Dialogs and Sidebars in Google Workspace Documents

  • Bound scripts in Google Docs, Sheets, or Forms can display prebuilt alerts and prompts, along with custom dialogs and sidebars using HTML service pages.

  • Alert dialogs are prebuilt and display a message with an "OK" button, suspending the script until closed.

  • Prompt dialogs are prebuilt and include a message, text-input field, and an "OK" button, also suspending the script until closed.

  • Custom dialogs and sidebars display HTML service interfaces and do not suspend the server-side script, allowing for asynchronous communication.

  • Google Picker can be used in custom HTML service dialogs to enable users to select or upload Google Drive files.

Google Apps Script projects bound to Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Forms can display user-interface elements, such as prebuilt alerts, prompts, toasts, dialogs, and sidebars. These elements typically contain custom HTML service content and are often opened from menu items. In Forms, user-interface elements are visible only to an editor who opens the form to modify it, not to a respondent.

Alert dialogs

An alert is a prebuilt dialog that opens inside a Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Forms editor. It displays a message and an OK button; a title and alternative buttons are optional. It is similar to calling window.alert in client-side JavaScript within a web browser.

Alerts suspend the server-side script while the dialog is open. The script resumes after the user closes the dialog, but JDBC connections don't persist across the suspension.

As shown in the following example, Docs, Forms, Slides, and Sheets all use the method Ui.alert, which is available in three variants. To override the default OK button, pass a value from the Ui.ButtonSet enum as the buttons argument. To evaluate which button the user clicked, compare the return value for alert to the Ui.Button enum.

function onOpen() {
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi() // Or DocumentApp or SlidesApp or FormApp.
    .createMenu("Custom Menu")
    .addItem("Show alert", "showAlert")
    .addToUi();
}

function showAlert() {
  const ui = SpreadsheetApp.getUi(); // Same variations.

  const result = ui.alert(
    "Please confirm",
    "Are you sure you want to continue?",
    ui.ButtonSet.YES_NO,
  );

  // Process the user's response.
  if (result === ui.Button.YES) {
    // User clicked "Yes".
    ui.alert("Confirmation received.");
  } else {
    // User clicked "No" or X in the title bar.
    ui.alert("Permission denied.");
  }
}

Prompt dialogs

A prompt is a prebuilt dialog that opens inside a Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Forms editor. It displays a message, a text-input field, and an OK button; a title and alternative buttons are optional. It is similar to calling window.prompt in client-side JavaScript within a web browser.

Prompts suspend the server-side script while the dialog is open. The script resumes after the user closes the dialog, but JDBC connections don't persist across the suspension.

As shown in the following example, Docs, Forms, Slides, and Sheets all use the method Ui.prompt, which is available in three variants. To override the default OK button, pass a value from the Ui.ButtonSet enum as the buttons argument. To evaluate the user's response, capture the return value for prompt, then call PromptResponse.getResponseText to retrieve the user's input, and compare the return value for PromptResponse.getSelectedButton to the Ui.Button enum.

function onOpen() {
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi() // Or DocumentApp or SlidesApp or FormApp.
    .createMenu("Custom Menu")
    .addItem("Show prompt", "showPrompt")
    .addToUi();
}

function showPrompt() {
  const ui = SpreadsheetApp.getUi(); // Same variations.

  const result = ui.prompt(
    "Let's get to know each other!",
    "Please enter your name:",
    ui.ButtonSet.OK_CANCEL,
  );

  // Process the user's response.
  const button = result.getSelectedButton();
  const text = result.getResponseText();
  if (button === ui.Button.OK) {
    // User clicked "OK".
    ui.alert("Your name is " + text + ".");
  } else if (button === ui.Button.CANCEL) {
    // User clicked "Cancel".
    ui.alert("I didn't get your name.");
  } else if (button === ui.Button.CLOSE) {
    // User clicked X in the title bar.
    ui.alert("You closed the dialog.");
  }
}

Spreadsheet toasts

A "toast" is a small dialog window in the lower right corner of a Sheets editor that displays a message but does not suspend the script. It is a good way to show status messages or updates that don't require user interaction.

As shown in the following example, Sheets uses the method Spreadsheet.toast. Toasts are only available in Sheets.

function showToast() {
  SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().toast("Task completed successfully.");
}

Custom dialogs

A custom dialog can display an HTML service user interface inside a Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Forms editor.

Custom dialogs do not suspend the server-side script while the dialog is open. Because they are asynchronous, the server-side function that opens the dialog finishes immediately. To pass data from the custom dialog back to the server, use the google.script API in your client-side code.

The dialog can close itself by calling google.script.host.close in the client side of an HTML-service interface. The dialog cannot be closed by other interfaces, only by the user or itself.

