How do you add a connecting line to a google slides presentation using app scripts?

Question

I am trying to follow the Google Slides API reference material; 'Lines' but I must be missing something. I have successfully added rectangle shapes using the script, but now I want to connect them with a line. Here is what I have so far:

function addConnections()
{
  var myPresentation = SlidesApp.getActivePresentation()
  var presentationId = myPresentation.getId();
  var slideId = myPresentation.getSlides()[0].getObjectId()

  var requests = []

    requests.push(
    {
      createLine: 
      {
        lineProperties: 
        {
          startConnection: 
          {
            connectedObjectId: 'queryD200',
            connectionSiteIndex: 3
          },
          endConnection: 
          {
            connectedObjectId: 'queryD201',
            connectionSiteIndex: 0
          }
        },
        lineType: 'CURVED_CONNECTOR_2'
      }
    })

  Slides.Presentations.batchUpdate({requests: requests}, presentationId);

}

The error that I get is: Unknown name "lineType" at 'requests[0].create_line': Cannot find field. Unknown name "lineProperties" at 'requests[0].create_line': Cannot find field.

But those are the exact field names that google uses in their documentation. I tried them both with quotations and without. Please Help! and thank you

Answer 1

I believe your goal as follows.

• You want to connect 2 shapes with a line on Google Slides.
• You want to achieve this using Slides API with Google Apps Script.

For this, how about this answer?

Modification points:

• There is no property of lineProperties in createLine.
• There is no property of lineType in LineProperties.
• In your request body, the property of fields is not used.
• In order to connect 2 shapes with a line, in your situation, how about the following flow?
  1. Create a line object using createLine.
  2. Update the line object using lineProperties.
     • lineProperties can be used for the existing line object using UpdateLinePropertiesRequest.

Modified script:

When your script is modified, it becomes as follows.

function addConnections() {
  var myPresentation = SlidesApp.getActivePresentation()
  var presentationId = myPresentation.getId();
  var slideId = myPresentation.getSlides()[0].getObjectId();

  var lineObjectId = "sampleline001";
  var startShape = "queryD200";
  var endShape = "queryD201";

  var requests = [
    {createLine: {
      objectId: lineObjectId,
      lineCategory: "CURVED",
      elementProperties: {pageObjectId: slideId, size: {height: {magnitude: 1 ,unit: "PT"}, width: {magnitude: 1, unit: "PT"}}}
    }},
    {updateLineProperties: {
      objectId: lineObjectId,
      lineProperties: {startConnection: {connectedObjectId: startShape}, endConnection: {connectedObjectId: endShape}},
      fields: "startConnection,endConnection"
    }}
  ];
  Slides.Presentations.batchUpdate({requests: requests}, presentationId);
}

Sample script:

As another pattern, you can also achieve this using Slides service instead of Slides API.

function addConnections() {
  var myPresentation = SlidesApp.getActivePresentation()
  var presentationId = myPresentation.getId();
  var slide = myPresentation.getSlides()[0];
  var slideId = slide.getObjectId();

  var startShape = "queryD200";
  var endShape = "queryD201";

  var line = slide.insertLine(
    SlidesApp.LineCategory.CURVED,
    slide.getPageElementById(startShape).asShape().getConnectionSites()[0],
    slide.getPageElementById(endShape).asShape().getConnectionSites()[0]
  );
}

Result:

When above both scripts are run for 2 shapes, the following result can be obtained.

Note:

• I'm not sure whether the shape object IDs queryD200 and queryD201 are correct. So please be careful this.

References:

• CreateLineRequest
• UpdateLinePropertiesRequest
• insertLine(lineCategory, startConnectionSite, endConnectionSite)