gmail-autoooo

Gmail Auto-OOO Signature Updater

A Google Apps Script that automatically updates your Gmail signature to include a list of your upcoming planned absences. It runs in the background every night, reads your Google Calendar for "Out of Office" events over the next 3 months, and appends a clean, formatted list to your standard email signature.

When you return to work and have no upcoming time off, it automatically resets your signature back to normal.

Features

• Smart Date Merging: Automatically groups consecutive days off into clean ranges (e.g., 14th Apr | 16-17th Apr | 25-30th May).
• Timezone Aware: Anchors dates to strictly prevent "off-by-one" day errors caused by midnight timezone shifts.
• Alias Aware: Automatically detects and applies the update to your primary "Send As" Gmail alias.

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🚀 Setup Instructions

Step 1: Create the Project

1. Go to script.google.com and sign in with your Google Workspace account.
2. Click New Project in the top left.
3. Click on "Untitled project" at the top and rename it to something like Automated OOO Signature.

Step 2: Enable Required APIs

For the script to read your calendar and update your Gmail settings, you must enable two advanced services.

1. On the far-left sidebar, click the + icon next to Services.
2. Scroll down, select Google Calendar API, and click Add.
3. Click the + icon next to Services again.
4. Scroll down, select Gmail API, and click Add.

Step 3: Add the Files

You will copy the three files from this repository into your Apps Script project.

1. Code.gs

• In the Apps Script editor, you should already have a file named Code.gs open.
• Delete the empty function inside it and paste the entire contents of the Code.gs file from this repo.

2. signature.html

• On the left sidebar, click the + icon next to Files and select HTML.
• Name the file exactly signature (do not type .html, Google adds it automatically).
• Delete the default code and paste your custom HTML signature into this file (see "Customizing Your Signature" below).

3. appsscript.json (The Manifest File)

• Click the gear icon (Project Settings) on the far-left sidebar.
• Check the box for "Show 'appsscript.json' manifest file in editor".
• Click the code brackets (< >) on the left sidebar to go back to your files.
• Click on appsscript.json, delete its contents, and paste the contents of appsscript.json from this repo.

Step 4: Authorize the Script

You must run the script manually once to grant it permissions to your account.

1. Make sure you are on Code.gs and select updateOOOSignature from the function dropdown at the top.
2. Click Run.
3. A popup will say "Authorization Required." Click Review permissions.
4. Choose your Google account -> click Advanced at the bottom -> click Go to Automated OOO Signature.
5. Click Allow. (Note: If you check the Execution Log, it will likely output your upcoming OOO dates and successfully update your signature!)

Step 5: Schedule the Automation (The Trigger)

Now, set the script to run automatically while you sleep.

1. Click the clock icon (Triggers) on the far-left sidebar.
2. Click + Add Trigger in the bottom right corner.
3. Configure it exactly like this:
   • Choose which function to run: updateOOOSignature
   • Select event source: Time-driven
   • Select type of time based trigger: Day timer
   • Select time of day: Midnight to 1am
4. Click Save.

You're done! The script will now check your calendar every night.

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How to extract your current Gmail signature: If you don't know the HTML for your current signature, open a new compose window in Gmail, highlight your signature, right-click and select Inspect. Find the <div> wrapping your signature, right-click it, select Copy outerHTML, and paste it into signature.html.

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🛠 Troubleshooting

• My events aren't showing up: The script specifically looks for events created using the native "Out of office" button in Google Calendar, OR regular events that have the letters "OOO" in the title. If you create a regular event called "Vacation", it will be ignored.
• The signature isn't updating: Ensure your appsscript.json file is correctly saved with the required OAuth scopes (gmail.settings.basic). If it fails, check the Executions tab (bulleted list icon) in Apps Script to read the error logs.