Automate auto-reply based on specific Google Calendar Events

Question

I'm currently trying to automate an auto-reply with Google Apps Script for whenever I am out of office based on my Google calendar events named 'OOF'. Even if everytime I'm getting closer, there's always something that doesn't work. Now when I execute it, there's a new error message. See below:

ReferenceError: myEmail is not defined autoReply @ Code.gs:44

Please know that I'm no coder and I have a really basic knowledge of coding haha

Also, another thing to keep in mind is I prefer sending the auto-reply reply in a new thread of email instead of replying directly to an email. This is one of the reasons why I'm using Google Calendar to automate an auto-reply.

And I don't want to push my luck too much but is there any way to make the code below work if the Google Calendar is not an all day event (i.e.: 12pm to 6pm instead of all day)

See below the code I've been using:

function autoReply() {
  Logger.log('Script start');
  var strCalendarOOFKey = 'OOF';
  var strUserEmailToSetVacationOn = '[email protected]';
  // find calendar event
  var today = new Date();
  var msTodayStart = today.getTime();
  var msTodayEnd = today.getTime()+60000;
  var unavailableToday = false;
  Logger.log('Looking for Calendar trigger "'+strCalendarOOFKey+'" for today '+today.toDateString());
  var events = CalendarApp.getDefaultCalendar().getEventsForDay(today, { search: 'OOF' });
  for (var i = 0; i < events.length; i++) {
    if(events[i].isAllDayEvent() && events[i].isOwnedByMe()) {
      Logger.log("Setting vacation response to true due to event titled '"+events[i].getTitle()+"'")
      unavailableToday = true;
      break; 
    }
  }

  Logger.log("Setting Vacation response to: "+unavailableToday.toString());

  var jsonVacationSettingsOn = {
    "enableAutoReply": true,
    "responseSubject": "I'm currently out of the office",
    "responseBodyPlainText": "If you need any help while I'm gone contact [email protected]",
    "responseBodyHtml": "If you need any help while I'm gone contact [email protected]",
    "restrictToContacts": true,
    "restrictToDomain": false,
    "startTime": msTodayStart,
    "endTime": msTodayEnd
  }
 var interval = 2;
    var date = new Date();
    var timeFrom = Math.floor(date.valueOf()/1000) - 60 * interval;
    var threads = GmailApp.search('is:inbox !label:autoresponded after:' + timeFrom);
    var label = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName("autoresponded");
    for (var i = 0; i < threads.length; i++) {

    var message = threads[i].getMessages()[0];
      if (message.getFrom().indexOf(myEmail) < 0 && message.getFrom().indexOf("no-repl") < 0 && message.getFrom().indexOf("bounce") < 0 && message.getFrom().indexOf("spam") < 0) {

        Logger.log("Replied now");

        // reply
        threads[i].reply("", {
          htmlBody: htmlbody
        });

        // label
        label.addToThread(threads[i]);

      }

    }

  }

Answer 1

Variable Not Defined

Per the message, line 44 of your code contains an error.

44   if (message.getFrom().indexOf(myEmail) < 0 && message.getFrom().indexOf("no-repl") < 0 && message.getFrom().indexOf("bounce") < 0 && message.getFrom().indexOf("spam") < 0) {

Specifically myEmail in message.getFrom().indexOf(myEmail) is not defined.

Generally speaking, in order to use any variable, it must first be defined.

Here an example showing a variable that is defined vs. one that is not.

Defined Variable

1  function myFunction() {
2    var myEmail=["[email protected]", 
3                 "[email protected]",
4                 "[email protected]"];
5    console.log(myEmail); 
6  }

Output

   12:23:12 PM  Notice  Execution started
   12:23:12 PM  Info    [ '[email protected]',
                          '[email protected]',
                          'ema[email protected]' ]
   12:23:12 PM  Notice  Execution completed

Undefined Variable

1  function myFunction() {
2
3
4
5    console.log(myEmail); 
6  }

Output

   12:23:12 PM  Notice  Execution started
   12:23:12 PM  Error   ReferenceError: myEmail is not defined
                        myFunction  @ Code.gs:6