How to Schedule a Meeting in Google Calendar with Google Apps Script

Google Apps Script provides a lot of features and functionalities that can be used to automate tasks in various Google services such as Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and many more. In this blog post, we will be discussing how to schedule a meeting in Google Calendar with Google Apps Script.

First, let’s take a look at the steps involved in scheduling a meeting in Google Calendar:

1. Create an event in Google Calendar
2. Add the necessary details such as the event title, date and time, location, and description
3. Invite attendees to the meeting by adding their email addresses
4. Send the meeting invite to all the attendees

Now, let’s see how we can do all these steps with Google Apps Script.

Step 1: Authorize Google Calendar API

Before we can start using the Google Calendar API in Apps Script, we need to enable it in the Apps Script project. To do this, open your Apps Script project and go to the Resources menu -> Advanced Google Services. In the Google Cloud Platform API dashboard, search for Google Calendar API and toggle the switch to turn it on.

Next, we need to authorize the API by clicking on the Google Cloud Platform API link at the bottom of the dialog box. This will open a new tab where you can enable the API and create the necessary credentials.

Step 2: Create a New Calendar Event

To create a new calendar event with Google Apps Script, we need to use the Calendar Service. The first thing we need to do is create a new Calendar object:

var calendar = CalendarApp.getCalendarById('yourcalendarid@group.calendar.google.com');

Replace ‘yourcalendarid@group.calendar.google.com’ with your own calendar ID which can be found on the calendar settings page.

Next, we can create a new event object and set its properties:

var event = calendar.createEvent(
    'Meeting with Clients', 
    new Date('June 30, 2022 16:00:00'), 
    new Date('June 30, 2022 17:00:00'),
    {
        location: '123 Main St, Anytown USA',
        description: 'Discussing the new project requirements and timelines',
        guests: 'client1@example.com,client2@example.com'
    }
);

In this example, we are creating a new event with the title ‘Meeting with Clients’ on June 30, 2022 from 4 pm to 5 pm. We have also added the event location, description, and guest list.

Step 3: Send Meeting Invitation

To send the meeting invitation to all the attendees, we can use the sendInvites() method of the event object:

event.sendInvites();

This will send an email invitation to all the attendees and add the event to their calendars.

Putting it all together, the final code will look something like this:

function scheduleMeeting() {
    var calendar = CalendarApp.getCalendarById('yourcalendarid@group.calendar.google.com');
    var event = calendar.createEvent('Meeting with Clients', new Date('June 30, 2022 16:00:00'), new Date('June 30, 2022 17:00:00'), {
        location: '123 Main St, Anytown USA',
        description: 'Discussing the new project requirements and timelines',
        guests: 'client1@example.com,client2@example.com'
    });
    event.sendInvites();
}

You can also customize this code to take user input for the event title, date and time, location, and attendees. This will allow you to easily schedule meetings with different details without having to modify the code each time.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we discussed how to schedule a meeting in Google Calendar with Google Apps Script. We went through the steps involved in creating a new event, adding the necessary details, inviting attendees, and sending the meeting invitation. We also provided code examples that you can use as a starting point for your own meeting scheduling script. With the power of Google Apps Script, you can automate many tasks in Google services and make your work more efficient.