I have a simple script to generate a doc and PDF upon form submission. It worked well on simple template (e.g. Only 1 sentence, First name, Last name and Company name).
However, when I use a template that's longer, having many fields, and formatting, the code runs but replace the text randomly.
I have tried to hardcode the fields of forms in ascending order as the doc template. However it still replace the text randomly
Can anybody points out what have I done wrong?
My code:
function myFunction(e) {
var response = e.response;
var timestamp = response.getTimestamp();
var [companyName, country, totalEmployees,totalPctWomenEmployees,numberNationality,name1,position1,emailAdd1,linkedin1,funFact1,name2,position2,emailAdd2,linkedin2,gameStage,gameStory] = response.getItemResponses().map(function(f) {return f.getResponse()});
var file = DriveApp.getFileById('XXXXX');
var folder = DriveApp.getFolderById('XXXXX')
var copy = file.makeCopy(companyName + '_one pager', folder);
var doc = DocumentApp.openById(copy.getId());
var body = doc.getBody();
body.replaceText('{{Company Name}}', companyName);
body.replaceText('{{Name}}', name1);
body.replaceText('{{Position}}', position1);
body.replaceText('{{Email}}', emailAdd1);
body.replaceText('{{Linkedin}}', linkedin1);
body.replaceText('{{Fun Fact}}', funFact1);
body.replaceText('{{Game Stage}}', gameStage);
body.replaceText('{{Game Story}}', gameStory);
doc.saveAndClose();
folder.createFile(doc.getAs("application/pdf"));}
Question - Does that mean the array declaration in line 3 was supposed to match the order of my form responses columns?
Finally I found what have went wrong after so many trials and errors!
The reason is because I declared the array variables randomly without following the order of the form responses columns.
The issue is with the part -
var [companyName, country, totalEmployees,totalPctWomenEmployees,numberNationality,name1,position1,emailAdd1,linkedin1,funFact1,name2,position2,emailAdd2,linkedin2,gameStage,gameStory] = response.getItemResponses().map(function(f) {return f.getResponse()});
It's actually pulling responses from the spreadsheet, and should be corrected in order. The wrongly mapped values was what causing the replacement of text went haywire. I corrected the order as per form responses and it is all good now.
Learning points:
If you swapped around the variables, what response.getItemResponses().map(function(f) {return f.getResponse()}
does is that it will go through the form responses column by column in order, and it will map the content to the wrong variable. As a result, when you replace your text later using body.replaceText('{{Game Stage}}', gameStage)
, there might be possibility that whatever stored in gameStage
might be name1
. Hence the replaced text will be wrong. And you will scratch your head until it bleeds without knowing why.
I saw @Tanaike's comment after I found the answer, but totally spot on!