Why can't .getUrl work in this code?

Question

I'm new to Google Script and decided to try out the documentation code here located at the bottom. The code is located below:

function createAndSendDocument() {
   // Create a new Google Doc named 'Hello, world!'
   var doc = DocumentApp.create('Hello, world!');

   // Access the body of the document, then add a paragraph.
   doc.getBody().appendParagraph('This document was created by Google Apps Script.');

   // Get the URL of the document.
   var url = doc.getUrl();

   // Get the email address of the active user - that's you.
   var email = Session.getActiveUser().getEmail();

   // Get the name of the document to use as an email subject line.
   var subject = doc.getName();

   // Append a new string to the "url" variable to use as an email body.
   var body = 'Link to your doc: ' + url;

   // Send yourself an email with a link to the document.
   GmailApp.sendEmail(email, subject, body);
}

The code works just fine, but since I did not want it to create a new document every time I run this, I edited the code to:

function sendDocument() {
   // Get the name of the document to use as an email subject line.
   var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();

   // Get the email address of the active user - that's you.
   var email = Session.getActiveUser().getEmail();

   // Append a new string to use as an email body.
   var body = 'Link to your doc: ' + doc.getUrl() + '. Happy editing! :D';

   // Send yourself an email with a link to the document.
   GmailApp.sendEmail(email, doc, body);
}

However, I could not run the above code and an error message popped up saying:

TypeError: Cannot call method "getUrl" of null. (line 9, file "")

Here's my execution transcript:

[15-10-03 10:13:26:875 PDT] Starting execution
[15-10-03 10:13:26:881 PDT] DocumentApp.getActiveDocument() [0 seconds]
[15-10-03 10:13:26:883 PDT] Session.getActiveUser() [0 seconds]
[15-10-03 10:13:26:883 PDT] User.getEmail() [0 seconds]
[15-10-03 10:13:26:886 PDT] Execution failed: TypeError: Cannot call method "getUrl" of null. (line 9, file "Code") [0.003 seconds total runtime]

Can anyone please help me with this problem? Thanks in advance! :)

explain in detail how you call that code. – Zig Mandel Oct 04 '15 at 13:38 — Zig Mandel, Oct 04 '15 at 13:38

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 04 '15 at 14:34

To use the document.getActiveDocument(). The script has to be container bound. So the script has to be associated with a document. Which you open from the document's Tools>Script editor.

If you just create a new script project which, it will not find the "Active document".

EDIT: It will also not work for the web published app using doGet even if the script code is associated to the Document. You have to get the document first using methods such as ...openById('')

Why can't .getUrl work in this code?

1 Answers1