Walkthrough: Automatically Geocode Form Entries

In this article you will learn how to automatize the collection of datas and Geocode addresses from a form.

info This article is only for Google users.

What is an onFormSubmit trigger?

The onFormSubmit is a Google Apps Script service that specifies a trigger, when paired with the GeoCode add-on, will automatically execute the Geocode script immediately after the Google Sheets destination source (Form Response sheet) receives new entries from Google Forms. This feature-combination allows you to easily collect data and geocode addresses behind the scenes. Afterwards, all that's left to do is just refresh / reload your Awesome Table app to reflect the most recent submissions. If reloading an app is too much work, you can opt to use AwesomeTable's Auto Refresh script.

In this standalone and optional exercise, we're going to demonstrate a very straightforward use-case highlighting the simplicity and power of the GeoCode add-on with onFormSubmit and Auto Refresh (on the right is an actual demo). Feel free to try the demo using the files below:

Triple-combo feature:
GeoCode add-on with onFormSubmit trigger and Auto-Refresh set at 15 sec.

warning The onFormSubmit trigger only works with a Google Form that's already linked to a Form Response Sheet.

1. Create your form

info Read this comprehensive Google Workspace tutorial on how to create a form.

warning Using two or more form fields (street, city, state) to capture addresses in Google Forms is currently not supported to work with the onFormSubmit add-on. More about this in our FAQ.

2. Choose where to save your form responses

1) Open the pertinent Google Forms.

2) At the top, click the RESPONSES (tab).

3) Click More Actions ⋮

4) Click Select response destination.

Labelled screenshot for sub-tasks 2.2 to 2.4

5) Choose from these options:

Create a new spreadsheet.
- Creates a spreadsheet for responses in Google Sheets.

Select existing spreadsheet.
- Choose from your existing spreadsheets in Google Sheets to store responses.

6) Click Create or Select

Screencast for sub-tasks 2.5 to 2.6

warning You can find the Form Response Sheet in the Google Sheets homescreen, Google Sheets apps, or in Google Drive.

3. Start Geocoding

Follow steps 1 - 4 of the Geocode addresses tutorial.

4. Activate the onFormSubmit trigger

After selecting a Form Response destination and initializing the Geocode script (by clicking the Geocode! button), you need to activate the onFormSubmit trigger so that new form responses will automatically be geocoded.

To do this in Google Sheets: select Add-ons > Geocode by Awesome Table > Geocode on form submit then click the Activate trigger button.

warning This will be the default action to take if you selected Create a new spreadsheet in sub-task 2.6 above. But if you chose Select existing spreadsheet and the onFormSubmit trigger was activated in that particular Google Sheets file from a previous session, then the onFormSubmit trigger's already activated - allowing you to: skip this step or verify if the trigger is enabled.

Manually activate the onFormSubmit trigger.

5. Perform an initial test on the form trigger

info Do this task first before proceeding to the next. It's not recommended to customize your tooltips without first guaranteeing that the trigger is setup correctly.

info The scope of the onFormSubmit tutorial ends here. The succeeding steps were already covered in the previous tutorials.

Screencast of the initial onformSubmit trigger test.

6. Customize the Tooltip

Choose your preferred method on how to customize your tooltip by following the detailed tutorial here.

7. Check your interactive map with submitted form entries

You could either:

Click Open map to see your map app (from the last step of the Geocode address tutorial) or
Open the most recently created app from your AwesomeTable dashboard.