-1

I have users who enter information into a Google Form; these responses are stored in a Google Sheet.

If I notice obvious errors in the entries, I can easily edit the Google Sheet to correct them. For example, a user with name "Foo Bar" accidentally puts "Foo" into the text box for "Last Name" and "Bar" into the entry for "First Name". Or they might have an obvious typo (such as having the word "teh" instead of "the" in the "Title" text box). I can go into the Google Sheet and update the incorrect entries in the spreadsheet. However, after these updates are made in the Google Sheet, if the user selects the "Edit Your Response" link generated by the original entry, it will display the originally entered responses rather than the updated entries.

One workaround that I have come up with is that instead of having the Google Form send them an "Edit Your Response" link, if they request it, I can provide the user a link to a form that is fully pre-populated with all of their updated entries. I generate this link using a script that is a slightly modified version of the script in How to prefill Google form checkboxes?

After I send them this link, which incorporates all manual updates, and the user can then make any changes that they want to make and submit the form. Unfortunately, this will lead to a new entry into the spreadsheet, so I then need to delete the original entry.

The other alternative is that I can select the "Edit Your Response" link and make the changes in the entries by changing their form entries and resubmitting. This also is a little more clunky than just changing values directly in the spreadsheet.

So this leads to the question: Is there any way to present the user a link to a form where they can edit responses that includes entries that were manually updated in the Google Sheet.

Thanks! Tom

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Tom H
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • "Is there any way to present the user a link..." there are too many ways. Please be more specific about the kind of way that you are looking forn and include a description about where do you have stored those links. – Rubén Jan 08 '17 at 21:41

1 Answers1

1

Since the actual responses are saved in the Form and only copies are in the spreadsheet, you need to use the Edit your Response link. There is code to add this to a column so it is easier to retrieve.

Karl_S
  • 3,364
  • 2
  • 19
  • 33
  • Thanks for getting back to me. Yes - I have already incorporated this in order to store the Edit your Response link in the spreadsheet. Is there any way that the "actual responses" can be modified in the form using script calls instead of using the Edit your Response link and typing in the changes? If there is, then I could use a script to propagate changes from the spreadsheet to the form. If not, then I guess that I will need to use the link to make any changes. – Tom H Jan 08 '17 at 20:41
  • I recall considering this once but it may have been before the Forms API came out. It may be possible. There is a [FormResponse Class](https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/forms/form-response) you could look into. – Karl_S Jan 09 '17 at 13:39