Create a Google Calendar Event via the Calendar API

The following Google Apps Script is designed to create a single Google Calendar event via the Calendar API. I've been recently developing a tool to bulk create Calendar events from a Google Sheet but before that I needed to learn the necessary formatting/structure to be able to send details to the Calendar API.

This is a simple Google Apps Script file that may look lengthy but in actual fact is just each possible item of an event that a user may wish to modify. Some of the items have default values which means you could remove them from the script and the Calendar API would use these defaults instead. My hope is that laying out the format like this allows you to then manipulate as you require and learn as I did.

Structure of the event:

• ID of the Calendar to create the events in (typically an email address).
• Summary - title of the event.
• Description.
• Location.
• Start/End Date/Time.
• Google Meet conferencing.
• Attendees - guests invited to the event.
• Send updates - email invitations to attendees.
• Guests can invite others.
• Guests can modify the event.
• Guests can see other guests.
• Show Me As - your availability during the event (eg busy).
• Event visibility - eg private or public.

Bulk create Google Calendar events with optional Meet or Zoom - overview

As of March 2024 this tool is now available as a Google Workspace Marketplace Add-on.

The following Google Apps Script tool is designed to bulk create Google Calendar events with optional video conferencing (Google Meet or Zoom). It is an enhanced version of this blog post for creating events with optional Google Meet. As it now includes Zoom there are a number of extra steps such as additionally setting up a Zoom Marketplace App.

The tool is run entirely from a Google Sheet and the details of each event is added per row, from which the tool plugs in to Google Calendar and bulk creates the events for you. The outcome is the standard Calendar event item that can then be edited just like any other.

Google Sheet columns allow for event details to be added.

Bulk create Google Calendar events with optional Meet or Zoom - the code

As of March 2024 this tool is now available as a Google Workspace Marketplace Add-on.

Following on from the overview blog post here, I have included the code itself from which the tool is built:

Bulk create Google Calendar events with optional Google Meet

As of March 2024 this tool is now available as a Google Workspace Marketplace Add-on.

The following Google Apps Script tool is designed to bulk create Google Calendar events with optional video conferencing (ie Google Meet). The tool is run entirely from a Google Sheet and the details of each event is added per row, from which the tool plugs in to Google Calendar and bulk creates the events for you. The outcome is the standard Calendar event item that can then be edited just like any other.

Google Sheet columns allow for event details to be added.

Bulk create Google Calendar events with optional Google Meet - the code

Following on from the overview blog post here, I have included the code itself from which the tool is built:

Create a Zoom meeting via the API

The following blog post is a continuation from the connecting to the Zoom API via OAuth one here (please familiarise yourself with it before proceeding). In addition to this post for getting your Zoom meeting settings via the API.

We have already demonstrated successfully getting an Access Token for authentication from Zoom OAuth and then getting our Zoom meeting settings. Now that we have those items we can go ahead and create a Zoom meeting, as we will do here. You may find this page on creating a meeting via the API useful.

Zoom meeting details in a Google Sheet

Get your Zoom meeting settings via the API

The following blog post is a continuation from the connecting to the Zoom API via OAuth one here (please familiarise yourself with it before proceeding).

Now that we are able to successfully get an Access Token after authenticating our account we can use it to call various Zoom APIs. Here we will access user settings in your Zoom account, specifically the meeting settings, and log the results in a Google Sheet. This provides both a way of confirming we have made a successful connection and will allow us to create subsequent Zoom meetings using these settings.

Connect to Zoom API with Apps Script and OAuth

The following blog post is about connecting to the Zoom API by creating a Zoom OAuth App and then using a Web App designed in Google Apps Script. Our aim here is to return an Access Token which could then subsequently be used to access Zoom account data (eg your profile, meetings, etc).

Here are some useful links:

• How to create an OAuth App in Zoom.
• Zoom App Marketplace.
  
• How to deploy a Google Apps Script as a Web App.
  

 

Process overview

There are a set of steps that we need to complete in order to achieve successful authentication (connection with our Zoom account via the Zoom API):

1. Have a user visit a dedicated URL (which comes from our Web App).
2. This URL is attached to our Zoom OAuth App and upon a user visiting, it returns an Authorisation Code.
3. Our Web App then uses this Authorisation Code along with the Client ID and Client Secret (generated when we created the Zoom OAuth App) to make another request that finally returns an Access Token, valid for 1 hour.
4. Further blog posts will explore how we then get Zoom account data, create meetings, etc with the Access Token.