Google Forms in reverse

Question

I am wondering if it is possible to take data from a Google Sheet and place it in a Google Form. For example, for my business we collect basic client information and demographics through Google Forms. Some of this information often changes as life situations change and I would like to be able to take a clients previous responses/data and repopulate a form instantly that could then be reviewed, verified, and possibly changed by the client if needed. Microsoft Excel has a feature titled "Form" that is capable of this but the form that appears is bland and unappealing.

I am aware of the "Get pre-filled URL" feature available in forms, but I would like to not have to type things in manually for each client, to be able to pull directly from a sheet, and to have the form pop up instantly rather than copying and pasting a URL.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I created a form and linked it to an existing spreadsheet and I then adapted the script available from How to prefill Google form checkboxes? to populate a form response for each row of the spreadsheet. It was just a matter of running the script and this made the form response for each row and put the URL for each form response in its own cell on the end of the row. Once that was done I then used the form responses to edit the information and update the spreadsheet.

Hope this helps, Greig

Answer 2

Yes, it's possible to take data from a Google spreadsheet and pass it to a Google Form. To do so, you should use Google Apps Script (GAS).

But if you already have the data in a Google Form you could edit it by using the edit response URL. Also you could use GAS to get it.

Perhaps the easiest path for you is to use Awesome Table + Google Forms. The previous link will take you to a demo page showing the use of the Awesome Table gadget for Google Sites working together with a Google Form to act as a database.