How to create a web form to get data from Google Sheets

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How to create a web form to get data from Google Sheets

In previous tutorials, we talked about building web apps to interact with Google Sheets using Google Apps Script. When you build those types of web apps, you may need to implement a search field to get data from Google Sheets back.

This tutorial will show you how you can create a web form to search and get data from Google Sheets. You can share this web form with others and let them search for data in your Google Sheet.

This is also useful when you want to share a part of your Google Sheets without giving access to your entire Spreadsheet. In such cases, you can create user-friendly web pages to share your Google Sheets data using this method.

There are two methods that you can follow to work with Google Apps Script. The first is Container-bound Scripts, and the second is Standalone Scripts. Here I am using the second, so it does not bound the script to the Google Sheet.

Live demo

You can access the live web form and the Google Sheet used in this tutorial from the following links.

Form ink

Go to Live Form

Google Sheets1

Go to Google sheet
(Data Source)

How to create this web form to get data from Google Sheets

Step 01 – Prepare your Google Sheet

For this tutorial, you can either use your own data sheet (A Google Sheet) or you can make a copy of the Google Sheet used in this tutorial from the following link. You can also use the Spreadsheet ID of this Google Sheet, even without copying it to your Google Drive.

Google Sheets1

Link to Google Sheet

Step 02 – Make a copy of the Google Apps Script file

You can make a copy of the Google Apps Script file to your drive from the following link.

Google Apps Script Logo ink

Link to Apps Script

The above Google Apps Script file contains the following two files. Here I am not going to explain the code line by line. Instead, I will briefly explain the purpose of each file and function below.

  1. Index.html
  2. Code.gs

Important ! : If you are creating the project with new Google Apps Script (instead of making a copy of the Apps Script project given above), you need to enable Google Sheets API Service for your project.

To add Google Sheets Service,

  • Click the + icon in the Services tab,
  • Select Google Sheets API from the list in the Add a service popup box.
  • Then, click Add.

1. Index.html file

This file includes the HTML code for the search form and required JavaScript files and functions. Here I am using Bootstrap for styling the form and table. You can see included the Bootstrap related files in, lines 5,6, and 7.

The search form is from lines 89 to 97. Once you hit the search button, it will execute the handleFormSubmit JavaScript function (in, line 24). This function gets the relevant search results from the server (explain below) and passes them to the createTable function (line 30).

In the createTable function, lines from 35 to 59 are the column headers of the result table. You should write this in the same order as in your Google Sheet. The dataArray variable contains the search results received from handleFormSubmit function. The createTable function creates the table from the values in the dataArray variable and print the results inside <div id="search-results"> in line 106.

2. Code.gs file

This file contains the server-side script. The above mentioned function handleFormSubmit in the Index.html file passes the formObject to the processForm function in this Code.gs file.

If the formObject contain searchtext, it passes to the search function.

In the search function, replace the spreadhseetId and the dataRange as per your Google Sheet and data range.

The search function looks for matching contents in the Google Sheet and returns an array of rows back to the processForm function. It returns the results back to the handleFormSubmit function in the Index.html file.

Step 03 – Publish as a web app

Once you have done all the coding, you can get a URL to this web app by deploying it as a web app. To do that,

  1. Go to Google Apps Script file
  2. Then go to “Publish” and select “Deploy as web app…“
  3. For “Execute the app as“; field select your email.
  4. Under “Who has access to the app“: option select “Anyone“
  5. Click “Update“
  6. Copy the URL in the next window and paste in the browser to access the form.

Wrapping Up

With Google Apps Script, you can build various types of web apps for free. When building those web apps you may need to build a search option to get data from Google Sheets to the web app.

This tutorial explained to you how to create a basic search form in your web app to retrieve data from Google Sheets.

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71 thoughts on “How to create a web form to get data from Google Sheets”

  1. Thank you very much for your script,
    But I need a little modification
    In my case when i search an Id there will be only one search result (No duplicate rows) so i want that row to be displayed in horizontal (downwards) manner without showing it vertically

    Reply

  2. This works amazing. Can you help me? What code would I change/add to add a 2nd table/sheet so both tables are controlled by the same search? Thank you 🙂

    Ps: With you existing code there is a small error. “Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property ‘fn’ of undefined” This can be fixed by loading JQyery before bootstrap.