As shown in the following example, Docs, Forms, Slides, and Sheets all use the method Ui.showModalDialog to open the dialog.

Code.gs

function onOpen() {
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi() // Or DocumentApp or SlidesApp or FormApp.
      .createMenu('Custom Menu')
      .addItem('Show dialog', 'showDialog')
      .addToUi();
}

function showDialog() {
  const html = HtmlService.createHtmlOutputFromFile('Page')
      .setWidth(400)
      .setHeight(300);
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi() // Or DocumentApp or SlidesApp or FormApp.
      .showModalDialog(html, 'My custom dialog');
}

Page.html

Hello, world! <input type="button" value="Close" onclick="google.script.host.close()" />

Custom sidebars

A sidebar can display an HTML service user interface inside a Docs, Forms, Slides, and Sheets editor.

Sidebars do not suspend the server-side script while the dialog is open. The client-side component can make asynchronous calls to the server-side script using the google.script API for HTML-service interfaces.

The sidebar can close itself by calling google.script.host.close in the client side of an HTML-service interface. The sidebar cannot be closed by other interfaces, only by the user or itself.

As shown in the following example, Docs, Forms, Slides, and Sheets all use the method Ui.showSidebar to open the sidebar.

Code.gs

function onOpen() {
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi() // Or DocumentApp or SlidesApp or FormApp.
      .createMenu('Custom Menu')
      .addItem('Show sidebar', 'showSidebar')
      .addToUi();
}

function showSidebar() {
  const html = HtmlService.createHtmlOutputFromFile('Page')
      .setTitle('My custom sidebar');
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi() // Or DocumentApp or SlidesApp or FormApp.
      .showSidebar(html);
}

Page.html

Hello, world! <input type="button" value="Close" onclick="google.script.host.close()" />

File-open dialogs

Google Picker is a JavaScript API that lets users select or upload Google Drive files. Use the Google Picker library in HTML service to create a custom dialog that lets users select existing files or upload new ones, then pass the selection back to your script.

Requirements

Using Google Picker with Google Apps Script has several requirements:

Example

The following example shows Google Picker in Apps Script.

code.gs

picker/code.gs
/**
 * Creates a custom menu in Google Sheets when the spreadsheet opens.
 */
function onOpen() {
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi()
    .createMenu("Picker")
    .addItem("Start", "showPicker")
    .addToUi();
}

/**
 * Displays an HTML-service dialog in Google Sheets that contains client-side
 * JavaScript code for the Google Picker API.
 */
function showPicker() {
  const html = HtmlService.createHtmlOutputFromFile("dialog.html")
    .setWidth(800)
    .setHeight(600)
    .setSandboxMode(HtmlService.SandboxMode.IFRAME);
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi().showModalDialog(html, "Select a file");
}
// Ensure the Drive API is enabled.
if (!Drive) {
  throw new Error("Please enable the Drive advanced service.");
}

/**
 * Checks that the file can be accessed.
 * @param {string} fileId The ID of the file.
 * @return {Object} The file resource.
 */
function getFile(fileId) {
  return Drive.Files.get(fileId, { fields: "*" });
}

/**
 * Gets the user's OAuth 2.0 access token so that it can be passed to Picker.
 * This technique keeps Picker from needing to show its own authorization
 * dialog, but is only possible if the OAuth scope that Picker needs is
 * available in Apps Script. In this case, the function includes an unused call
 * to a DriveApp method to ensure that Apps Script requests access to all files
 * in the user's Drive.
 *
 * @return {string} The user's OAuth 2.0 access token.
 */
function getOAuthToken() {
  return ScriptApp.getOAuthToken();
}

dialog.html

picker/dialog.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <link
      rel="stylesheet"
      href="https://ssl.gstatic.com/docs/script/css/add-ons.css"
    />
    <style>
      #result {
        display: flex;
        flex-direction: column;
        gap: 0.25em;
      }

      pre {
        font-size: x-small;
        max-height: 25vh;
        overflow-y: scroll;
        background: #eeeeee;
        padding: 1em;
        border: 1px solid #cccccc;
      }
    </style>
    <script>
      // TODO: Replace the value for DEVELOPER_KEY with the API key obtained
      // from the Google Developers Console.
      const DEVELOPER_KEY = "AIza...";
      // TODO: Replace the value for CLOUD_PROJECT_NUMBER with the project
      // number obtained from the Google Developers Console.
      const CLOUD_PROJECT_NUMBER = "1234567890";

      let pickerApiLoaded = false;
      let oauthToken;

      /**
       * Loads the Google Picker API.
       */
      function onApiLoad() {
        gapi.load("picker", {
          callback: function () {
            pickerApiLoaded = true;
          },
        });
      }

