Trouble integrating external quiz portals with google workspace apps

Google Workspace Developers Q&A
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Hey everyone,

I’m working on a small google workspace project where I’m trying to connect google forms and Apps Script with an external quiz platform. While testing this, I used something like the (URL Removed by Staff) as a sample external source, and I ran into a few issues that I’m not sure how to handle properly.

The main problem is that when I try to fetch data from it using apps script or load it inside a Workspace web app, I keep getting blocked by cors, mixed-content warnings, or inconsistent response formats. Sometimes the page loads, but the quiz data doesn’t, which makes it hard to sync scores or user inputs back into google sheets or forms.

I’m curious if anyone here has dealt with connecting google workspace tools to third-party interactive platforms like this. Is there a recommended way to handle authentication, headers, or cross-domain requests so these kinds of integrations work more reliably?

Any advice or best practices would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi @Gareth_Carson You are likely trying to fetch a normal website, not an API. That is why you get CORS, mixed content, and unstable responses. Browsers block cross-domain requests unless the external server allows it.

Do not load or scrape the quiz web page directly. Instead, check if the platform provides an official API. If it does, call it from Apps Script using UrlFetchApp on the server side, handle authentication properly, then write the clean response to Sheets or Forms.

If the platform has no API, reliable integration is usually not possible because browser security restrictions will block it.