DocumentApp.md

Google Docs [DocumentApp]

Open Documents

• DocumentApp is used to access and modify documents, something that can't be done with DriveApp.
  

• For example, we can insert and edit text inside a document using DocumentApp.
  

• DocumentApp.openById() is used to get a document file in Google Docs. The syntax is similar to DriveApp.getFileById()
  

Code Example:

let id = '1VFYfiTWVTahG9G8xG9G8x2a76ejv1fiTWVTahsAM';

let doc = DocumentApp.openById(id);
let docName = doc.getName();
console.log(docName);

• This code snippet gets the document by its unique file id and then prints the document name fetched with getName() and stored in the variable docName.

Note:

• DriveApp.getFileById() returns a file from Google Drive.

• DocumentApp.openById() returns a document from Google Docs.

• getId() is a function that returns the id of the file or document it is called on.
  

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Get File Contents

• The getText() method returns the contents of the document.

Code Example:

let id = "1x1Ky-x1Kyejv1fiTejv1fiTWVTahG9GMgmAM";

let doc = DocumentApp.openById(id);
let text = doc1.getText();
console.log(text);

• In this code snippet we open the document and get its text content using getText() and then print its contents out.

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Replace Text

• The replaceText() method is used to edit and modify the document.
  

• It takes 2 arguments:

  1. A string to be replaced
  2. A new string to replace it with
     

- Every occurrence of the string to replace is replaced with the new string.

Code Example:

let id = '1x1Ky-x1Kyejv1fiTejv1fiTWVTahG9GMgmAM';

let doc = DocumentApp.openById(id);
let oldText = doc.getText();
console.log(oldText);

doc.replaceText('brilliant', 'exceptional');
let newText = doc.getText();
console.log(newText);

• In this code snippet we are replacing every occurence of the word "brilliant" with "exceptional" using the replaceText() method.

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Example Exercise:

let doc = DocumentApp.openById('226uAXY0YRUjHMW5LQqmJTpnzRkGmFLch0');
let replacements = [
    ['Dog', 'Cat'],
    ['dog food', 'cat food'],
    ['chicken bones and mutton', 'fish bones and salmon']
];

for (let replacement of replacements) {
    doc.replaceText(replacement[0],replacement[1]);
}

• In this code snippet we make multiple replacements in the document.
  

• If you look closely, you will notice we want to convert a document on dogs to a document on cats.
  

• The replacements array consists of 3 arrays, that contain 2 strings each.

  • The first string is the text to be replaced.
  • The second string is new text to replace it with.
    

• Inside the for...of loop we are making the replacements in the document as per each array defined above.
  

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We will be applying the skills learnt here in the Sum-Up Module.