Google Apps Script to open a URL

PY_ picture PY_ · May 24, 2012 · Viewed 113.8k times · Source

Is there a way to write a google apps script so when ran, a second browser window opens to www.google.com (or another site of my choice)?

I am trying to come up with a work-around to my previous question here: Can I add a hyperlink inside a message box of a Google Apps spreadsheet

Answer

Serge insas picture Serge insas · May 24, 2012

You can build a small UI that does the job like this :

function test(){
showURL("http://www.google.com")
}
//
function showURL(href){
  var app = UiApp.createApplication().setHeight(50).setWidth(200);
  app.setTitle("Show URL");
  var link = app.createAnchor('open ', href).setId("link");
  app.add(link);  
  var doc = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
  doc.show(app);
  }

If you want to 'show' the URL, just change this line like this :

  var link = app.createAnchor(href, href).setId("link");

EDIT : link to a demo spreadsheet in read only because too many people keep writing unwanted things on it (just make a copy to use instead).

EDIT : UiApp was deprecated by Google on 11th Dec 2014, this method could break at any time and needs updating to use HTML service instead!

EDIT : below is an implementation using html service.

function testNew(){
  showAnchor('Stackoverflow','http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/google-apps-script');
}

function showAnchor(name,url) {
  var html = '<html><body><a href="'+url+'" target="blank" onclick="google.script.host.close()">'+name+'</a></body></html>';
  var ui = HtmlService.createHtmlOutput(html)
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi().showModelessDialog(ui,"demo");
}