How to append text to the end of a Google Docs Document using python?

Question

I am trying to append text to the end of the document using python.

For Example:

This is the existing document:

date
blah blah
    something
    blah blah

This is the text I want to append:

date2
blah blah2
    something2
    blah blah2

End result will be:

date
blah blah
    something
    blah blah

date2
blah blah2
    something2
    blah blah2

This is my code:

from __future__ import print_function

import os.path

from google.auth.transport.requests import Request
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from google_auth_oauthlib.flow import InstalledAppFlow
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from googleapiclient.errors import HttpError

# If modifying these scopes, delete the file token.json.
SCOPES = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents']

# The ID of a sample document.
DOCUMENT_ID = '<my document id>'


def writeToNewWords(id):
    """Shows basic usage of the Docs API.
    Prints the title of a sample document.
    """
    creds = None
    # The file token.json stores the user's access and refresh tokens, and is
    # created automatically when the authorization flow completes for the first
    # time.
    if os.path.exists('token.json'):
        creds = Credentials.from_authorized_user_file('token.json', SCOPES)
    # If there are no (valid) credentials available, let the user log in.
    if not creds or not creds.valid:
        if creds and creds.expired and creds.refresh_token:
            creds.refresh(Request())
        else:
            flow = InstalledAppFlow.from_client_secrets_file(
                'credentials.json', SCOPES)
            creds = flow.run_local_server(port=0)
        # Save the credentials for the next run
        with open('token.json', 'w') as token:
            token.write(creds.to_json())

    try:
        requests = [
            {
                'insertText': {
                    'location': {
                        'index': 1,
                    },
                    'text': 'blah\n'
                }
            }
        ]
        service = build('docs', 'v1', credentials=creds)

        # Retrieve the documents contents from the Docs service.
        results = service.documents().batchUpdate(documentId=id, body={'requests': requests}).execute()
    except HttpError as err:
        print(err)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    writeToNewWords(DOCUMENT_ID)

My code writes at the top of the Document

But I don't know how to write the text at the end of the document.

Thanks,

Sivayogeith Umamaheswaran

Answer 1

Change this request body:

requests = [
    {
        'insertText': {
            'location': {
                'index': 1,
            },
            'text': 'blah\n'
        }
    }
]

To this:

requests = [
    {
      'insertText': {
        'text': 'blah\n',
        'endOfSegmentLocation': {}
      }
    }
]

By adding EndOfSegmentLocation, you specify the location at the end of the documents' body.

An empty segment ID signifies the document's body.