Google Forms - title vs name vs documentTitle

Published on Oct 29, 2024

#code #google #google workspace #apps script #google forms

Recently I had to clarify some confusion around the title and name of a Google Form and some inconsistencies between Apps Script, Forms API, and the Forms UI. For some background, the following image shows the name and title of a Google Form.

Google Forms name, title, documentTitle

The below table show the different ways the title and name are returned in the Forms UI, the Forms API, the FormApp, DriveApp, and the Drive API.

	`name` UI	`title` UI	`title` Forms API	`documentTitle` Forms API	`getTitle()` `FormApp`	`getName()` `DriveApp`	`name` Drive API
1	“Untitled form”	“Untitled form”	`undefined`	“Untitled form”	""	“Untitled form”	“Untitled form”
2	“Name”	“Name”	`undefined`	“Name”	""	“Name”	“Name”
3	“Name”	“Title”	“Title”	“Name”	“Title”	“Name”	“Name”
4	“Untitled form”	“Title”	“Title”	“Untitled form”	“Title”	“Untitled form”	“Untitled form”

Case 1 - Default form

When you first create a form, the name is Untitled form and the title is unset but defaults to Untitled form in the UI. The Forms API does not have a title property and the documentTitle is Untitled form.

Case 2 - Name set, title unset

If you change the name of the form, the title in the application will render as the name. However, the name is still unset in the Forms API and the documentTitle is the name as shown in the UI.

Case 3 - Name and title set

If you set the name and title of the form, the title in the application will render as the title. The Forms API will have the title set to the title and the documentTitle set to the name.

Case 4 - Title set, name unset

If you set the title of the form and the name is still the default, the title in the application UI will render as the title. The Forms API will have the title set to the title and the documentTitle set to the default name.

Drive API and DriveApp

The Drive API and DriveApp have a name property that is always the same as the documentTitle.

Takeaways

The UI title has a fallback to the name if the title is unset.
The Forms API documentTitle is equivalent to the UI name and the Drive API name.
The Forms API title is undefined if unset, but the getTitle() method in FormApp will return the empty string if unset!
To change the name via the API, you need to use the Drive API or DriveApp.

Example code

Here is an example of how to get the title of a form using the FormApp API:

function myFunction() {
  const title = FormApp.openById("10Fb...").getTitle();
  console.log(title); // if unset, it will be ""
}