find and select a cell based on URL in google sheets

Question

I made a simple sheet based database for chemicals using google sheets. The sheet looks like this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vR0-AMEKNM3ZbDq67OIKWnc7E3KP8kfOsnr0Bjg2OSjpevLLjniknGXfIiiyZvbwE9bz3EfbOpO46ef/pubhtml?gid=292509613&single=true

There are many rows and columns. A user can change a value of a cell using a url link something like this https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13sLioJr_T6lqQ7y_pStBR8CKxReYwLUn4hao/edit#gid=292509613&range=B2

the link is converted to a QR code, which is used by someone who need to remotely change the value of the cell from phone, without searching for a specific chemical manually

The problems start when someone introduces a new row, and then location of each cell is changed, now all the url (i.e printed QR codes) select wrong chemicals. Now all the urls are wrong, and I have to manually fix this and move the new row to the bottom of the table

Ideally I would want select a cell with a query based on the chemical's ID (in this case cp1000) something like (in pseudocode) docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13sLioJr..../edit#gid=292509613&range=(select cell B(row_number) where cell A contains(cp1000))

An example of sucessful outcome will be selection of cell in column B based on column A

in pseudocode:

 cell = Cell()
 id = query.exctract_id()
 for n in range(1,max_row):
    if cell(column_number = 'A', row_number = n).value == id:
        select cell(column_number ='B', row_number = n)
        break

is there anyway to write it in a URL? Big thanks in advance

Answer 1

Thanks for you suggestion. I indeed ended up by making a simple 1 page webapp. JS is actually surprisingly easy to learn. I use somewhat a weird way to pass variables from doGet() function, by storing them in a spreadsheet, since can return only html output with the function.

function doGet(e){
  var url = "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13sLioJr_T6lRODrvGSqQ7y_pStBR8CKxReYwLUn4hao/edit#gid=0";
  var [ID, chemical, totalAmount, name, targetRow, unit] = fill(e);
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(url).getSheetByName("Supplementary");
  ss.getRange("B5").setValue(ID);
  ss.getRange("B6").setValue(name);
  ss.getRange("B7").setValue(targetRow);
  ss.getRange("B8").setValue(Session.getActiveUser().getEmail());
  Logger.log(ID);
  var data = {ID:ID, chemical :chemical, totalAmount :totalAmount, unit :unit};
   var html = HtmlService
      .createTemplateFromFile('FrontEnd.html')
      .evaluate()
      .getContent();
   return HtmlService
     .createTemplate(html +    
       "<script>\n" + 
        "postChemicals( " +
        JSON.stringify(data) +
        ");\n</script>")
        .evaluate();
}
//  


function fill(e){
  // this function extracts event parameters and gets a cell from spreadsheet with query from URL
  // where name equals to spreadsheet name and ID to the chemical ID generated by "Code.gs"
  var url = "<post your url>";
    var ID = e.parameter.ID;
    var name = e.parameter.name;
  var targetRow =getCell(ID,name);
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(url).getSheetByName(name);
  var chemical = sheet.getRange("B"+targetRow).getValue()
  var totalAmount = sheet.getRange("D"+targetRow).getValue()- 
  sheet.getRange("C"+targetRow).getValue();
  var takenCell = sheet.getRange("C"+targetRow);
  var unit = sheet.getRange("E"+targetRow).getValue();
  Logger.log("fill(e) called");
  return [ID, chemical, totalAmount,name, targetRow, unit ]
}

function getCell(chemNo, name){
  var url = "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13sLioJr_T6lRODrvGSqQ7y_pStBR8CKxReYwLUn4hao/edit#gid=0";
 // this is a function that searches for a cell
  //get the first sheet of your 
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(url).getSheetByName(name);
  var lastRow = sheet.getLastRow();
  var range = sheet.getRange('A1:A' + lastRow).getValues();

  for(var i = 0; i < lastRow; i++){
    if(range[i] == chemNo){
      return  (i + 1);
    }
  }

Answer 2

Answer:

You can build a web-app which redirects to the cell you need based on the outcome of a conditional statement.

Details:

You can set each of the QR codes to contain the chemical ID as a URL parameter and then load the sheet based on what the parameter is:

Example Web-App URL:

https://script.google.com/a/google.com/macros/s/<web-app-ID>/exec?chemNo=cp1000

Apps Script code:

function doGet(e){
  var sheetUrl = "<your-spreadsheet-URL-with-gid>";
  var cell = getCell(e.parameter.chemNo, url);

  return HtmlService.createHtmlOutput('<script>window.location.replace("' + sheetUrl + '&range=' + cell + '"</script>');
}

function getCell(chemNo, url){
  
  //get the first sheet of your 
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(url).getSheets()[0];
  var lastRow = sheet.getLastRow();
  var range = sheet.getRange('A1:A' + lastRow).getValues();
  
  for(var i = 0; i < lastRow; i++){
    if(range[i] == chemNo){
      return 'B' + (i + 1);
    }
  }
}

This will take the parameter, find which row it is in and return the cell BX where X is the corresponding row to which the chemNo is in, and finally redirect to the sheet with the range of the cell that you need.