Polyfill for Apps Script properties service for the Office JavaScript API

In Google Apps Script there are 3 PropertiesServices. Document, User and Script. Office doesn’t have a direct equivalent, but we can create something for the Document and Script/User properties fairly easily. It’s not as good, but it’s a start.

Page Content hide
1 PropertiesService.getDocumentProperties
2 PropertiesService.getUserProperties
3 Promises
4 The code

 

PropertiesService.getDocumentProperties

Each Office document can have some properties stored alongside them. This is pretty much directly equivalent to the DocumentProperties service (except it would be visible to multiple scripts accessing the same document). The polyfill below sets up a PropertiesService namespace, and can be used just like Apps Script. For example

PropertiesService.getDocumentProperties().setProperty(key, value);

 

PropertiesService.getUserProperties

Behind the scenes, it uses localstorage for UserProperties (it would only be visible if using the same machine).   You can use it just like from Apps Script.

PropertiesService.getUserProperties().setProperty(key, value);

 

Promises

The DocumentProperties service is asynchronous for writing or removing, and return Promises. Not something we need to worry about in Apps Script – so if you want to check for errors, or you need the operation to have finished before continuing .. you can do this
 
 
PropertiesService.getDocumentProperties().setProperty(key,value)
.then(function(result) {
  /// it definitely worked....
})
.catch(function(err) {
 // it failed...
});
 
The get method is synchronous, so this is just fine.
var value = PropertiesService.getDocumentProperties().getProperty (key);
 
The UserProperties service methods are all synchronous.
 

The code

/**  polyfill for Apps Script Properties service
* only does user and document properties
* @namespace PropertiesService
*/
var PropertiesService = (function (ps) {
    // uses for document properties
    ps.getDocumentProperties = function () {
        return {
            setProperty: function (key, value) {
                Office.context.document.settings.set(key, value);
                return ps.flushDocumentProperties();
            },
            getProperty: function (key) {
                return Office.context.document.settings.get(key);
            },
            deleteProperty: function (key) {
                Office.context.document.settings.remove(key);
                return ps.flushDocumentProperties();
            }
        }
    };
    // the settings only write to in memory copy
    // need to write async to doc for permamnence
    ps.flushDocumentProperties = function () {
        return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
            Office.context.document.settings.saveAsync(function (asyncResult) {
                if (asyncResult.status === Office.AsyncResultStatus.Failed) {
                    reject(asyncResult);
                }
                else {
                    resolve(asyncResult); 
                }
            });
        });
    }
    // uses for user properties
    ps.getUserProperties = function () {
        return {
            setProperty: function (key, value) {
                return localStorage.setItem(key, value);
            },
            getProperty: function (key) {
                return localStorage.getItem(key);
            },
            deleteProperty: function (key) {
                return localStorage.removeItem(key);
            }
        }
    };
    return ps;
})(PropertiesService || {});
 
The code for this on Github.