Issue with creating an “old-fashioned” mail merge with Google Apps Script

Question

This is a followup to a question I asked yesterday on the Google Apps Script Office Hours Hangout.

The goal of my final script is to create an election process for student elections at the high school where I work using Google Forms. The script has three parts: 1) Create Unique "Voting IDs" (a random 6-digit code) 2) Merge the student data (Name, Homeroom, & Voting ID) on with a template document that will create specific voting instruction for each student. (i.e. an old-fashioned mail merge) 3) Verify the results by checking Voting ID's and removing duplicate votes.

The part of the script that I am having trouble with is the student data merge (step 2). The first dataset is the only one that works. The rest show up as "DocumentBodySection". I have a feeling it is either how I am copying the text from the Document Template or how I am adding the text to the new document.

Spreadsheet w/ Data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AierVcXWELCudFI1LU10RnlIVHNsUm11a0dDWEV6M1E

Document Template: (see followup comment for url)

Document Created by Script: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12r2D9SpIVmQYVaasMyMWKjHz6q-ZZyIMEBGHTwlQct8/edit

//Get Settings & Data
ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
source_sheet = ss.getSheetByName("Student Data");
settings_sheet = ss.getSheetByName("SETTINGS");
results_column = settings_sheet.getRange("B19").getValue();
source_column = settings_sheet.getRange("B18").getValue();
source_lastrow = source_sheet.getLastRow();
docTemplateID = settings_sheet.getRange("B13").getValue();
docCopyName = settings_sheet.getRange("B14").getValue();

//Merge Student Data with Document
function SendDataMerge () {
  // Open docTemplate and Copy Contents to entryTemplate
     var docTemplate = DocumentApp.openById(docTemplateID);
     var entryTemplate = docTemplate.getActiveSection();
     docTemplate.saveAndClose();
  // Make a NEW copy of docTemplate
     var docTemplate = DocsList.getFileById(docTemplateID);
     var docCopy = DocsList.copy(docTemplate, docCopyName);
     var docCopyID = docCopy.getId();
  // Create Array of Student Data (First, Last, Grouping, VID)
     var data = source_sheet.getRange("A2:D"+source_lastrow).getValues();
  // Open docCopy for Editing & Clear Contents
     var doc = DocumentApp.openById(docCopyID);
     var docText = doc.editAsText();
  // Run through Student Data
     for(var i=0; i<5 /*data.length*/; i++) { //For testing, limit this to 5 entries 
       var lastName = data[i][0];
       var firstName = data[i][1];
       var grouping = data[i][2];
       var vid = data[i][3];
       docText.replaceText('keyLastName', lastName);
       docText.replaceText('keyFirstName', firstName);
       docText.replaceText('keyGrouping', grouping);
       docText.replaceText('keyVID', vid);
       docText.appendText('\n*** Appended Text (End of entry) ***');
       docText.appendText(entryTemplate);
     }
  // Save and Close 
     doc.saveAndClose();
  }

Answer 1

I worked around this issue by creating a copy of the template, doing the text replacement and then appending the template elements from the original document into the copy. In particular, I used: var copyTables = templateDoc.getTables(); to fetch and store the tables (as all of my template data was contained in a table) and copyDoc.appendTable(copyTables[0].copy() ); to append the copy (the .copy() at the end seems to work the real magic). This provides the flexibility of updating the template in the friendly Documents interface without having to see a programmer.

Answer 2

I think the problem is with this line:

docText.appendText(entryTemplate);

The variable entryTemplate holds a DocumentBodySection, which is why you are seeing that in the output. If you are trying to append another copy of the original template text you'll need to store that before you enter the loop.

Answer 3

I agree with Eric that appendText(entryTemplate) isn't going to do what you want it to do.

Since you're trying to create one large document with all the students, using a "template" and replacing the text isn't going to work well. I'd suggest instead, creating the "template" in code using the api calls that produce the formatting you want. Then it makes it simple to keep appending new pages of student instructions. Although I think you may run into slowness when the document gets large... I don't know how many students you have.