Toper Turor

DocsListDialog is a widget used by only a small fraction of Apps Script projects to provide a Google Drive "file open" dialog in a UI service user interface. In almost all cases, using Google Picker in HTML service is preferable and more secure.

Before September 30, 2014, we require scripts using DocsListDialog to make a small update to improve security.

Specifically, if you use DocsListDialog, youll need to start calling a new method, setOAuthToken(oAuthToken) before you call showDocsPicker(). The new method sets an OAuth 2.0 token to use when fetching data for the dialog, on behalf of the user whose content should be shown.

So long as the app isnt a web app set to execute as "me" (the developer), you can get the necessary OAuth 2.0 token by calling ScriptApp.getOAuthToken(). The example below shows how to convert an old DocsListDialog implementation to the new model.

Old example

function showDialog() {
  var app = UiApp.createApplication();

  app.createDocsListDialog()
     .addCloseHandler(serverHandler)
     .addSelectionHandler(serverHandler)
     .showDocsPicker();

  SpreadsheetApp.getUi()
     .showModalDialog(app, );
}

New example

function showDialog() {
  var app = UiApp.createApplication();

  app.createDocsListDialog()
     .addCloseHandler(serverHandler)
     .addSelectionHandler(serverHandler)
     .setOAuthToken(ScriptApp.getOAuthToken())
     .showDocsPicker();
 
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi()
     .showModalDialog(app, );
}

To ensure your script continues to work properly, be sure to make this change before September 30.

Posted by Dan Lazin, Googler

In just a few hours at the recent Apps Script hackathon in Los Angeles, we saw attendees build everything from website monitoring to room booking to financial tracking apps. For those of you who couldn’t make it, attendees were given a brief introduction to Apps Script and a few hours to let their imaginations run wild. Apps Script’s ease of use enabled them to quickly create fully functioning, useful apps. Here are a few interesting things we saw from local developers:

Website Monitor by Eduardo Arino de la Rubina

These days, small businesses are quickly increasing their online presence; a website outage during a critical period can be devastating to a mom-and-pop shop. Eduardo realized that existing network-monitoring solutions require a significant investment in technology and infrastructure that is beyond the reach of many small-business users. Using Apps Script’s UrlFetch and Spreadsheet services, he was able to quickly create a website monitor packaged in an easy-to-use spreadsheet that, given a list of URLs, tries to fetch each one and records the latency and content length.

The code is available here.

Get A Room by Danny Favela

Get A Room allows users to book meeting rooms by taking advantage of Apps Script’s tight integration with Google Calendar and events. The app, built entirely on a Chromebook utilizing Apps Scripts cloud friendliness, displays building floorplans with buttons that users can click to book a room. In response to a booking request, the app fetches the room’s calendar and creates a new event. It also updates the UI by replacing the floor plan with a modified image to show the newly booked room. Here is a snippet of the booking code:

// Click handler for the interaction to book a room
function bookBoardroomHandler(e) {
 var app = UiApp.getActiveApplication();

 // Perform the calendar-booking operations
 bookBoardroom();
 
 // Swap the images as visual confirmation
 app.remove(app.getElementById(imageDefaultLayout));
 app.add(app.getElementById(imageBoardroom));

 app.close();
 return app;
}

function bookBoardroom(e) {
 var calendarBoardroom = CalendarApp.getCalendarsByName("Boardroom");
 calendarBoardroom[0].createEventFromDescription("Boardroom Meeting");  
}

Stock Info by Matt Kaufman

Matt decided to build a web service that provides information about publicly traded stocks. The app’s backend consists of a spreadsheet with stock symbols of interest. Using Apps Script’s FinanceService, Matt loops through the spreadsheet on a timed trigger and appends the latest stock information for each symbol. He then uses HtmlService to create a web app that outputs an XML page of the stock info based on a symbol parameter in the URL. Here’s a picture of his script in action:

These are just some examples of how quickly useful apps can be created with Apps Script. Thanks to all the attendees for coming out! If you couldn’t make it to the hackathon, check out these tutorials to see how you can get started making great apps.

Kalyan Reddy profile | Stack Overflow Kalyan is a Developer Programs Engineer on the Google Apps Script team based in NYC. He is committed to increasing developer productivity by helping them fully utilize the power of Apps Script. In his free time, he enjoys participating in the Maker community and hacking together robots.

The Challenge

• Link to video
• Reference - Why Second Life is important to learning (Bryan Chapman)

WHAT?
If you are interested in using Second Life, or other Virtual World technologies for learning purposes, Dr. Tony O’Driscolls 10-minute presentation will give you an excellent crash course discussing the “Seven Sensibilities of Learning in a Virtual World,” which are:

1. The Sense of Self
2. The Death of Distance
3. The Power of Presence
4. The Sense of Space
5. The Capability to Co-Create
6. The Pervasiveness of Practice
7. The Enrichment of Experience

VIDEO?
Welcome to the Matrix of learning:

If you are planning to construct your own little Virtual World learning space, I suppose this is a great crash course (on the learning possibilities), or framework to get you started. Virtual worlds are certainly here to stay, but lets hope that we dont forget to spend quality time with our family, friends, colleagues, etc. in the traditional world, although it might not be that exciting. Sometimes we have no choice (e.g. distance), but sometimes we do. Think... :)

Link to article (By Mark Mabrito. You need to subscribe to Innovate to view this article, but it is free)
"Establishing fruitful interaction in online courses is a persistent challenge. Mark Mabrito shares his personal practices with readers, outlining the tools and policies he has used to enhance interactivity with students, among students, and between students and course content. Mabrito explores the fine lines that instructors must walk:

• Encouraging participation without being overbearing.
• Evaluating student input without making it a dreaded requirement.
• Allowing for spontaneous reactions while promoting careful reasoning and good writing skills.
• Providing ample resources without overloading or confusing students.

