Google Apps Script PDF maker

from Google Doc template. Send

PDFs as Emails.
Setup files and folders 1

Add data and set up the template Doc 2

Create the Script - Connect to Spreadsheet data 3

Get the data from each row within the sheet data 4

Select the Google Doc Template 6

Populate the Doc with Sheet Data 6

Set the name of the document 7

Create and send the PDF 7

Update Row Column with Sent value 9

Add to the UI 10

Complete Project Script 10

Setup files and folders

Log into your Google Account - Go to your Google Drive

Select the New button, and create a spreadsheet and a Google Doc.
Give them names.

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Add data and set up the template Doc
The template is going to be used as a base for forming the PDF documents.
The template can also have values that will be automatically populated using
Google Apps Script. I’m using the sheet heading values, as uppercase
values and nested within curly brackets. This provides a way to uniquely
identify the values to be replaced. Hello, {FIRST} {LAST}

Add Data to the spreadsheet with column headings to match the fields to be
updated in the template.

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ID First Last Email Sent
1 Laurence Svekis [email protected]
2 Jack Doe [email protected]
3 Jane Example [email protected]
4 New Svekis [email protected]

Create the Script - Connect to Spreadsheet

data
Get the unique ID for the spreadsheet, you can also select the activeSheet if
you are using a bound script. Using the SpreadsheetApp Service, open the
spreadsheet and select the sheet. Give the sheet a name so it can be
selected.

const SHEETID =

'1wZLJEsUkuuU0e4ACdvwtwRQTxuYOj9m9Nih8DV65fm4';

function sender() {

const sheet =

SpreadsheetApp.openById(SHEETID).getSheetByName('d

ata');

}
Laurence Svekis https://basescripts.com/
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Get the data from each row within the sheet
data
The getDataRange() will create a range of rows and columns that have
contents. This will select all the contents for the first 5 rows and up to
column E from our example.

To get the data into a readable array use the getValues() method. Will
return the sheet data into an array with each row as a nested array.

Using the slice() method remove the first row since this contains headings
and not the data we want to populate with.

Loop through each row of data and output it into the logger.

You will need to accept permissions to access files and run the
script.

Laurence Svekis https://basescripts.com/

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function sender() {

const sheet =

SpreadsheetApp.openById(SHEETID).getSheetByName('d

ata');

const data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();

const rows = data.slice(1);

rows.forEach((row,index)=>{

Logger.log(row);

})

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Select the Google Doc Template

Using the DriveApp service, select the template Doc by its id value as a file
object. To place the files into a folder on drive you will need to select the
folder object also using the DriveApp.

const temp = DriveApp.getFileById(DOCID);

const folder = DriveApp.getFolderById(FOLDERID);

On each row of data, create a new document copy from the template, then
select the text in the document using the getBody(). To make a
replacement of the text use the replaceText() method on the body. The first
argument is the value that will be replaced and the second is the
replacement text. To use the second column data from the spreadsheet as
the replacement text use the row data and index value of 1.

rows.forEach((row,index)=>{

const file = temp.makeCopy(folder);

const doc = DocumentApp.openById(file.getId());

const body = doc.getBody();

body.replaceText('{FIRST}',row[1]);

Logger.log(row);

})

Populate the Doc with Sheet Data

The first row contains the heading values, to select the array use the data
with index value of 0. This will return an array of the headings from the
sheet. Using the forEach() method, loop through all the headings, set the

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headings as the value to be replaced and using the index value from the
headings, update the values accordingly.

data[0].forEach((heading,i)=>{

const header1 = heading.toUpperCase();

body.replaceText(`{${header1}}`,row[i]);

})

Set the name of the document

The name of the document can be set using the setName() with a string
value for the name. To use the sheet values as the name they can be used
within the argument.

doc.setName(row[0]+row[1]);

Create and send the PDF

Get the document file as a PDF blob using const blob =
doc.getAs(MimeType.PDF);
const blob = doc.getAs(MimeType.PDF);

Close the Doc and save the changes. This will finalize the replace text to
ensure its updated from the replace method.

doc.saveAndClose();
To Create a PDF version of the file you can use the createFile() method to
create a PDF file from the blob object.

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folder.createFile(blob).setName(row[0]+row[1]+'.pd

f');

The Doc file can be moved into the trash if it's not needed within the folder.

file.setTrashed(true);
To send an email with the file as the attachment you can use the MailApp
Service and sendEmail() method. Add the attachments property and include
the blob as a PDF mime type within the attachments array. Create the
subject and html message body to add into the sendEmail properties.

const email = row[3];

const subject = row[0]+row[1]+'new file

created';

const messageBody = `Hi, ${row[0]} Welcome

we've created a PDF for you!`;

MailApp.sendEmail({

to:email,

subject:subject,

htmlBody: messageBody,

attachments: [blob.getAs(MimeType.PDF)]

});

This will send the PDF from the updated Doc file to the email address listed
in the 3rd column from the spreadsheet.

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Update Row Column with Sent value

To track already sent emails, use the column with the heading sent. We can
add a condition that if the cell for sent in the row has a value then we skip
sending a new email. If it's blank then we can send and create the PDF.
After this is done, update the column value with the current date. Select the
range that should be updated and then set the value of the cell to the
current date with new Date().

const tempo = sheet.getRange(index+2,5,1,1);

tempo.setValue(new Date());

Skip over already sent emails, add a condition to the row to skip the email if
the column 5 cell has a value in the current row.

rows.forEach((row,index)=>{

if(row[4] ==''){
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Add to the UI
This is only available for bound scripts and will not work on standalone
scripts. Add an item that can run a Google Apps Script function.

function onOpen(){

SpreadsheetApp.getUi()

.createMenu('Email Out')

.addItem('Send Emails','sender')

.addToUi();

Complete Project Script

const SHEETID = '1wZL****fm4';

const DOCID = '1RwP1****5T5U';

const FOLDERID = '1-****V4';

function onOpen() {

Laurence Svekis https://basescripts.com/

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SpreadsheetApp.getUi()

.createMenu('Email Out')

.addItem('Send Emails', 'sender')

.addToUi();

function sender() {

const sheet =

SpreadsheetApp.openById(SHEETID).getSheetByName('d

ata');

const temp = DriveApp.getFileById(DOCID);

const folder = DriveApp.getFolderById(FOLDERID);

const data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();

const rows = data.slice(1);

rows.forEach((row, index) => {

if (row[4] == '') {

const file = temp.makeCopy(folder);

const doc =

DocumentApp.openById(file.getId());

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 const body = doc.getBody();

data[0].forEach((heading, i) => {

const header1 = heading.toUpperCase();

body.replaceText(`{${header1}}`, row[i]);

})

doc.setName(row[0] + row[1]);

const blob = doc.getAs(MimeType.PDF);

doc.saveAndClose();

const pdf =

folder.createFile(blob).setName(row[0] + row[1] +

'.pdf');

const email = row[3];

const subject = row[0] + row[1] + 'new file

created';

const messageBody = `Hi, ${row[0]} Welcome

we've created a PDF for you!`;

MailApp.sendEmail({

to: email,

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 subject: subject,

htmlBody: messageBody,

attachments: [blob.getAs(MimeType.PDF)]

});

const tempo = sheet.getRange(index + 2, 5, 1,

1);

tempo.setValue(new Date());

Logger.log(row);

file.setTrashed(true);

})

Laurence Svekis https://basescripts.com/

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