Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Managing tasks and reminders through Google Apps Script
Editor’s Note: Guest author Romain Vialard works at Revevol, an international service provider dedicated to Google Apps and other Cloud solutions. -- Arun Nagarajan
There are many tools available to help you manage a task list and Google Apps comes with its own simple Tasks app. But sometimes it is more convenient and collaborative to simply manage your task list in a shared spreadsheet. This spreadsheet can be a simple personal task list or a project-management interface that requires team-wide coordination.
Google Spreadsheets come with a set of notification rules that might come in handy. For example, you can be notified each time someone adds a new task to the list or each time the status of a task is updated. Furthermore, it is very easy add to add basic reminders through Apps Script with just a few lines of code:
function remindMe() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheets()[0];
var data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();
for(var i = 1; i < data.length; i++){
if(data[i][2] > new Date()){
MailApp.sendEmail(message);
}
}
}
The simple remindMe function performs a standard JavaScript-based date comparison on every row and sends an email for tasks that are due. You can then schedule the remindMe function via a programmable trigger based on the settings.
This script is already available in the Script Gallery today. Try it out for yourself!
Once you have installed the script, you get a new menu option in the spreadsheet that opens a simple user interface to set the options you want. As a developer, you can extend this interface further to provide more options and capabilities.
 | Romain Vialard profile | YouTube Romain Vialard is a Google Apps Change Management consultant at Revevol. Romain writes scripts to automate everyday tasks, add functionality and facilitate rapid adoption of cutting edge web infrastructures. As a Google Apps Script Top Contributor, he has also built many of the top scripts in the Apps Script Gallery, including the very popular Gmail Meter. |
