Google Calendar

 

Getting Started with Google Calendar

Prerequisites

Google account
In order to use Google Calendar with Integromat, it is necessary to have a Google account. If you do not have one, you can create a Google account at https://accounts.google.com.

Adding Google Calendar to your scenario

1. Click on the blue button, Create a new scenario in the top-right corner of Integromat’s main page.

2. Search the Google Calendar service using the search field.
3. Select the Google Calendar by clicking on its icon.
4. Click on the Continue button.

Information: You have now added Google Calendar to your favorites.

5. Your scenario is now open.
6. Click on the question mark icon (in the center of your scenario view) and select Google Calendar from the menu.
7. Select one of the modules (trigger, action or iterator) from the menu. We will describe each of their functions in the following section of this article.

Modules

Most of the Google Calendar modules require a connection to a Google account (as mentioned above).
You can establish this connection by following instructions in this step-by-step guide.

The only setting which will be different for each module is the access rights permission.
It is necessary to grant access rights permission to allow Integromat to manage a Google Calendar.

Triggers

Trigger modules generate bundles when there has been a change in a given service. The change can be a creation of a new record(s), deletion of a record(s), update of a record(s), etc. Integromat distinguishes between two types of triggers: scheduled triggers and instant triggers.
All triggers can return zero, one or more bundles which are then passed on to the next module for processing.

Triggers can be placed only at the beginning of a scenario.
Each scenario can contain only one trigger.

Watch events

If the new event is added to the selected calendar then an action is automatically triggered.

What does this mark mean?

ACID modules

All Integromat modules that support transactionality are marked with the ACID tag. The modules that are not marked with this tag do not support transactionality and cannot be reverted back to their initial state in the case of error(s) in other modules.
A typical example is the Email > Send an Email action. Once the email is sent (during the operation phase), you cannot undo the sending.

Trigger dialog fields:

Connection Add and select your Google account from the drop-down menu.

Calendar Select the calendar you want to work with.

Watch Here you can choose whether you want to check for all changes made in the calendar or check only for new events that have been added to the calendar.

Click the checkbox Show deleted events to also process events which were deleted (e.g. for backup purposes).

Query You can filter events containing specified text. Enter desired text into this field.

Maximum number of events Set the maximum number of events that Integromat will work with during one cycle (the number of repetitions per scenario run). If the value is set too high, the connection may be interrupted on the side of the given third-party service (timeout). Integromat has no influence on this. We recommend that you set a lower value and either define a higher value for the maximum number of cycles or run the scenario more frequently.

Watch events – Instant

Trigger dialog fields:

Mailhook Create a mailhook by clicking the Add button or select an already created mailhook. Use this mailhook's address as the guest’s e-mail address of a Google Calendar event so the module can process data from the emailed invitation.

Maximum number of events Set the maximum number of events that Integromat will work with during one cycle (the number of repetitions per scenario run). If the value is set too high, the connection may be interrupted on the side of the given third-party service (timeout). Integromat has no influence on this. We recommend that you set a lower value and either define a higher value for the maximum number of cycles or run the scenario more frequently.

Trigger a specified time before an event

It is possible to trigger a scenario a specified time before an event with the help of standard Google Calendar email reminders and the Webhooks > Custom mailhook module.

1. Employ the Google Calendar > Update an event module to add an email reminder to your event:
   
2. Create a new scenario starting with the Webhooks > Custom mailhook module. Copy the mailhook's email address. Save the scenario and execute it.
3. In Gmail, redirect the Google Calendar email reminders to the mailhook's email address:
   1. Open your Gmail settings.
   2. Open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
   3. Press the "Add a forwarding address" button:
      
   4. Paste the copied mailhooks's email address, press "Next", confirm by pressing "Proceed" in the popup window and close the dialog by pressing "OK".
   5. In Integromat, switch to the new scenario which should finish its execution by receiving the confirmation email.
   6. Click the bubble above the module to inspect module's output.
   7. Expand the Text item and search for the Confirmation code:
      
