CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptgoogle-sheets-api
rt_
rt_

Reputation: 1195

How to insert the current date time into a google sheet, respecting the sheet's timezone, using sheets api v4?

I've been trying to insert the current date time into a google sheet from sheets api v4 for hours now. I can't believe how difficult this is to figure out!

So far I've found that:

Js date object won't work as google sheets uses a different epoch (one that apparently changes depending on mac vs win). I have been unable to find any library that can create this google sheets/excel date serial number. If I could that might work.

If I format the Js date object as a string and send it to the sheet, the timezone is incorrect due to server location (where sheets api is running) vs user location (where the sheet is being used).

I considered converting the Js Date object to the user's timezone but google sheets doesn't spit out a GMT or UTC value it uses CLDR. So far I haven't found anyway to use that information to convert the timezone.

The time zone of the spreadsheet, in CLDR format such as America/New_York. If the time zone isn't recognized, this may be a custom time zone such as GMT-07:00.

If I send the cell updateRequest using =NOW() as the value the date time is correct. But it updates every time the spreadsheet is edited ... which is unusable as a timestamp for a row submission. Wish you could turn that off!

So in summary, I would like to let google sheets create the date since it knows about the timezone of the user. Surely there is a way to just enter a date with sheets api that respects the users timezone right?? If not what are my options?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2090

Answers (1)

rt_
rt_

Reputation: 1195

After more searching around I found out that moment-timezone can use the CLDR time zone format to give a correct date string.

So I've gone with this method, converting the date time object to the sheets user's time zone and then sending the data to the sheet.

Here's how I did it, (i've abstracted away all the auth, jwt, spreadsheetId parts):

const moment = require('moment-timezone');
const {google} = require('googleapis');
const sheets = google.sheets('v4');
const getSpreadsheetProperties = (jwt, sheets,spreadsheetId) => {
    try{
      var request = {
        spreadsheetId: spreadsheetId,
        ranges: [],
        includeGridData: false,
        auth: jwt,
      };
      return new Promise ((resolve, reject) => {
          sheets.spreadsheets.get(request, (err, response) => {
            if (err) {
              console.error('getSpreadsheetProperties - error', err);
              reject(false)
            }
            console.log('getSpreadsheetProperties - response', response)
            resolve(response)
          });        
      })
    } catch(error) {
        console.error('getSpreadsheetProperties - error', error)
        return error
    }
}
const getSheetProperties = (spreadsheetProperties) => {
    return spreadsheetProperties.data.sheets
}
const getTimeZone = (spreadsheetProperties) => {
    return spreadsheetProperties.data.properties.timeZone
}

const getDate = (timeZone) => {
    const date = moment.tz(timeZone).format('DD-MM-YY, h:mm A')
    return date
}

const ssProps = await getSpreadsheetProperties(jwt, sheets,spreadsheetId)
const timeZone = getTimeZone(ssProps)
const date = getDate(timeZone)

Hopefully this will help others not waste hours of their life.

Upvotes: 2

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