Email Newsletters with Google Apps Script
This Google Script sends a daily newsletter containing a summary of your Starred e-mails in Gmail. You can extend it to attach other information like RSS feeds, summary reports, etc.
var LABEL = 'STARRED';
var TOTAL = 10;
function Install() {
ScriptApp.newTrigger('readStarredMessages').timeBased().everyDays(1).create();
}
function readStarredMessages() {
var thread,
subject,
link,
body,
from,
date,
html,
emails,
color,
index = [],
i;
var mySheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
emails = GmailApp.search('label:' + LABEL);
var count = emails.length;
if (count == 0) return;
if (count > TOTAL) index = getIndex(TOTAL, 0, count);
else {
for (i = 0; i < count; i++) index.push(i);
}
for (i = 0; i < TOTAL; i++) {
var n = index[i];
if (emails[n]) {
thread = emails[n].getMessages()[0];
subject = thread.getSubject();
body = processHTML(thread.getBody(), 250);
link = thread.getId(); // can also use GetPermalink()
from = thread.getFrom();
date = Utilities.formatDate(thread.getDate(), Session.getTimeZone(), 'MMM dd, yyyy');
if (i % 2 == 0) color = '#f0f0f0';
else color = '#f9f9f9';
html += '<p>On ' + date + ', <i>' + from + '</i> wrote: ';
html += '<strong>' + subject + '</strong><br /><br />';
html += body + " <a href='https://mail.google.com/mail/#all/";
html += link + "'>Click to read »</a></p>";
}
}
html += "<p><a href='" + SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getUrl();
html += "'>click here</a> and choose Gmail > unsubscribe.</p> ";
GmailApp.sendEmail(Session.getActiveUser(), emails.length + ' pending messages in Gmail', '', {
htmlBody: html,
});
}
// Pick random messages from the Gmail label
function getIndex(count, min, max) {
var results = [],
index;
while (count > 0) {
randNumber = Math.round(min + Math.random() * (max - min));
if (results.indexOf(randNumber) == -1) {
results.push(randNumber);
count--;
}
}
return results;
}
// Remove HTML tags from the Gmail messages
function processHTML(html, count) {
html = html.replace(/<(?:.|\n)*?>/gm, '');
html = html.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '');
return html.substring(0, count);
}
Amit Agarwal
Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion
Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.
Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory