Hide a sheet when I am active on another sheet

Question

I am trying to automatically hide a sheet called "Add expense" when I am not active on it.

For example.

I have the sheet "BD Expenses", the sheet "BD Tokens", the sheet "BD Income", the sheet "Add expense", the sheet "Add income".

What I want is that when I am active in any of the sheets that is not called "Enter expense", then the script runs completely automatically (without having to click on any button) to hide the sheet called "Add expense".

I currently have this code:

//Ocultar todas las hojas excepto la activa
function Ocultar_formulario_ANADIR_GASTO() {
  var sheets = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();  

  sheets.forEach(function(sheet) {
      if (sheet.getSheetByName('Añadir gasto') != SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet().getName())
        sheet.hideSheet();
  });
};   

I have tried various methods but without success.

I know there is a function called onSelectionChange (e) but since I am so new to Javascript I don't really know how to make it work. Hence I have created my code differently.

I have looked at the reference from https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/spreadsheet/sheet#hidesheet

I've also googled and stackoverflow, but can't find a solution to this problem.

Currently when running the script from the editor, I get the error "TypeError: sheets.forEach is not a function".

I can't get it to work.

I would really appreciate if someone can take a look at my code and offer me a little help.

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

It looks like there is no specific Google Scripts event for when you change sheets.

But there is a workaround mentioned in the issue tracker ticket - scroll to the bottom of the ticket to see it. It involves using onSelectionChange(e) to track which sheets you moved out of and into.

The following code adapts that workaround to your case:

The code assumes your Google spreadsheet has 2 or more sheets - and one of those sheets is called Secret Sheet. You can change this name to whatever you want (see the first line of the code).

When you move from the Secret Sheet to any other sheet, the Secret Sheet will automatically be hidden.

var secretSheetName = 'Secret Sheet'; // change this to whatever you prefer.
var prevSheetProperty = 'PREVIOUS_SHEET';

function saveActiveSheet() {
  var activesheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();
  var userProperties = PropertiesService.getUserProperties();
  userProperties.setProperty(prevSheetProperty, activesheet.getSheetName());
}

function onSheetChange(e) {
  var sheetToHide = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName(secretSheetName);
  sheetToHide.hideSheet();
}

function onSelectionChange(e) {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  // Get current sheet name and compare to previously saved sheet
  var currentSheetName = ss.getActiveSheet().getSheetName();
  var userProperties = PropertiesService.getUserProperties();
  var previousSheetName = userProperties.getProperty(prevSheetProperty);

  if (currentSheetName !== previousSheetName) {
    saveActiveSheet(); // this becomes the new "previous sheet".
    if (previousSheetName === secretSheetName) { 
      // you have moved out of the secret sheet - so, hide it:
      onSheetChange(e);   // Call custom sheet change trigger
    }
  }
}

function onOpen(e) {
  saveActiveSheet();
}

The script works by keeping track of which sheet is the currently active sheet - and which was the (different) previously active sheet before that.

It stores the "previous" sheet name in a user property.

You will see that to use the onSelectionChange(e) event, you simply have to add that function to your script:

function onSelectionChange(e) { ... }

Google Scripts automatically recognizes this as an event function. You can read more about this, with examples, here.

Answer 2

I am going to reply to my own question to provide the same solution as @andrewjames but for multiple sheets to be hidden at once.

The code to hide a single sheet can be found in @andrewjames comment.

The code to hide multiple sheets using the code of @adrewjames as a base, is this.

var addFicha = 'Añadir ficha'; // change this to whatever you prefer.
var addGasto = 'Añadir gasto'; // change this to whatever you prefer.
var addIngreso = 'Añadir ingreso'; // change this to whatever you prefer.

var hideMultipleSheets = addFicha || addGasto || addIngreso;
var prevSheetProperty = 'PREVIOUS_SHEET';

function saveActiveSheet() {
  var activesheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();
  var userProperties = PropertiesService.getUserProperties();
  userProperties.setProperty(prevSheetProperty, activesheet.getSheetName());
}

function onSheetChange(e) {
  var sheetToHide1 = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName(addFicha);
  var sheetToHide2 = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName(addGasto);
  var sheetToHide3 = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName(addIngreso);

  sheetToHide1.hideSheet();
  sheetToHide2.hideSheet();
  sheetToHide3.hideSheet();
}

function onSelectionChange(e) {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  // Get current sheet name and compare to previously saved sheet
  var currentSheetName = ss.getActiveSheet().getSheetName();
  var userProperties = PropertiesService.getUserProperties();
  var previousSheetName = userProperties.getProperty(prevSheetProperty);

  if (currentSheetName !== previousSheetName) {
    saveActiveSheet(); // this becomes the new "previous sheet".
    if (previousSheetName === hideMultipleSheets) { 
      // you have moved out of the secret sheet - so, hide it:
      onSheetChange(e);   // Call custom sheet change trigger
    }
  }
}

function onOpen(e) {
  saveActiveSheet();
}

Here I leave a brief explanation so that if someone needs this code they know how to modify it so that it works for their needs.

1. At the beginning of all of the code, we see the first 3 vars.

In this case we want to hide 3 sheets, that's why there are only 3 vars. In case you want to hide 5 sheets, you should have 5 vars.

Here you can name them whatever you want. Then, the text in quotation marks is the name of the sheet you want to hide, so you must change it to the name of your sheets.

Example: var hideSheettt1 = 'Here you need to copy the name of your sheet';

2. Following the first 3 vars, we have the 4 var hideMultipleSheets

In this case we are joining the first 3 vars into a single var to be able to reuse it later in the onSelectionChange (e) function

Here you must replace addFicha addGasto addIngreso with the name you have given to your first vars.

Continuing with the example from point 1, we will use the var hideSheettt1 = 'Here you need to copy the name of your sheet'; as a reference.

Example:

var hideMultipleSheets = hideSheettt1 || hideSheettt2|| hideSheettt3;

3. In the SheetChange (e) function you must substitute the var of .getSheetByName () in the first 3 vars, by the name of the var that you created at the beginning of the entire code (point 1).

Example:

var sheetToHide1 = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName(hideSheettt1);

At this point, you should include as many vars as sheets you want to hide and vars you have created at the beginning of your code. In this case we want to hide 3 sheets. But if we wanted to hide 5 sheets, we must have 5 vars, one for each sheet.

We must also have the same amount of hideSheet()