How to define global variable in Google Apps Script

Ryan picture Ryan · Jul 13, 2014 · Viewed 96.6k times · Source

I see most examples from Google is they use only functions in a single giant script.

e.g. https://developers.google.com/apps-script/quickstart/macros

But in our style, we usually write all functions under a single namespace, such as

MyCompany = (MyCompany || {});
MyCompany.init = function () {
    Logger.log('init');  
};

function onOpen() {
    var spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
    var menus = [{
        name: "Init",
        functionName: MyCompany.init
    }];
    spreadsheet.addMenu("Test", menus);
};

However, when I run the code above, it return

"MyCompany is not defined."

How to solve?

Answer

AshClarke picture AshClarke · Jul 15, 2014

You might be better off using the Properties Service as you can use these as a kind of persistent global variable.

click 'file > project properties > project properties' to set a key value, or you can use

PropertiesService.getScriptProperties().setProperty('mykey', 'myvalue');

The data can be retrieved with

var myvalue = PropertiesService.getScriptProperties().getProperty('mykey');