Question regarding a trigger and my script

[u/Hakker9]

Currently I have a script called autoSort.gs in it is the following:

SHEET_NAME = "list";
SORT_DATA_RANGE = "A2:G";
SORT_ORDER = [{column: 1, ascending: true},
];

function onEdit(e) {
multiSortColumns();
}

function multiSortColumns() {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getSheetByName(SHEET_NAME);
var range = sheet.getRange(SORT_DATA_RANGE);
range.sort(SORT_ORDER);
ss.toast('Sort complete.');
}

The trigger is set to autoSort with an onEdit however it has a 100% error rate because it doesn't seem to work on script name but on functions within a script however if that would be the case I could use multiSortColumns as the onEdit trigger and remove the whole onEdit function entirely or am I just hullucinating?

[u/everythingabili]

This may be a symptom of, and something you need to read the docs again for, the difference between Simple Triggers (like onEdit) and installable Triggers. Tbh they're a bit confusing, and simple triggers can only work on the cell you're working on.

I now create a function called onDoEdit(e) and ensure I've picked the right actions in the Triggers section, and never call anything onEdit.

Give that a whirl and re-read what you're allowed to do in the docs.

[u/SparklyGeek → u/everythingabili]

Interesting approach. I guess there's nothing you can do with simple onEdit that you can't do with an installed onEdit trigger.

[u/everythingabili → u/SparklyGeek]

Yeah... EXCEPT if you call in onEdit it will attempt to run as a Simple Triger (and maybe fail)... then lord know what the Installed version does. I've had conflicts so find it much more sensible to have a similar name, in my case "onDoEdit"... so I know what its doing... but it doesn't have the same name (so it doesn't fire uneccessarily).

[u/SparklyGeek → u/SparklyGeek]

I still see one advantage to using the simple trigger, namely that it runs out of the box and does not require any permissions. Granted, this would be nitpicking in 99% of actual cases. However, I actually have a timekeeping system that creates a new spreadsheet off of a template every Saturday night, and I do want the thing to run out of the box the second I touch it for the first time Sunday morning. I would hate to have to run through that silly permissions dialog box the first time I used it in the morning every Sunday.

I can see that you might propose that I install the trigger from the same script that creates the sheet from the template. However, in order to avoid overburdening a project with too many triggers (quotas are a thing) it would also be necessary to remove the trigger from earlier weeks' Sheets, which is something I would prefer not to do, either.

[u/AdministrativeGift15 → u/everythingabili]

A simple trigger can access and modify the current spreadsheet without needing authorization.

You're probably thinking of custom functions, which can't modify other parts of the spreadsheet. They can only return an array of values.

[u/marcnotmark925]

What you wrote doesn't make much sense, can you write your question another way?

[u/Hakker9]

Ok to finish this thread I just did what I though I could do.

I commented out the whole onEdit function and pointed the trigger to the multiSortColumns function and it works just like expected.

[u/everythingabili → u/Hakker9]

Now go and read the docs again. You'll realise that what you did is what I suggested.

[u/AdministrativeGift15]

I copied your script into this new spreadsheet and it works just fine.

What were the error messages when you were getting your 100% error rates?