItems)
Retrieves information from a data feed. View an
example.

7. Example on parsing a feed
Step 1 : Get the rss or the feed URL
URL = http://www.ammonnews.net/rss.aspx?sectionid=47&sectionName=%
D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B6%D8%A9%20RSS
Step 2 : Get apply the Formula
=ImportFeed(URL,,1,)

8. Facebook Shares Function
function FBshares(URL)
{
var JSONData = UrlFetchApp.fetch("graph.
facebook.com/"+url);
var object = Utilities.jsonParse(JSONData.
getContentText());
return object.shares;
}

9. ● ImportXml(URL, query, index)
The ImportXML function Retrieves information from an
XML file.
Note:The limit on the number of ImportHtml functions per spreadsheet is 50.

10. Amazon Price Watch
Step 1:
Get the Link.
URL = http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118443616/
Step 2:
Get the class or the id of the desired field.
Query= //*[@class="a-color-price"]
Step 3:
Put the parameters in the function.
=ImportXML(URL,Query)

11. Creating Forms
● How to create a signup form
● Triggers

12. Fun Trick
Colors
Red
Yellow
Green
Blue

13. Featured Scripts
● Add reminder
○ You have a spreadsheet full of deadlines ? Use this script to receive email reminders before
those deadlines.
● Facebook Likes Counter
○ Count Facebook likes for a given URL and returns: sharecount, likescount, commentscount
and totalcount. See template document in help for quick start.
● Gmail Meter
○ The most popular statistics and analytics tool for Gmail. Now available at http://gmailmeter.
com.
● Gmail SMS alerts
○ If I receive an important email, send me a text. This script uses Gmail filters and Calendar SMS
reminders.
● pushData V1.4.4
○ pushData: A utility for pushing tabular data between spreadsheets on time-based triggers.
● Yet Another Mail Merge
○ With this mail merge, you can write your template directly in Gmail (save it as a draft - see
help page). Syntax for template markers: <<First Name>>

14. Yet Another Mail Merge

15. For more info : https://sites.
google.
com/site/scriptsexamples/availa
ble-web-apps/mail-merge

16. YAMM : Cont.

17. YAMM : Cont.

18. Links
● Test Spreadsheet
○ http://bit.ly/1b2vQo0
● How to build and customize your own mail
merge
○ https://developers.google.com/apps-script/articles/mail_merge
● List of all Google spreadsheet functions
○ https://support.google.com/drive/table/25273?page=table.cs&ctx=tooltip&rd=1
● Use the cool Solve feature
○ https://support.google.com/drive/answer/139704?hl=en

19. Thank You!
Twitter:@hla3mi
Email : raed@jogeeks.
com