Google-apps-script – Automatically create a calendar document using Google Drive and Google Apps Script

I've found no direct way of opening a created document through Google Apps Script (GAS), via GAS. There's however an indirect way, which is presented below. It uses an Anchor element to show a pre-formatted hyperlink.

Code

// global
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();

function onOpen() {
  var menu = [{name: "Create Document", functionName: "createDoc"}];
  ss.addMenu("Extra", menu);
}

function createDoc() {
  var sh = ss.getActiveSheet(), aRow = sh.getActiveCell().getRowIndex();
  var title = sh.getRange(aRow, 1).getValue(), docDate = new Date(); 
  var docTitle = title + "-" + docDate, doc = DocumentApp.create(docTitle);
  var url = doc.getUrl();

  // create app and panel
  var app = UiApp.createApplication().setTitle("Open Google Document")
    .setHeight(50).setWidth(400);
  var vPanel = app.createVerticalPanel()
    .add(app.createAnchor(docTitle, url));

  // add to app
  app.add(vPanel);
  ss.show(app);  
}

Screenshot

Remarks

This piece of code creates a new menu entry called "Extra" upon opening of the file. The selection "Create Document" will create (in the back gound) a Google Document and displays a panel with a hyperlink to open the document.

Example

I've created an example file for you: How To Open Document

At the time you asked this was probably quite difficult - the comments are accessible not within an Apps Script API, but through the Drive REST API (i.e. over HTTP, involving GET requests rather than simple functions as you were hoping for).

In either 2013 or 2014 (I'm not too sure) Google released libraries to connect to these APIs in Apps Script without all the fuss of authorising GET requests for trivial interactions with Google services ― ScriptApp.getOAuthToken, UrlFetchApp.getRequest,XmlService.parse, etc.

From the official docs:

To use an advanced Google service, follow these instructions:

• In the script editor, select Resources > Advanced Google services....
• In the dialog that appears, click the on/off switch next to the service you want to use.
• At the bottom of the dialog, click the link for the Google Developers Console.
• In the new console, again click the on/off switch next to the service you want to use.
• Return to the script editor and click OK in the dialog. The advanced service you enabled will now be available in autocomplete.

• Drive will now be a shortcut to the otherwise HTTP-accessed Drive API
  • no fiddling with OAuth, just Drive.{autocomplete suggestions appear}

Getting comments (Drive.Comments.list) is now a case of:

var comments_list = Drive.Comments.list(document_id).items;

The variable comments_list is an array, each of which has properties accessible to your script, such as for a text node:

• kind
• commentId
• htmlContent
• anchor
• author
• createdDate
• fileTitle
• status
• deleted
• modifiedDate
• content
• fileId
• replies

E.g. you could access the content property of the first comment with

var comment1 = comments_list.items[0].content;

I don't know how simple a setComments(comment, document_id) function would be, as for example note the anchor - that's a proprietary format, so (as far as I know) it's only presently possible to create unanchored comments.

Steven Bazyl (a Google developer), wrote on StackOverflow in 2012:

See https://developers.google.com/drive/manage-comments for details.

FWIW, anchors are a bit limited at the moment. The biggest issue is anchors on comments are immutable. If you end up using a custom scheme and can refer to something uniquely identifiable in your content (e.g. an XML element ID or some other marker) then you shouldn't have any issues. But some of the other anchor schemes detailed on the doc are problematic. For example anchoring to a line in a text file will break if the file is modified an a line is inserted before the anchor location. Until anchors are mutable, best to limit your self to custom schemes and/or unanchored comments.