   8. Copy the Confirmation code.
   9. In Gmail, paste the Confirmation code in the edit box and pres "Verify":
      
   10. Open the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
   11. Click the "Create a new filter" link:
       
   12. Setup a filter for all emails coming from calendar-notification@google.com and press "Create a filter":
       
   13. Tick the "Forward it to:" checkbox and choose the mailhooks's email address from the list:
       
   14. Press "Create filter" to create the filter.
4. In Integromat, you may add Text parser > Match pattern module after the Webhooks > Custom mailhook module to parse the email's HTML code to obtain any information you need. You may for example configure the module like this to obtain the event's ID:
   Pattern:<meta itemprop="eventId/googleCalendar" content="(?<evenitID>.*?)"/>
   Text: The HTML content item outputted from the Webhooks > Custom mailhook module:
   

Actions

Unlike triggers, action modules can be placed at the beginning, middle or end of a scenario and scenarios can contain an unlimited number of action modules.

Create an event

This action creates an event in your Google Calendar using the input information.

Action dialog fields:

Here you can find the same fields as in your original Google Calendar application.

Connection Add and/or select your Google account from the drop-down menu.

Calendar Select the calendar you want to work with.

Event name Enter the event name. You can also use values from the foregoing module and functions.
Here you can find a description of available functions.

Start date Enter the start date of the event. For the correct format usage please refer to the list of supported date format.

End date Enter the end date of the event. For the correct format usage please refer to the list of supported date format.

Reminder Here you can add the reminder. Select the method you want to be reminded with and define how long (in minutes) before the event you want to be reminded.

If you want to be notified when a new event is created, click on Send notifications about the creation of the new event button.

If there is this button next to the function or field, you can use it to set variables and functions for the corresponding option.

Update an event

This action can be used to perform changes in an already created event.

Connection Add and/or select your Google account from the drop-down menu.

Calendar Select the calendar you want to work with.

Event ID Enter the event ID from a previously created Google Calendar event.

You can update the event information by entering new values to the desired field (i.e. Event name, Start date, End date).

Delete an event

This function allows you to delete an entire event.

Connection Add and/or select your Google account from the drop-down menu.

Calendar Select the calendar you want to work with.

Event ID Enter the event ID from a previously created Google Calendar event you want to delete.

Get events

This module can be used to load an event(s) matching specified criteria.

Connection Add and/or select your Google account from the drop-down menu.

Calendar Select the calendar you want to work with.

Continue the execution of the route even if the module returns no resultscheckbox Check this box to process the workflow despite the case where no information from the module was loaded.

Start date Enter the start date of the event you want to load and process. For the correct format usage please refer to the list of supported date format. You can also select and use variables and functions from the menu.

End date Enter the end date of the event you want to load and process. For the correct format usage please refer to the list of supported date format. You can also select and use variables and functions from the menu.

Single event Select this option if you want to expand recurring events into instances and only return single one-off events and instances of recurring events, but not the underlying recurring events themselves.

Query You can filter events containing specified text. Enter the text you want to filter into this field.

Create a calendar

Connection Add and/or select your Google account from the drop-down menu.

Calendar name Enter a name of the new calendar.

Iterators

Iterator allows you to split an array (more information in one package) into separated information pieces which can be processed further individually.

Iterate attendees

Use this function to split event attendees into separated bundles. After this module, you can further process each attendee's information in separate operations.

Source module Select one of the previous modules containing the attendee information you want to process.

Iterate attachments

Use this function to split files attached to the event into separated bundles. After this module, you can further process each attachment in separate operations (e.g. sending different file types to different apps of your choice).

Source module Select one of the previous modules containing the attachment information you want to process.

Common problems

The Get events action could not return all events

The Get events action can only handle up to 2500 events. If there are more events in the specified time period, it will only return the 2500 latest events and skip all the others.