What's the difference between ui.alert and Browser.msgBox?

Question

When working with Google Scripting, there's a Browser.msgBox(); (Link) and ui.alert(); (Link). What is the difference between the two? They appear to do the exact same thing.

There are more methods within, such as Browser.inputBox(); and ui.prompt(); which again, appear to be identical.

Answer 1

The Browser Class is only available to a Spreadsheet. The Ui Class can be more widely used. Unfortunately, the documentation for Class Ui only shows an example of the getUi() method with the SpreadsheetApp Class. But getUi() is available to DocumentApp.

DocumentApp.getUi()

And to:

FormApp.getUi()

If you try to call Browser.msgBox() from the wrong context, you'll get an error:

Cannot call Browser.msgBox() from this context; have you tried Logger.log() instead?

Browser.msgBox() is easier to use in a Spreadsheet script. You don't need to first use var ui = SpreadsheetApp.getUi();

To compare:

Browser.msgBox('prompt here');
SpreadsheetApp.getUi().prompt('prompt here');