Update #2: Okay, I'm pretty sure my error in update #1 was because of indexing out of bounds over the array (I'm still not used to JS indexing at 0). But here is the new problem... if I write out the different combinations of the loop manually, setting the page index to 1 in moveItem()
like so:
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[0][0], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[0][1], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[0][2], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[1][0], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[1][1], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[1][2], 1);
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[2][0], 1);
...
...I don't get any errors but the items end up on different pages! What is going on?
Update #1:: Using Sandy Good's answer as well as a script I found at this WordPress blog, I have managed to get closer to what I needed. I believe Sandy Good misinterpreted what I wanted to do because I wasn't specific enough in my question.
I would like to:
- Get all items from a page (section header, images, question etc)
- Put them into an array
- Do this for all pages, adding these arrays to an array (i.e:
[[all items from page 1][all items from page 2][all items from page 3]...]
) - Shuffle the elements of this array
- Repopulate a new form with each element of this array. In this way, page order will be randomized.
My JavaScript skills are poor (this is the first time I've used it). There is a step that produces null entries and I don't know why... I had to remove them manually. I am not able to complete step 5 as I get the following error:
Cannot convert Item,Item,Item to (class).
"Item,Item,Item" is the array element containing all the items from a particular page. So it seems that I can't add three items to a page at a time? Or is something else going on here?
Here is my code:
function shuffleForms() {
var itemsArray,shuffleQuestionsInNewForm,fncGetQuestionID,
newFormFile,newForm,newID,shuffle, sections;
// Copy template form by ID, set a new name
newFormFile = DriveApp.getFileById('1prfcl-RhaD4gn0b2oP4sbcKaRcZT5XoCAQCbLm1PR7I')
.makeCopy();
newFormFile.setName('AAAAA_Shuffled_Form');
// Get ID of new form and open it
newID = newFormFile.getId();
newForm = FormApp.openById(newID);
// Initialize array to put IDs in
itemsArray = [];
function getPageItems(thisPageNum) {
Logger.log("Getting items for page number: " + thisPageNum );
var thisPageItems = []; // Used for result
var thisPageBreakIndex = getPageItem(thisPageNum).getIndex();
Logger.log( "This is index num : " + thisPageBreakIndex );
// Get all items from page
var allItems = newForm.getItems();
thisPageItems.push(allItems[thisPageBreakIndex]);
Logger.log( "Added pagebreak item: " + allItems[thisPageBreakIndex].getIndex() );
for( var i = thisPageBreakIndex+1; ( i < allItems.length ) && ( allItems[i].getType() != FormApp.ItemType.PAGE_BREAK ); ++i ) {
thisPageItems.push(allItems[i]);
Logger.log( "Added non-pagebreak item: " + allItems[i].getIndex() );
}
return thisPageItems;
}
function shuffle(array) {
var currentIndex = array.length, temporaryValue, randomIndex;
Logger.log('shuffle ran')
// While there remain elements to shuffle...
while (0 !== currentIndex) {
// Pick a remaining element...
randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * currentIndex);
currentIndex -= 1;
// And swap it with the current element.
temporaryValue = array[currentIndex];
array[currentIndex] = array[randomIndex];
array[randomIndex] = temporaryValue;
}
return array;
}
function shuffleAndMove() {
// Get page items for all pages into an array
for(i = 2; i <= 5; i++) {
itemsArray[i] = getPageItems(i);
}
// Removes null values from array
itemsArray = itemsArray.filter(function(x){return x});
// Shuffle page items
itemsArray = shuffle(itemsArray);
// Move page items to the new form
for(i = 2; i <= 5; ++i) {
newForm.moveItem(itemsArray[i], i);
}
}
shuffleAndMove();
}
Original post: I have used Google forms to create a questionnaire. For my purposes, each question needs to be on a separate page but I need the pages to be randomized. A quick Google search shows this feature has not been added yet.
I see that the Form class in the Google apps script has a number of methods that alter/give access to various properties of Google Forms. Since I do not know Javascript and am not too familiar with Google apps/API I would like to know if what I am trying to do is even possible before diving in and figuring it all out.
If it is possible, I would appreciate any insight on what methods would be relevant for this task just to give me some direction to get started.
Based on comments from Sandy Good and two SE questions found here and here, this is the code I have so far:
// Script to shuffle question in a Google Form when the questions are in separate sections
function shuffleFormSections() {
getQuestionID();
createNewShuffledForm();
}
// Get question IDs
function getQuestionID() {
var form = FormApp.getActiveForm();
var items = form.getItems();
arrayID = [];
for (var i in items) {
arrayID[i] = items[i].getId();
}
// Logger.log(arrayID);
return(arrayID);
}
// Shuffle function
function shuffle(a) {
var j, x, i;
for (i = a.length; i; i--) {
j = Math.floor(Math.random() * i);
x = a[i - 1];
a[i - 1] = a[j];
a[j] = x;
}
}
// Shuffle IDs and create new form with new question order
function createNewShuffledForm() {
shuffle(arrayID);
// Logger.log(arrayID);
var newForm = FormApp.create('Shuffled Form');
for (var i in arrayID) {
arrayID[i].getItemsbyId();
}
}