How do I open a web browser using google apps script? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Something like this does it pretty well.

I used a fake button to keep the "look and feel" consistent with the other button , I simply added the link invisible on top of it ;-)

function alertLink() {
  var doc = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var app = UiApp.createApplication().setTitle('Message').setHeight('100').setWidth('400');
  var panel = app.createVerticalPanel().add(app.createHTML('Did you see my beautiful <b>Tutorial</b> ?'));
  var grid = app.createGrid(1,2).setWidth('400');
  var closeHandler = app.createServerHandler('close');
  var b1 = app.createButton("NO and I'd like to").setTitle('go to the tutorial in a new tab');
  var b2 = app.createButton("YES and I don't want to see it again",closeHandler).setTitle('close this window');
  var link = app.createAnchor('XXXXXXXXXX','http://www.google.com').setStyleAttributes({'zIndex':'1' , 'position':'fixed' , 'top':'25' , 'left':'20', 'color':'transparent' }).setTitle('go to the tutorial in a new tab');
  var G1 = app.createVerticalPanel().add(b1).add(link);
  grid.setWidget(0,0,G1).setWidget(0,1,b2);
  app.add(panel).add(grid)
  doc.show(app)
}

function close(){
  return UiApp.getActiveApplication().close();
}

Just use an onOpen trigger if you want it to execute automatically on spreadsheet open. (or rename the main function as onOpen() )

Here is how it looks like :

Answer 2

For an onOpen trigger, it's certainly a better UX to prompt the user with a dialog box offering the option to open a URL, as opposed to opening the URl automatically. See serge's answer here for how to do that (which is more up-to-date than the deprecated code in his answer on this thread).

But for other triggers (such as a menu item click) check out my answer here to open a URL automatically.