      /**
       * Gets the user's OAuth 2.0 access token from the server-side script so that
       * it can be passed to Picker. This technique keeps Picker from needing to
       * show its own authorization dialog, but is only possible if the OAuth scope
       * that Picker needs is available in Apps Script. Otherwise, your Picker code
       * will need to declare its own OAuth scopes.
       */
      function getOAuthToken() {
        google.script.run
          .withSuccessHandler((token) => {
            oauthToken = token;
            createPicker(token);
          })
          .withFailureHandler(showError)
          .getOAuthToken();
      }

      /**
       * Creates a Picker that can access the user's spreadsheets. This function
       * uses advanced options to hide the Picker's left navigation panel and
       * default title bar.
       *
       * @param {string} token An OAuth 2.0 access token that lets Picker access the
       *     file type specified in the addView call.
       */
      function createPicker(token) {
        document.getElementById("result").innerHTML = "";

        if (pickerApiLoaded && token) {
          const picker = new google.picker.PickerBuilder()
            // Instruct Picker to display only spreadsheets in Drive. For other
            // views, see https://developers.google.com/picker/reference/picker.viewid
            .addView(
              new google.picker.DocsView(
                google.picker.ViewId.SPREADSHEETS
              ).setOwnedByMe(true)
            )
            // Hide the navigation panel so that Picker fills more of the dialog.
            .enableFeature(google.picker.Feature.NAV_HIDDEN)
            // Hide the title bar since an Apps Script dialog already has a title.
            .hideTitleBar()
            .setOAuthToken(token)
            .setDeveloperKey(DEVELOPER_KEY)
            .setAppId(CLOUD_PROJECT_NUMBER)
            .setCallback(pickerCallback)
            .setOrigin(google.script.host.origin)
            .build();
          picker.setVisible(true);
        } else {
          showError("Unable to load the file picker.");
        }
      }

      /**
       * @typedef {Object} PickerResponse
       * @property {string} action
       * @property {PickerDocument[]} docs
       */

      /**
       * @typedef {Object} PickerDocument
       * @property {string} id
       * @property {string} name
       * @property {string} mimeType
       * @property {string} url
       * @property {string} lastEditedUtc
       */

      /**
       * A callback function that extracts the chosen document's metadata from the
       * response object. For details on the response object, see
       * https://developers.google.com/picker/reference/picker.responseobject
       *
       * @param {PickerResponse} data The response object.
       */
      function pickerCallback(data) {
        const action = data[google.picker.Response.ACTION];
        if (action == google.picker.Action.PICKED) {
          handlePicked(data);
        } else if (action == google.picker.Action.CANCEL) {
          document.getElementById("result").innerHTML = "Picker canceled.";
        }
      }

      /**
       * Handles `"PICKED"` responsed from the Google Picker.
       *
       * @param {PickerResponse} data The response object.
       */
      function handlePicked(data) {
        const doc = data[google.picker.Response.DOCUMENTS][0];
        const id = doc[google.picker.Document.ID];

        google.script.run
          .withSuccessHandler((driveFilesGetResponse) => {
            // Render the response from Picker and the Drive.Files.Get API.
            const resultElement = document.getElementById("result");
            resultElement.innerHTML = "";

            for (const response of [
              {
                title: "Picker response",
                content: JSON.stringify(data, null, 2),
              },
              {
                title: "Drive.Files.Get response",
                content: JSON.stringify(driveFilesGetResponse, null, 2),
              },
            ]) {
              const titleElement = document.createElement("h3");
              titleElement.appendChild(document.createTextNode(response.title));
              resultElement.appendChild(titleElement);

              const contentElement = document.createElement("pre");
              contentElement.appendChild(
                document.createTextNode(response.content)
              );
              resultElement.appendChild(contentElement);
            }
          })
          .withFailureHandler(showError)
          .getFile(data[google.picker.Response.DOCUMENTS][0].id);
      }

      /**
       * Displays an error message within the #result element.
       *
       * @param {string} message The error message to display.
       */
      function showError(message) {
        document.getElementById("result").innerHTML = "Error: " + message;
      }
    </script>
  </head>

  <body>
    <div>
      <button onclick="getOAuthToken()">Select a file</button>
      <div id="result"></div>
    </div>
    <script src="https://apis.google.com/js/api.js?onload=onApiLoad"></script>
  </body>
</html>

appsscript.json

picker/appsscript.json
{
  "timeZone": "America/Los_Angeles",
  "exceptionLogging": "STACKDRIVER",
  "runtimeVersion": "V8",
  "oauthScopes": [
    "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/script.container.ui",
    "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file"
  ],
  "dependencies": {
    "enabledAdvancedServices": [
      {
        "userSymbol": "Drive",
        "version": "v3",
        "serviceId": "drive"
      }
    ]
  }
}