For educators struggling with such issues, this article offers clear and practical strategies."

• Link to My New Blog

I just want to share with those that read this blog (or bump into it!) that I have started a new blog today (January 9th, 2008) entitled e-Learning in Malaysia. It is kind of empty right now (except for a few interesting links and posts), but as I learn over the coming months (and perhaps years), I believe it will evolve into a useful blog to find e-learning related things going on in Malaysia.

I hope this blog will eventually evolve into a good starting point to discover e-learning things going on in Malaysia (that is accessible to the public). My new learning adventure (in addition to ZaidLearn) will try to mash-up the juiciest e-learning stories going on in Malaysia (past, present, future), including:

• Higher Education (Universities & Colleges)
• Schools (Primary & Secondary)
• Corporate Learning
• Communities
• Projects
• Solution Providers
• Research Papers & Articles
• People
• Conferences
• Blogs
• Etc.

In short, the main goal for setting up this blog, is to discover, learn, share, discuss, network, and reflect about e-learning in Malaysia. Click here to read the full story behind this blog.

ZAIDLEARN?
It will continue, too (speed posting the learning juice!)!

ZaidLearn will continue to explore the world of FREE learning tools and resources, while e-Learning in Malaysia will ZOOM in on e-learning adventures going on in Malaysia.

1. Displaying the users answers alongside the correct answers
2. Checking the users answers and computing the score
3. Displaying the users score

var nScore:Number = 0;

userAnswer0_txt.text = aUserAnswers[0];
userAnswer1_txt.text = aUserAnswers[1];
userAnswer2_txt.text = aUserAnswers[2];
userAnswer3_txt.text = aUserAnswers[3];

correctAnswer0_txt.text = aCorrectAnswers[0];
correctAnswer1_txt.text = aCorrectAnswers[1];
correctAnswer2_txt.text = aCorrectAnswers[2];
correctAnswer3_txt.text = aCorrectAnswers[3];

for(var i:Number = 0; i < aQuestions.length; i++)
{
     this["userAnswer" + i + "_txt"].text = aUserAnswers[i];
     this["correctAnswer" + i + "_txt"].text = aCorrectAnswers[i];
}

for(var i:Number = 0; i < aQuestions.length; i++) 
{
     this["userAnswer" + i + "_txt"].text = aUserAnswers[i];
     this["correctAnswer" + i + "_txt"].text = aCorrectAnswers[i];
     if(aUserAnswers[i] == aCorrectAnswers[i])
     {
          nScore++;
          trace(nScore);
     }
}

for(var i:Number = 0; i < aQuestions.length; i++) 
{
     this["userAnswer" + i + "_txt"].text = aUserAnswers[i];
     this["correctAnswer" + i + "_txt"].text = aCorrectAnswers[i];
     if(aUserAnswers[i].toUpperCase() == aCorrectAnswers[i].toUpperCase()) 
     {
          nScore++;
          trace(nScore);
     }
}

for(var i:Number = 0; i < aQuestions.length; i++) 
{
     this["userAnswer" + i + "_txt"].text = aUserAnswers[i];
     this["correctAnswer" + i + "_txt"].text = aCorrectAnswers[i];
     if(aUserAnswers[i].toUpperCase() == aCorrectAnswers[i].toUpperCase()) 
     {
          nScore++;
     }     
     if(i == aQuestions.length - 1) 
     {
          score_txt.text = nScore.toString();
     }
}

stop();

var nQNumber:Number = 0;
var aQuestions:Array = new Array();
var aCorrectAnswers:Array = new Array("Jupiter", "Mars", "war", "Titan");
var aUserAnswers:Array = new Array();

aQuestions[0] = "What is the biggest planet in our solar system?";
aQuestions[1] = "Which planet in our solar system is the 4th planet from the sun?";
aQuestions[2] = "Mars is named after the Roman god of ___.";
aQuestions[3] = "What is the name of Saturns largest moon?";

questions_txt.text = aQuestions[nQNumber];

submit_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, quiz);

function quiz(e:MouseEvent):void 
{
     aUserAnswers.push(answers_txt.text);
     answers_txt.text = "";
     nQNumber++;
     if(nQNumber < aQuestions.length) 
     {
          questions_txt.text = aQuestions[nQNumber];
     }
     else
     {
          nextFrame();
     }
}

var nScore:Number = 0;

for(var i:Number = 0; i < aQuestions.length; i++) 
{
     this["userAnswer" + i + "_txt"].text = aUserAnswers[i];
     this["correctAnswer" + i + "_txt"].text = aCorrectAnswers[i];
     if(aUserAnswers[i].toUpperCase() == aCorrectAnswers[i].toUpperCase()) 
     {
          nScore++;
     }
     if(i == aQuestions.length - 1) 
     {
          score_txt.text = nScore.toString();
     }
}