Unit 3 · Module 2

The Apps Script Naming Convention

The cheat sheet — every Google product’s host global, the getActive pattern, and the capitalization rules

The XxxApp pattern

Every Google product gets a host global named after itself with App appended. The global is always capitalized, always ends in App, and is always available without an import.

Google product Host global First call you usually make
Sheets SpreadsheetApp .getActiveSpreadsheet()
Docs DocumentApp .getActiveDocument()
Forms FormApp .getActiveForm()
Slides SlidesApp .getActivePresentation()
Gmail GmailApp .getInboxThreads() or .sendEmail(...)
Calendar CalendarApp .getDefaultCalendar()
Drive DriveApp .getFiles() or .getFolderById(...)
Contacts ContactsApp .getContacts()
Maps Maps .newGeocoder() (one of the few exceptions to XxxApp)

The getActive___() pattern

Most XxxApp globals expose a getActive___() method. It returns the document the script is bound to (see Page 1). If the script is standalone — not attached to any document — these calls return null and you have to open something explicitly by ID or URL instead.

Bound script Standalone equivalent
SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet() SpreadsheetApp.openById(“abc123”)
DocumentApp.getActiveDocument() DocumentApp.openById(“abc123”)
FormApp.getActiveForm() FormApp.openById(“abc123”)

Capitalization rules

Apps Script follows standard JavaScript convention with one twist worth naming explicitly.

A note on camelCase below: it’s the standard JavaScript style of writing a multi-word name as one word, lowercase first letter, with each later word starting with a capital. getActiveSpreadsheet is camelCase. orderRange is camelCase. It contrasts with capital-first names like SpreadsheetApp.

What it is Case Example
Host global Capitalized, ends in App SpreadsheetApp
Method on a host global camelCase, starts with a verb getActiveSpreadsheet()
Class returned by a method Capitalized, no App suffix Spreadsheet, Sheet, Range
Developer’s variable camelCase, any name sheet, orderRange

Reading the cheat sheet in code

Putting the three patterns together — a script that bumps a counter in a Sheet and emails the result:

Apps Script

function bumpCounter() {
  const spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  const sheet = spreadsheet.getSheetByName("Counter");
  const cell = sheet.getRange("A1");

  const current = cell.getValue();
  cell.setValue(current + 1);

  GmailApp.sendEmail("me@example.com", "Counter bumped", `Now at ${current + 1}`);
}