Google Apps Script to send emails when an new Google Site Announcement is made (In response to https://plus.google.com/109310290306060614500/posts/JYMPQ2mLuEt )

gistfile1.js

/*
1. Set two variables below
2. Run > setup (twice, once to authenticate the script, second to actually run
3. Rescources > Current project trigger's and then click 'No triggers set up. Click here to add one now.'
You can accept the defaults to run emailAnnouncements() every hour
*/


var url_of_announcements_page = "https://sites.google.com/site/appsscripttemplates/home/announcetest"; // where your site page is
var who_to_email = "[email protected]" // who to send to (it can be a comma seperated list) 

function emailAnnouncements(){
  var page = SitesApp.getPageByUrl(url_of_announcements_page); // returns a page object
  if(page.getPageType() == SitesApp.PageType.ANNOUNCEMENTS_PAGE){ // test if page object is announcement page
    // get the last 10 announcements 
    var announcements = page.getAnnouncements({ start: 0,
                                               max: 10,
                                               includeDrafts: false,
                                               includeDeleted: false});
    announcements.reverse(); // reverse the result order so oldest first                                          
    for(var i in announcements) { // loop the individual announcements
      var ann = announcements[i]; // just creating a little shortcut
      var updated = ann.getLastUpdated().getTime(); // get when updated
      if (updated > ScriptProperties.getProperty('last-update')){ // if greater than last update send email
        var options = {}; // options used in MailApp
        // create html body of the email using an announcement
        options.htmlBody = Utilities.formatString("<h1><a href='%s'>%s</a></h1>%s", ann.getUrl(), ann.getTitle(), ann.getHtmlContent());
        // send the email
        MailApp.sendEmail(who_to_email, "Announcement "+ann.getTitle(), ann.getTextContent()+"\n\n"+ann.getUrl(), options);
        // update the last email sent
        ScriptProperties.setProperty('last-update',updated);
      }
    }
  }
}

function setup(){
  ScriptProperties.setProperty('last-update',new Date().getTime());
}

Thanks for posting this gist! Very useful =)

very useful! thank you.

This has been working great for a long time, but now I am getting theses daily:

emailAnnouncements  Invalid argument: url (line 13, file "Code")

The url am is using seems to work just fine...!

Thanks,
John

ScriptProperties API is deprecated.
File: Code Line: 24
The API has been marked as deprecated which means that the feature should be avoided and may be removed in the future. Consider using an alternative solution.

Hello Martin

Seems to be a great script to use. Thanks for Sharing

I set 2 variables (url and mail to address) Ran the setup function twice
Then tried to run the emailAnnouncements function and got this error ( I am unable to send a screenshot.
I am facing this trouble
Invalid argument: url (line 13, file "Code")

i am a new user. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

Saajan M

I seem to have overcome the problem. The issue was due to multiple gmail account being logged in , the script got into one account while I was trying to run it from another system. But after running the function without errors. I am still not getting emails. Does it mean It will do so only after an hour? Is this normal?

If you have any issues with an email not sending when it should, I recommend that you reset the permissions. I had this issue with this code after a while and I was able to fix it by removing the permissions given and then giving them back again.

Hope this helps anybody that would have the same issue.

Hi, this code it great and I've modded it already to suit my needs. However, I am struggling to change it so that the email sent does not include the body of the announcement. Any help on this would be much appreciated.