VBA is to Office as Google Apps Script is to Google Apps. Those tasks to automate repetitive sequences, or  extend the functionality of Office can usually be done in Google Apps Script. Not only that, but since it is really just javaScript, you could either know the basics already, or by learning it, you will be able to write regular web applications as well as to extend Google Apps. Google Apps Scripts 'live in the cloud' and form part of the tool set available to make your Google apps experience more fulfilling.

These following article set will take you through an accelerated program to learn javaScript and Google Apps Script with an emphasis on how to use it to do things you already know how to do in VBA, by showing you how it's done in each language. 

 

First observation - it's painfully slow compared to the same thing in VBA, but see Optimizing access to sheet values. This a feature rich caching capability, both read and write, and applying to all range methods that have both a set... and get... version.

 

Many of these libraries are now part of a Google Apps Script shared library you can incorporate in your own project.

 

This is often a good way of migrating a step at a time. Take a look at Integrating VBA and Javascript and this blogpost to see more on this approach

I have talked about data abstraction extensively on this site, meaning separating the physical data location from the data itself so that procedures are not aware of where the data is coming from, or even that it originated in Excel. This approach will serve us well, since it means that if we simply change the Data Manipulation Classes to understand about the Google Apps Data structures, the bulk of the logic will remain intact, even if they do have to be translated. 

 

If a regular visitor to this site or the associated blog, you will know that many main functions are executed in one or a just a few lines of code, and generally speaking these avoid addressing specific Excel capabilities through data abstraction. Once the underlying libraries and classes are ported to Google Apps, it will be a simple job to port most of the Excel procedures on this site.

1. Getting started
   1. Learning javaScript
   2. classes and javaScript
   3. javaScript functions
   4. Apps Script versus VBA scope
   5. Gapps Conversion approach
   6. Some Google Apps Scripts gotchas
   7. Managing shared libraries with Google Apps Script
   8. Automatic VBA to GAS skeleton
2. Useful hacks
   1. Dealing with optional arguments
   2. VBA collection in javaScript
   3. VBA debug object
   4. Optimizing access to sheet values
   5. What to use in place of Excel Shapes
   6. How to make charts in Google Apps Script
   7. Apps Script timer collection
   8. GAS hacks for VBA
   9. Using scriptDB
   10. Tracking activity with ScriptDB
   11. Generate an auto incrementing key with scriptDB
3. Some Excel library conversions
   1. Data manipulation Classes in Google Apps Script
   2. Color Ramp useful scripts
   3. cJobject Class in Google Apps Script
   4. Scraperwiki data to Google Docs
   5. Playing around with GAS color
   6. Color space conversions in GAS
   7. Color Matching in GAS
4. Leaving VBA behind
   1. A simple Google Apps Script RestQuery
   2. Apps Script custom functions
   3. Looping in Google Apps Script
   4. Advanced Array functions
5. Performance blog posts
   1. New sheets for old - writing comparison with new,old and excel
   2. Execution time woes

Project conversion