Google Apps Script oAuth onOpen authorization

Question

I'm using a Google spreadsheet as a template that is copied at form submission. This spreadsheet has several custom functions.

I've run into two problems on spreadsheets copied from the template:

1. A custom menu function that allows the user to create a PDF of the active sheet cannot be authorized from the front end -- it simply hangs. It appears oAuth authorization can only occur from the code editor, which I can't expect users to do.

2. Users will click a custom menu function, get the authorization dialog, authorize, then forget to click again to run the function.

Is there a way to have users authorize all functions, including oAuth (for PDF creation), as soon as they open the sheet?

Answer 1

Just in case someone else happens upon this, I think I found my answer:

It appears that functions using oAuth can't be authorized from the front-end. It also appears that Google has no intention of making it available in the future unless you want to write your own authorization flow. I, for one, do not.

I did, however, find a work-around. By including the functions that need authorization in a library and including that library in your script, users only need to authorize a function once, no matter how many spreadsheets call the function.

There are only 12 users in my organization, so I got off easy on this one -- I can go to each of their computers and authorize the functions in the library once, and that's that.

Hope this helps someone!