Publish Doc Add-on to Marketplace

[Edward Ulle]

I know this is a very general question but, I've tried here before and and Stack Overflow but am not getting an answer.

I am a first time developer of a Google Doc Add-on that can perform calculations in Doc.  But I'm stuck on how to finish the packaging of the Add-on to make it ready for public installation.

Can someone point me to a forum that can help me finialize my package for publishing?

Thanks.

[Alan Wells]

Sorry to hear that you're not getting an answer. It's not easy to answer. I've attempted to put together some information, but things change and it's a lot of work to try to explain it, and there is no reward for the work.

I haven't published a new add-on in quite a while, so I'm not sure what the current details are.

I'll try to provide some info, but it's not going to be anywhere near a complete explanation.

The first issue is whether you want to make it an "editor" add-on, or a Workspace addon.

Are you using a sidebar and/or dialog box with HTML for user interaction? If so, it must be an editor add-on.

One of the biggest issues is the flow of events surrounding getting your Apps Script code reviewed and approved.

They will want to view your add-on, but unless it's published how do you provide them with access? It's a question that Google doesn't seem to have an answer for.

There are basically two major reviews of your add-on

1) The code review

2) Addon functionality

You need to create a new GCP project that is the basis of creating the published Marketplace listing for your addon.

I created a YouTube video about that, but it's two years old, uses the old code editor and is outdated. But it's only 12 minutes long and should give you some basic information.

https://youtu.be/vEDUt7aj15k

[Edward Ulle]

AJ,

You've gotten me further in 1 hour then I have in 2 weeks.  I do have HTML Service sidebar and dialog so that helps with the issue of editor addon or workgroup addon.

I watched your video and I need to study the GS Marketplace API a bit.

Thanks.

[Alan Wells]

Glad to know that it helped. The Marketplace has both an SDK and an API. You don't need the API. The SDK settings are all done through the user interface so there is no code to write. People often have issues with setting the scopes. The scopes need to be set in 3 different places and they need to all match.

1) Your appsscript.json file - (The manifest)

2) IAM authorization - (Not sure if I'm using the perfect terminology) This is for the list that the user sees to authorize the permissions.

3) Marketplace SDK - 

When I make the video to submit to Google to show the authorization of the scopes, I usually record the video from a Google account that is not the owner of the apps script file. For example, a free/consumer account. I don't want people to know my actual paid Workspace account user name.

The best video recording product I've found is:

https://www.flashbackrecorder.com/express/

You'll need an app icon with a transparent background which always causes me trouble. It might be worth just paying someone a few bucks to design something for you.

[Edward Ulle]

aj,  do you know of a good developers forum that I can join to discuss this subject more.  This forum and stack overflow are not cutting it.

[Alan Wells]

No. I don't know of a forum that might provide better information.

[Brett Grear]

What stage are you getting stuck on exactly?

I have published a few editor add-ons and reading through Google's documentation made the process fairly simple and straight forward to me.

That said, I usually have to fix a couple things during the verification stage before they accept it.  But that's due to my own laziness and overlooking simple things.

[Edward Ulle]

My problems are:

1) My App script code is in a library. During testing I have a text Doc with a script to add to the menu bar and a script wrapper to call a the library.  How do I move all this to the library for an Editor add on.

For example to show the side bar and run an HTML Service request google.script.run.runCalcPadRequest(request), which I can't seem to do from an add-on.

function showSideBar() {

  try { 

     return CalcPad.showSiddeBar();

  } catch(err) {

     throw "\Error in CalcPad.showSideBar: "+err; 

  }

}

function runCalcPadRequest(request) {

  try {

    return CalcPad.runCalcPadRequest(request);

  }

  catch(err) {

     throw "\Error in CalcPad.runCalcPadRequest: "+err; 

[Brett Grear]

I think I see the problem.

You aren't looking to publish the library as an add-on. You need to publish the script within the test Doc as an add-on. The code that includes the sidebar interface. This sidebar script would then call the library and complete the logic. You may find it easier to copy the library code into the test Doc script file as making calls to libraries can be slow.