How to download single sheet as PDF to my local device directly (not export to Google Drive)? - pdf

Question

I've come across a few scripts to use with Google Sheets that will let me export a single sheet to a file on my Google Drive. However, instead of sending it there, I want it to download to my computer directly.
I'm looking to replace this...
DriveApp.createFile()
with something else that will send the file, with a customized name, as a file to download in my browser.

Answer 1

You want to download a specific sheet in the active Spreadsheet as a PDF file.
If my understanding is correct, how about this sample script? This sample script supposes the following points.
Script is the container-bound script of Spreadsheet.
Sheet you want to download is in the active Spreadsheet.
When the script is run, a dialog is opened. When the button is clicked, the active sheet is downloaded as a PDF file to the local PC.
In this script, the PDF file is downloaded by Javascript. So I used a dialog to execute Javascript.
Sample script:
When you use this script, please copy and paste this script to the script editor. Script is the container-bound script of Spreadsheet. When you run downloadSheetAsPDF(), a dialog is opened on the Spreadsheet. Please check it. When you click the button, the PDF file is downloaded.
function downloadSheetAsPDF() {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheetId = ss.getActiveSheet().getSheetId();
var url = "https://docs.google.com/a/mydomain.org/spreadsheets/d/" + ss.getId() + "/export?exportFormat=pdf&gid=" + sheetId + "&access_token=" + ScriptApp.getOAuthToken();
var str = '<input type="button" value="Download" onClick="location.href=\'' + url + '\'" >';
var html = HtmlService.createHtmlOutput(str);
SpreadsheetApp.getUi().showModalDialog(html, "sample");
}
Note:
This is a simple sample script. So please modify this for your situation.
If you want to download the specific sheet name, please modify to var sheetId = ss.getSheetByName("sheetName").getSheetId();.
References:
Class HtmlService
Class Ui
If this was not the result you want, I apologize.
Edit:
You want to use the specific filename of PDF file, when the file is downloaded.
You want to automatically download when the script is run.
If my understanding is correct, how about this sample script? The flow of this sample script is as follows. I think that there might be several answers for your situation. So please think of this as just one of several answers.
PDF file is created as a temporal file.
Create the URL for downloading.
Open a dialog box and the PDF file is automatically downloaded by running Javascript.
Remove the temporary file.
Close the dialog box.
Sample script:
function downloadSheetAsPDF2() {
var filename = "sampleFilename.pdf"; // Please set the filename here.
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheetId = ss.getActiveSheet().getSheetId();
// Creat PDF file as a temporary file and create URL for downloading.
var url = "https://docs.google.com/a/mydomain.org/spreadsheets/d/" + ss.getId() + "/export?exportFormat=pdf&gid=" + sheetId + "&access_token=" + ScriptApp.getOAuthToken();
var blob = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url).getBlob().setName(filename);
var file = DriveApp.createFile(blob);
var dlUrl = "https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=" + file.getId();
// Open a dialog and run Javascript for downloading the file.
var str = '<script>window.location.href="' + dlUrl + '"</script>';
var html = HtmlService.createHtmlOutput(str);
SpreadsheetApp.getUi().showModalDialog(html, "sample");
file.setTrashed(true);
// This is used for closing the dialog.
Utilities.sleep(3000);
var closeHtml = HtmlService.createHtmlOutput("<script>google.script.host.close()</script>");
SpreadsheetApp.getUi().showModalDialog(closeHtml, "sample");
}

Answer 2

Alternatively, You can use the anchor tag to download to local drive with a custom name:
Flow:
Create custom download url for pdf export from using spreadsheet id
UrlFetchApp to fetch the pdf
Serve pdf as Data URI using anchor tag
Use anchor tag's download attribute to provide the custom name for the download
Snippet:
function downloadPdfToDesktop() {
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActive(),
id = ss.getId(),
sht = ss.getActiveSheet(),
shtId = sht.getSheetId(),
url =
'https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/' +
id +
'/export' +
'?format=pdf&gid=' +
shtId;
var val = 'PDFNAME';//custom pdf name here
val += '.pdf';
//can't download with a different filename directly from server
//download and remove content-disposition header and serve as a dataURI
//Use anchor tag's download attribute to provide a custom filename
var res = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, {
headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer ' + ScriptApp.getOAuthToken() },
});
SpreadsheetApp.getUi().showModelessDialog(
HtmlService.createHtmlOutput(
'<a target ="_blank" download="' +
val +
'" href = "data:application/pdf;base64,' +
Utilities.base64Encode(res.getContent()) +
'">Click here</a> to download, if download did not start automatically' +
'<script> \
var a = document.querySelector("a"); \
a.addEventListener("click",()=>{setTimeout(google.script.host.close,10)}); \
a.click(); \
</script>'
).setHeight(50),
'Downloading PDF..'
);
}