"Cannot call SpreadsheetApp.getUi() from this context" error while not using getUi() on time-based trigger

Question

I am trying to run a function every night that checks a list of dates and does work if it finds that a date has passed and all the checkboxes on that row are checked. Every day, though, I get an email saying

"Cannot call SpreadsheetApp.getUi() from this context. (line 172, file "Code")".

The weird thing is that I don't use getUi() anywhere in my CheckHireDates function and the line that it specifies is not even in the function that is supposed to run. Line 172 is in my onEdit function which also doesn't use getUi(). Can anybody help me understand why I'm getting this error?

I did use getUi in my onOpen function, so I commented it out when I started having this problem but it still didn't fix anything.

function CheckHireDates() {
var spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
var PaycomSheet = spreadsheet.getSheetByName('Paycom');
var TechSheet = spreadsheet.getSheetByName("Tech Key");
var SoftwareTracker = spreadsheet.getSheetByName('Software Tracking');
var range = "R2:R";
var Hvals = PaycomSheet.getRange("H2:H").getValues();
var Hlast = Hvals.filter(String).length;
var data = PaycomSheet.getRange(range).getValues();
var today = new Date().toLocaleDateString();
for(var i = 0; i < Hlast;i++)
{
    Hvals[i].toLocaleString();
    if(Hvals[i] <= today && (PaycomSheet.getRange('R' + (i+2)).getValue() == true))
    {
        var fullName = PaycomSheet.getRange('D' + (i+2)).getValue();
        var techRow = findMatchingRow(fullName, "Tech Key");  
        var softwareRow = findMatchingRow(fullName, "Software Tracking");
        var position = PaycomSheet.getRange('G' + (i+2)).getValue();
        TechSheet.getRange('E' + techRow).setValue(1);
        SoftwareTracker.getRange('G' + softwareRow).setValue(1);
        if (position == "Pre-Employment, Initial") 
        {
            position = "Initial";
        }
        else if (position == "Pre-Employment, Ace") 
        {
            position = "Route";
        }
        else if (position == "Pre-Employment, Expert") 
        {
            position = "Route";
        }
        else
        {
            Logger.log("Position not known");
        }
        TechSheet.getRange('G' + techRow).setValue(position);
        SoftwareTracker.getRange('D' + softwareRow).setValue(position);
        SoftwareTracker.getRange('H' + softwareRow + ':M' + softwareRow).setValue(2);
        if (position !== "Initial") 
        {
            SoftwareTracker.getRange('N' + softwareRow).setValue(2);
        }  
    }
}

}

Quoll42 Quoll42 · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-14T01:37:40

I had that problem and found it involved another google script in the project set up by a different user. The error message had a mixture of details from my script and the other script:

myFunctionName Cannot call SpreadsheetApp.getUi() from this context. (line 2, file "OtherScript")

Line 2 of the other script did use getUi()

var app = SpreadsheetApp.getUi();

It seemed that when my script ran (triggered by onChange event) then the other script would also get run (maybe also triggered by a change event). The other script set up some UI elements, some simple menus. Normally that caused no problem. However, SpreadsheetApp.getUi() only works in the context of there being a current instance of an open editor (see https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/base/ui). So if a change event happened without an open editor then it fails, causing the error.

I resolved the problem by slightly modifying the other script to catch the problem:

try {
  app = SpreadsheetApp.getUi();
} catch (error) {}
if (app != null) {
  //Use app...
}

A different approach that might also have worked is to speak with the person and how their script was triggered, and see if they'd change it to trigger by onOpen event that just occurs when someone opens a spreadsheet and hence there is a Ui context.

So, I think your problem would be coming from SpreadsheetApp.getUi() in a different script in the project. See if the error message mentions a different file, like mine did. When your script runs in the night, there would be no context, which explains why the error occurs at that time.

"Cannot call SpreadsheetApp.getUi() from this context" error while not using getUi() on time-based trigger

1 Answers