Create Google Tasks by sending email to Google GMail
Goals:
- Send email to a specified address - in this case to Gmail address named yourgmail+task@gmail.com. (If Gmail ID is ittichai, the email address to send to will be ittichai+task@gmail.com.) Read more about the hidden feature with Gmail - http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/2-hidden-ways-to-get-more-from-your.html
- Script will parse that email based on a Gmail label assigned by filter, and grab the email's subject to create a new Google task.
This is just an overview of what happens:
- Create Gmail new labels - newtask and newtaskdone.
- Create a Gmail filter to apply "newtask" label to all incoming yourgmail+task@gmail.com.
- Create script from Google Spreadsheet. Make sure that the name of the task list in TASKLIST variable is changed to yours.
- Integrate the script with Google API.
- Schedule it via the time-driven even trigger.
Pay attention to the *Integrate the script with Google API* in the *Script Code* section especially if this is your first time coding this. You will have to enable Google API service to allow access the Task API - https://developers.google.com/apps-script/articles/google_apis_reading_list. If not doing so, you will receive an error message saying "Tasks - not defined" when running the script.
In addition to above sample, I'd like to add the email's body into the G! task's note.
Here is what I do:
- Add a new variable to grab the email's body
// Grab the task data // This email's subject will be task's title. var taskTitle = thread.getFirstMessageSubject(); // This email's body will be task's body. Most email message now is HTML-based. // It is desirable to remove all HTML tags so that only actual content will be populated. // Use a custom function getTextFromHtml to strip out all HTML tags. // In addition, the string size will be limited to 3000 characters in case an email is very long. var taskNote = getTextFromHtml((thread.getMessages()[0]).getBody()).substring(0,3000);
Most email message now is HTML-based. Without stripping out the HTML tags, the task's note will be populated with many useless tags. I use functions mentioned on this web site http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8936092/remove-formatting-tags-from-string-body-of-email to get only text message. Basically, add these two functions in the script.
function getTextFromHtml(html) { return getTextFromNode(Xml.parse(html, true).getElement()); } function getTextFromNode(x) { switch(x.toString()) { case 'XmlText': return x.toXmlString(); case 'XmlElement': return x.getNodes().map(getTextFromNode).join(''); default: return ''; } }
- Add new parameter of task's note to addTask_
// Insert the task //addTask_(taskTitle, TASKLIST); addTask_(taskTitle, taskNote, TASKLIST);
- Update the addTask_ to include setNotes
Thanks Bernard Goldberger (http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=204142846) for updating script to fix some recent setNotes issue by separating setTitle and setNotes into separate lines.
function addTask_(title, message, tasklistId) { //var newTask = Tasks.newTask().setTitle(title); //var newTask = Tasks.newTask().setTitle(title).setNotes(message); // 2013-06 Failed at setNotes var newTask = Tasks.newTask(); newTask.setTitle(title); newTask.setNotes(message); Tasks.Tasks.insert(newTask, getTasklistId_(tasklistId)); }
This is the whole modified script.
// Original Source: http://www.pipetree.com/qmacro/blog/2011/10/automated-email-to-task-mechanism-with-google-apps-script/ // ----------------------------------------------------- // Globals, contants // ----------------------------------------------------- TASKLIST = "Ittichai's list"; LABEL_PENDING = "newtask"; LABEL_DONE = "newtaskdone"; // ----------------------------------------------------- // getTasklistId_(tasklistName) // Returns the id of the tasklist specified // Oddly, we should be able to use: // Tasks.Tasklists.get(tasklistName) // but it always gives an error "Invalid Value". // ----------------------------------------------------- function getTasklistId_(tasklistName) { var tasklistsList = Tasks.Tasklists.list(); var taskLists = tasklistsList.getItems(); for (tl in taskLists) { var title = taskLists[tl].getTitle(); if (title == tasklistName) { return taskLists[tl].getId(); } } } // ----------------------------------------------------- // processPending(sheet) // Process any pending emails and then move them to done // ----------------------------------------------------- function processPending_(sheet) { var label_pending = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(LABEL_PENDING); var label_done = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(LABEL_DONE); // The threads currently assigned to the 'pending' label var threads = label_pending.getThreads(); // Process each one in turn, assuming there's only a single // message in each thread for (var t in threads) { var thread = threads[t]; // Grab the task data // This email's subject will be task's title. var taskTitle = thread.getFirstMessageSubject(); // This email's body will be task's body. Most email message now is HTML-based. // It is desirable to remove all HTML tags so that only actual content will be populated. // Use a custom function getTextFromHtml to strip out all HTML tags. // In addition, the string size will be limited to 3000 characters in case an email is very long. var taskNote = getTextFromHtml((thread.getMessages()[0]).getBody()).substring(0,3000); // Insert the task //addTask_(taskTitle, TASKLIST); addTask_(taskTitle, taskNote, TASKLIST); // Set to 'done' by exchanging labels thread.removeLabel(label_pending); thread.addLabel(label_done); } // Increment the processed tasks count var processedRange = sheet.getRange("B1"); processedRange.setValue(processedRange.getValue() + threads.length) } // ----------------------------------------------------- // addTask_(title, taskListId) // Create new task and insert into given tasklist // ----------------------------------------------------- function addTask_(title, message, tasklistId) { //var newTask = Tasks.newTask().setTitle(title); var newTask = Tasks.newTask(); newTask.setTitle(title); newTask.setNotes(message); Tasks.Tasks.insert(newTask, getTasklistId_(tasklistId)); } // ----------------------------------------------------- // main() // Starter function; to be scheduled regularly // ----------------------------------------------------- function main_taskconverter() { // Get the active spreadsheet and make sure the first // sheet is the active one var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet(); var sh = ss.setActiveSheet(ss.getSheets()[0]); // Process the pending task emails processPending_(sh); } // Strip out all HTML tags. // Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8936092/remove-formatting-tags-from-string-body-of-email function getTextFromHtml(html) { return getTextFromNode(Xml.parse(html, true).getElement()); } function getTextFromNode(x) { switch(x.toString()) { case 'XmlText': return x.toXmlString(); case 'XmlElement': return x.getNodes().map(getTextFromNode).join(''); default: return ''; } }