How to load a function from an external notebook that creates a docked cells toolbar?

Question

I coded a compact toolbar in its own file nbtaskmate.nb for various common notebook tasks which I would like to load onto any notebook I might have open with a simple command in a cell without having to copy all of the actual code onto a new cell in that notebook. I am not sure how to go about it.

I do not use $Path directories for my coded notebooks. Instead I use a directory in Google Drive which I call mathematica. I wish to load nbtaskmate.nb from a subdirectory mathematica\resources. By the way I am using Windows 10.

For clarity my open notebook would exist in mathematica\notebook.nb and my toolbar generating function would exist in mathematica\resources\nbtaskmate.nb

I tried using Get and FilePrint and both generated $Failed. I do not know why. I am confident it is an easy task as Mathematica is equipped with many useful low-level functions for loading code and manipulating notebooks. It is just too bad I do not understand them well.

The following is the code for my docked cells toolbar. No worries about loading it. There is a button for closing it.

nbTaskmate[] := Block[
   {nb, bgcolor, evalInitCells, deleteOutput, tooltipOps, brandstyle, 
    datestyle, brandOps, buttonstyle, buttonOps, arrowstyle, xstyle, 
    xOps, butgridOps, bargridOps, dockcellOps, brand, tasks, grid, 
    bar},
   nb = EvaluationNotebook[];
   bgcolor = RGBColor[0, 0, .5, 1];
   
   (* styles and options here for consistency *)
   
   tooltipOps[string_ : "tooltip"] := 
    Sequence[Tooltip -> string, TooltipDelay -> .5, 
     TooltipStyle -> {FontSize -> 12, Background -> LightYellow, 
       CellFrameColor -> bgcolor, 
       CellFrameMargins -> {{10, 10}, {5, 5}}}];
   brandstyle = Sequence[FontFamily -> "Helvetica", 12, Bold];
    datestyle = Sequence[FontFamily -> "Verdana", 12, Green];
   brandOps[] := 
    Sequence[Appearance -> None, ContentPadding -> False, 
     ImageSize -> Full, ImageMargins -> 0];
   buttonstyle = Sequence[FontFamily -> "Arial", 10, bgcolor];
   buttonOps[width_ : 50] := 
    Sequence[Appearance -> "Palette", Background -> LightBlue, 
     Alignment -> Center, ImageSize -> {width, 16}];
   arrowstyle = Sequence[FontFamily -> "Courier", 16, Bold, Black]; 
   xstyle = Sequence[FontFamily -> "Arial", 10, Bold, White];
   xOps = 
    Sequence[Appearance -> "Palette", Background -> Darker[Red], 
     Alignment -> Center, ImageSize -> {14, 12}];
   butgridOps[sp_ : .2, gap_ : 1.5] := 
    Sequence[
     Spacings -> {{0, sp, sp, gap, sp, gap, sp, sp, gap, sp, gap}, 0}];
   bargridOps[] := 
    Sequence[ItemSize -> {{Scaled[.3], Scaled[.7]}, Automatic}, 
     Spacings -> 0, Alignment -> {{Left, Right}, Center}, 
     Background -> bgcolor, BaseStyle -> {White, 10}];
   dockcellOps[] := 
    Sequence[Background -> bgcolor, CellFrame -> False, 
     CellFrameMargins -> {{12, 3}, {5, 5}}];
   
   (* left side of toolbar *)
   
   brand = 
    Button[Row[{Style["NB", brandstyle, LightBlue], 
       Style["TASKMATE", brandstyle, Red],
       Style["  \[RuleDelayed]  ", brandstyle, White],
       Style[Dynamic[DateString[], UpdateInterval -> 1], datestyle]
       }], Evaluate[brandOps[]], 
     tooltipOps[
      "NBTASKMATE 1.0 by Jules Manson\nplease submit questions,\n\
suggestions, or bugs to\[email protected]"]
     ];
   
   (* right side of toolbar *)
   
   tasks = Grid[
     {{
       Button[Style["Save", buttonstyle], 
        FrontEndTokenExecute["Save"], buttonOps[], 
        tooltipOps["Save Notebook"]],
       Button[Style["Save As", buttonstyle], 
        FrontEndTokenExecute["SaveRename"], buttonOps[], 
        tooltipOps["Save As Notebook"]],
       Button[Style["Revert", buttonstyle], 
        FrontEndTokenExecute["Revert"], buttonOps[], 
        tooltipOps["Revert to last Save"]],
       Button[Style["Eval Init", buttonstyle], 
        FrontEndExecute[FrontEndToken["EvaluateInitialization"]], 
        buttonOps[], tooltipOps["Evaluate Initialization Cells"]],
       Button[Style["Eval NB", buttonstyle], 
        NotebookEvaluate[EvaluationNotebook[], InsertResults -> True],
         buttonOps[], tooltipOps["Evaluate Notebook"], 
        Method -> "Queued"],
       Button[Style["ClearAll", buttonstyle], ClearAll["Global`*"], 
        buttonOps[], 
        tooltipOps[
         "Clear All Definitions, Attributes, and Messages\nCaution: \
after using some buttons may not work.\nReload toolbar to fix this."]],
       Button[Style["\[DeleteKey] Output", buttonstyle], 
        FrontEndExecute[FrontEndToken["DeleteGeneratedCells"]], 
        buttonOps[], tooltipOps["Delete All Output"]],
       Button[Style["\[DeleteKey] Cache", buttonstyle], 
        ClearSystemCache["Symbolic"], buttonOps[], 
        tooltipOps["Clear System Cache"]], 
       Button[Style["\[UpArrow]", arrowstyle], 
        FrontEndTokenExecute["ScrollNotebookStart"], buttonOps[20], 
        tooltipOps["Scroll to Top"]],
       Button[Style["\[DownArrow]", arrowstyle], 
        FrontEndTokenExecute["ScrollNotebookEnd"], buttonOps[20], 
        tooltipOps["Scroll to Bottom"]],
       Button[Style["x", xstyle], 
        Function[Null, 
         SetOptions[EvaluationNotebook[], DockedCells -> Inherited, 
          TaggingRules -> Inherited, CellContext -> Inherited]], xOps,
         tooltipOps["Remove Toolbar"]]
       }},
     butgridOps[]
     ];
   
   (* putting it all together *)
   
   bar = Grid[{{brand, tasks}}, bargridOps[]];
   SetOptions[EvaluationNotebook[], 
    DockedCells -> 
     Cell[BoxData[ToBoxes[bar]], "DockedCell", 
      Evaluate[dockcellOps[]]]]];

nbTaskmate[];

Answer 1

Make in your new notebook notebook.nb two cells. First:

NotebookEvaluate[
 FileNameJoin[{NotebookDirectory[EvaluationNotebook[]], "resources", 
   "nbtaskmate.nb"}]]

Then evaluate it and wait till it finishes. After that evaluate the second cell, which is

nbTaskmate[]

I use this approach for other purposes, unfortunately for some reasons (which are unclear for me, may be some timeouts?) if your will try to to evaluate both cells simultaneously the second one sometimes will not be evaluated (at least in my case, when nbtaskmate.nb takes some time to execute). The draw back that cell labels and $Line is affected (can reset them in the end of nbtaskmate.nb)