Problems with libraries

The following is documented on stackoverlow and not directly related to my GSoC work but in case Google directs someone with the same problem here and as a "”warning” for any New Visioners I decided to document it here.

I was trying out the new library service for Apps, however I was working on the assumption that if the script works on my end it would work as a library the same way, and it is true for most things. But, I had very very bad luck and most of my script

depended on handlers (had a nice GUI) so I did not test it as a library but only wrote code in my editor and tested it from there, after 3-4 days of very hard work I had a surprise, a bad one,  “Unknown macro” was the error and I got it from every handler not defined in the main panel. To make this clear let’s say the code was this:

 

 1 function notWorkingGUI(){
 2   
 3   var app=UiApp.createApplication();
 4   var appPanel=app.createVerticalPanel().setId("appPanel");
 5   var handler1=app.createServerHandler("handlerFunction1").addCallbackElement(appPanel);
 6   var firstButton=app.createButton("Button 1", handler1);
 7   
 8   appPanel.add(firstButton);
 9   app.add(appPanel);
10   
11   SpreadsheetApp.getActive().show(app);
12   
13 }
14 
15 function handlerFunction1(e){
16   
17   var app=UiApp.getActiveApplication();
18   
19   var appPanel2=app.createVerticalPanel().setId("appPanel2").setStyleAttribute("zIndex", 0).setStyleAttribute("position", "fixed");
20   var handler2=app.createServerHandler("handlerFunction2").addCallbackElement(appPanel2);
21   var secondButton=app.createButton("Button 2", handler2);
22   var label=app.createLabel("This should get visible after the click").setId("label").setVisible(false);
23   
24   appPanel2.add(secondButton).add(label);
25   app.add(appPanel2);
26   
27   return app;
28   
29   
30 }
31 
32 function handlerFunction2(e){
33   
34   var app=UiApp.getActiveApplication();
35   
36   app.getElementById("label").setVisible(true);
37   
38   return app;
39   
40 }

Now If You would copy-paste this to Your Apps Script editor it would work like a charm, however if You would make it a library and call it like this:

 

1 function notWorking(){
2   
3  
4   Error.notWorkingGUI()
5   
6   
7 }

Only the first button click would be recognized, when clicking the second button the unknown macro error would be thrown.

Now, I could not find a solution anywhere so I “invented” my own,. I do not recommend it, but if this bug is not fixed an You really really need to have something like the code above (that is a handler created as a response to a handler) You can do it like this:

 1 function workingGUI(){
 2   
 3   //previous first part
 4   var app=UiApp.createApplication();
 5   var appPanel=app.createVerticalPanel().setId("appPanel");
 6   var handler1=app.createServerHandler("handlerFunction1a").addCallbackElement(appPanel);
 7   var firstButton=app.createButton("Button 1", handler1);
 8   
 9   
10   //previous second part
11   var appPanel2=app.createVerticalPanel().setId("appPanel2").setStyleAttribute("zIndex", 0).setStyleAttribute("position", "fixed");
12   var handler2=app.createServerHandler("handlerFunction2a").addCallbackElement(appPanel2);
13   var secondButton=app.createButton("Button 2", handler2).setId("button2");
14   
15   
16   appPanel.add(firstButton);
17   app.add(appPanel);
18   
19   SpreadsheetApp.getActive().show(app);
20   
21 }
22 
23 function handlerFunction1a(e){
24   
25   var app=UiApp.getActiveApplication();
26   
27   
28  
29   var label=app.createLabel("This should get visible after the click").setId("label").setVisible(false);
30   
31   app.getElementById("appPanel2").add(app.getElementById("button2")).add(label);
32   app.add(app.getElementById("appPanel2"));
33   
34   return app;
35   
36   
37 }
38 
39 function handlerFunction2a(e){
40   
41   var app=UiApp.getActiveApplication();
42   
43   app.getElementById("label").setVisible(true);
44   
45   return app;
46   
47 }
48 
49 

Again I do not recommend this but it works. Also before You go ahead and try solving it with a class (OOP) I tried Apps will not recognize a handler if it is part of the same class the GUI code is in. I also tried with making two classes, one which would have the code for the GUI and another with all the handlers, was a dead end.

 

Cheers,