I noticed a couple of search referrals around scheduling timed triggers in Google Apps Script so here is what I know and how to do it. Within Google Apps Script you can create basic time-based triggers (poor mans cron) to run functions on specific date/time intervals. Using the ‘Current Script’s triggers’ dialog (accessed from Script Editor > Resources > ‘Current Script’s triggers’):

• minute (1, 5, 10 ,15 or 30)
• hour (2, 4, 6, 8 or 12)
• day (hour of day intervals)
• week (day of week and hour of day interval)
• specific date/time (in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM format)

Recently on one of my posts someone asked: ‘Is there a way to schedule when the script runs?’. In particular they were interested in running a particular function every 10 minutes for a set period.

I did briefly look at scripting time-based triggers, but quickly realised that my original plan to control a number of timed triggers from a central spreadsheet wasn’t possible because the class TriggerBuilder doesn’t allow forSpreadsheet on TimeBased triggers. Instead I came up with this code snippet:

function scheduledCollection(){
  var schedule = [];
  // dates/times in mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm - timezone matches settings in File > Project properties 
  schedule.push({start:"08/29/2012 15:00", end:"08/29/2012 16:00"});
  schedule.push({start:"08/29/2012 20:00", end:"08/29/2012 22:00"});
  checkCollect(schedule);
}

function checkCollect(schedule){
  var now = new Date();
  for (i in schedule){
    var start = new Date(schedule[i].start);
    var end = new Date(schedule[i].end);
    if (now > start && now < end){
      // insert function you want to run here
    }
  }
}

To use you enter the time ranges you want to use in the first function, enter the sub function you want to run in ‘interest function you want to run here’, and then create basic time-based triggers at a low interval (in the example above every 10 minutes) calling scheduledCollection. Enjoy!

Last updated by Martin Hawksey at September 2, 2012.