    Reply

  3. Dear Admin,
    Thank you for this post.
    I just copy your code any paste, but after exeqution i have a white page, i can’t find the reason.
    please, help me 🙂

    Reply

  4. Why am I following the above method by copying the google sheets?
    And changed spreadsheetId according to the method, but when searching, if you do not enter any data, it will show Data not found, but if you enter data Press search and nothing happens.

    Reply

  5. Thanks so much for the very useful script! very beautifull! One question! … What if I have to search multiple sheets within single spreadsheets? thank you very much in advance for the answers

    Reply

  8. Hi Good Day,
    First and foremost. Thank you for this!
    Excellent script.

    i have data user aand password in sheet
    Can we tweak it, so that it will be able to search for user and password in spreadsheet?
    so it have 2 input field user and password, will diplay data at same user and pass inputed?

    Reply

  9. Thank you for sharing such useful code. It will help with my project a lot. However, I encounter a problem. When I click ‘search’ the page is not showing. Just blank. As if part of the code is not executing well. What do I need to look out for?

    Reply

  13. Thanks Hassan Mubin. However I am still unable to get it aftter several attempts. Any other help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

    Reply

  15. Thank you admin for this post. I find it very useful. I am having problem in putting a dropdown list in the search box. A dropdown list that draws options from the spreadsheet. This functionality would make the form more efficient. I hope to get some guidance on this. Thank you in advance.

    Reply

  16. We have this ERROR : TypeError: Cannot read property ‘searchtext’ of undefined (line 9, file “Code”) — Just copy your code any paste, i can not find the reason. please help

    Reply

  17. Hi Good Day,
    First and foremost. Thank you for this!
    Excellent script.

    Can we tweak it, so that it will be able to search for everything?
    i.e Source in google sheet is “Alexis Sanchez”; currently, im only able to search if i type it in as “Alexis Sanchez” in the search button.
    Can it be tweaked with wildcards so that if i just type in “Alexis”, everything named Alexis should appear?

    //SEARCH FOR MATCHED CONTENTS
    function search(searchtext){
    var spreadsheetId = ‘SheetName’; //** CHANGE !!!
    var dataRage = ‘Data!A2:R’; //** CHANGE !!!
    var data = Sheets.Spreadsheets.Values.get(spreadsheetId, dataRage).values;
    var ar = [];

    data.forEach(function(f) {
    if (~f.indexOf(searchtext)) {
    ar.push(f);
    }
    });
    return ar;
    }

    Reply

    • Hi Mario,
      Try replacing,

       data.forEach(function(f) {
  if (~f.indexOf(searchtext)) {
   ar.push(f);
  }
 });

      With

      for(var i=0;i<data.length;i++){
  for(var j=0;j<data[i].length;j++){
   if(data[i][j].search(searchtext)!=-1){
    ar.push(data[i])
   }
  }
 }
      Reply

        • Dear Admin,
          Sorry to be a bother again. Im trying to make it not case sensitive now.

          I tried the following, but to no avail.
          if(data[i][j].toLowerCase().search(searchtext)!=-1){

          Thank you so much again.

        • Hi,

          Why don’t you convert both strings to the lower case like below.

          for(var i=0;i<data.length;i++){
    for(var j=0;j<data[i].length;j++){
      if(data[i][j].toLowerCase().search(searchtext.toLowerCase())!=-1){
        ar.push(data[i])
      }
    }
  }

        • After adding this code rows were duplicated if there was same text in different cells on the same row. Any way to make a row display once?

        • An example anyone can test is entering “10” in search. It will display duplicates as “10” appears in more than one column.

      • Hello dear Admin,
        Thank for this wonderful tutorial.
        I want to know, how can we do the search only for a column, for example: ORDERNUMBER
        Thank you.

        Reply

  18. We hope to make video and demonstrate line by line for this subject because I confuse I have some struble in matching with new sheet .

    I appreciate your effort ..

    Reply

  19. Hi

    I appreciate your great job on this topic.

    I face some trouble in coding

    I try to make same coding and I changed what you mention Like spreadsheetId and dataRage in code file and //Change table headings to match with the Google Sheet in HTML file

    when I published I get this massage

    (( ReferenceError: data is not defined (line 8, file “Code”) ))

    https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxRs4YNT0kobeJFBkLAk1PrtfphIJFt2_37nnWSnShZZDKPB_w/exec

    how can I solve this problem?

    thank you again

    Reply

    • Hi, Mohammad
      It’s difficult to answer without looking at the code.
      For the time being, check whether you are using an undefined variable called “data” in line 8 of your Code.gs file.

      Reply

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