Write a Google Apps Script to send e-mails to user

Question

So I have a Google Form that feeds a Google Docs Spreadsheet. This form is for new people to our town to signup for our newcomers group.

I want to write a Google Apps script that will programmatically send a reminder e-mail to users who have not paid their dues 10 days after they submitted the form.

Should be easy, right?

Here's a link to a copy of the Spreadsheet with personal data redacted out:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjsoIob8dJfodG9WN0ZmWUE1ek9rc3JrVFpDQ0J0OGc

Seems as if I should be able use Column A ("Timestamp") with some sort of a comparison to now() to determine the 10 day part. And to get the have not paid their dues just has to be Column D does not equal Yes. The recipient's e-mail address is, obviously, in Column X.

I've already written a script to send a confirmation e-mail to the recipient "On Form Submit." So I'm comfortable with the MailApp.sendEmail class.

And if you notice the "Updaid" tab, you'll see that I've tackled using a query to pull out people who haven't paid.

But I'm not sure how to get the MailApp.sendEmail class to operate on data that's already IN a sheet. That is not triggering automatically when the form is submitted.

And I don't know how to adapt my query to account for the 10 days ago bit.

And I'm not even sure I should be USING a query for this application.

Can anybody right my path?

Thanks.

Answer 1

It should be pretty easy to write the compare function, you then would just need to add your own daily trigger.

Look to the Resources-> Triggers in the script editor.

Here is the link to the Triggers tutorial from Google.

Answer 2

The easiest way to know if a date is 10 days later is probably to count the milliseconds !

I know it sounds like a joke but it isn't ;-)

Example :

function test(){
var today = new Date();
var tendaysBefore = new Date(today.getTime()-10*24*60*60*1000);// 10 times 24 hours
Logger.log(today+' is 10 later than '+tendaysBefore);
}

The method getTime() returns the number of milliseconds from the reference date, it will work till 2070 so I guess it is safe to use for now ;-)

The trigger issue is already solved in Cornelius's answer, thx

EDIT : here is a possible code to do what you want : (tested on your sheet)

 var sh = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
 var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();// replace these with openbyId''ID') and getSheetByName(name) when you run it with trigger since the sheet wil be 'closed'
 var lastrow = ss.getLastRow();

function onOpen() {
  var menuEntries = [ {name: "check late paiments", functionName: "test"},
                      {name: "send mails to tagged users", functionName: "mailunpaid"},
                                     ];
  ss.addMenu("custom functions",menuEntries);// custom menu
  } 

function test(){ // check column D and set it to "no" if not paid
     var paidcol = sh.getRange(2, 4, lastrow-1, 1).getValues();//read only col D
     for(nn=0;nn<paidcol.length;++nn){
       if(paidcol[nn][0].toString().toLowerCase().match('yes')!='yes'){
       paidcol[nn][0]='no'
       }
       }
      sh.getRange(2, 4, lastrow-1, 1).setValues(paidcol);// write back to sheet
      }

function mailunpaid(){
     var data = sh.getDataRange().getValues();//read the whole sheet in an array, col D is idx3, timestamp is idx0 email is idx 23 
     var today = new Date();
     var tendaysBefore = new Date(today.getTime()-10*24*60*60*1000);// 10 times 24 hours
       for (nn=1;nn<data.length;++nn){  // iterate from row 2 to end ie idx 0 to last
    // Logger.log(data[nn][3]+'   '+data[nn][0])
         if(data[nn][0]<=tendaysBefore && data[nn][3]=='no'){
     //    MailApp.sendEmail(data[nn][23], 'subject', 'body'); // you have to define the mail subject & content somewhere ;-) and uncomment when finished your tests
     Logger.log('row '+Number(nn+1)+' = to send because '+data[nn][0])
         sh.getRange(nn+1,4).setValue('SENT');// tag this user to know that mail has been sent to avoid multiple emails
          }
       }
    }

note that I splitted the code in 2 functions for clarity but when it will run as a trigger you should combine both functions in one to get an automatic checking...