Start Processes from Appointments in Google Calendar

In this article we will explain the automated steps related to Google Calendar.

Google Calendar is an online calendar provided by Google. In addition to personal use, it can also be shared by multiple people if you use Google Workspace. You can use the API to perform various operations, and the auto-step we are going to introduce here also uses the API.

For more information about Google Calendar please visit the official Google help page.

About the auto-step of linking with Google Calendar

Auto-steps related to Google Calendar include [Start: Google Calendar: Event Started], [Google Calendar: Insert Event], [Google Calendar: Move Event to another Calendar], and [Google Calendar: Delete Event] which are included as standard in Advanced and higher editions, and [Google Calendar Get events list (schedules)] which can be added as an add-on for Professional and above. In this article, we will focus on [Google Calendar: Event Started] and [Google Calendar: Move Event to another Calendar].

Start: Google Calendar: Event Started

A Process will be started when the start time of a Google Calendar appointment has passed. You can also save information such as the event title, start/end time, description, etc. to a Process Data Item.

Google Calendar: Move Event to another Calendar

Moves an appointment in Google Calendar to another Google calendar. You can also get the URL for showing the details after the move and save it in a Data Item.

In order to use these auto-steps you need to link your Google account that accesses Google Calendar with your Questetra BPM Suite (user) account. Please follow the steps below to set this up.

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Setting up Google Connectivity

Setting up a workflow platform

This should be done by a user with System Administrator Authorization.
Open the System Settings page and go to Google Connectivity. On this page enter your Google Workspace domain. (If you have already set up your domain please skip this step.)

Press “Save” to complete the configuration.
This will allow you to use Google connectivity features such as single sign-on in your environment.
In your account settings, you will see an option to link your account with Google.

Account settings

First, open your account settings and click on Google Connectivity.

On the page that opens check the button in the “Google Calendar” section. If the button says “disconnect” then your account is already connected to your Google account. If so, you don’t need to do anything else.

If the button says “connect”, the connectivity has not yet been set. In this case please click on the button. On the page that opens, sign in to the Google account you want to link and click “Allow” on the subsequent screen.

Now you’re ready to connect. You can also read more about Google connectivity here.

Target Google calendars

[Start: Google Calendar: Event Started] will load the events in the specified (or primary if unspecified) calendar and start the process. Therefore, if you want to start a specific App, you will need a dedicated calendar for each event placed in each App.

Google Calendar comes with one calendar per account by default. This is called your primary calendar. This calendar can be overlaid with other calendars, such as a shared calendar for your company. You can also create and add new calendars. We will use this feature to create a calendar specifically for launching the App.

To add a new calendar, go to “Other Calendars” in the left menu of the calendar screen and select Create New Calendar. This will take you to the settings screen where you can enter a name for the calendar, and click “Create”. The name of the calendar you have just created will be added to My Calendars in the left menu; click on it to select it. Click the options icon, select “Settings and sharing” and on the screen that appears, in the “Integrate Calendar” section you will see the Calendar ID string. This string is to be set in the config Item [Calendar ID] in each auto-step settings screen.

In the example App in this article we will use two additional calendars: “Workflow Starter” and “Started Items”.

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Example App

This is an application to check the behavior of [Start: Google Calendar; Event Started].

Create and [Release] this App, then add an appointment to your calendar to see that the new Process is started after the appointment start time. After confirmation, the appointment events registered in the “Workflow Starter” will be moved to the “Started Items”.

The Data Items are prepared to store the data to be retrieved at the start of the Process.

Data Item Name	Data-type	Required	[Confirmation] Process	Description
Title	ー	No	Display only	The title of the Process
Appointment ID	String-type (single line)	No	Display only	The ID of an individual appointment in the calendar.
Start time	Datetime-type	No	Display only	The start time of the appointment.
End time	Datetime-type	No	Display only	The end time of the appointment.
Appointment title	String-type (single line)	No	Display only	The title of the appointment.
Appointment description	String-type (multiple lines)	No	Display only	The content of the appointment description field.
Appointment URL	String-type (single line)	No	Display only	The URL to display the appointment. This allows you to view the event in a browser that does not have access to the calendar.

The settings for [Start: Google Calendar: Event Started] are as follows

Config name	Required	Description
C1: User who connects to Google Calendar *	Yes	Specifies who will connect to Google Calendar. The specified user must be set up to work with their Google Calendar.
C2: Calendar ID	No	The calendar to be monitored is specified by its ID, which can be found in the calendar settings for the target calendar. If not specified, the primary calendar will be used.
C3: Data item to save Event ID *	Yes	Specifies the Data Item to store the appointment ID. This time, select “Appointment ID”.
C4: Data item to save Event Start Datetime	No	Select a Data Item to save the start time of the appointment.
C5: Data item to save Event End Datetime	No	Select a Data Item to save the end time of the appointment.
C6: Data item to save Event Title	No	Select the Data Item to save the appointment title.
C7: Data item to save Description	No	Select the Data Item for which you want to save the appointment description.
C8: Data item to save Event URL	No	Select the Data Item to save the appointment display URL.

Once the App is released it will start monitoring the specified Google calendar. The first time it accesses the calendar it will only fetch the appointments and will not start any Process; the second and subsequent accesses will start a Process for each appointment that is past its start time at the time of polling.
ワークフローアプリがリリースされると、「開始: Google カレンダー: 予定開始時」イベントは定期的に Google カレンダーの監視（ポーリング）を行います。ポーリングは、アプリが稼働中の間は、継続的に行われます。

The settings for [Google Calendar: Move Event to another Calendar] are as follows

Config name	Required	Description
C1: User who connects to Google Calendar *	Yes	Specifies who will connect to Google Calendar. The specified user must be set up to work with their Google Calendar.
C2: Calendar ID of the current event	No	Specify the ID of the calendar in which the appointment to be moved is registered. If not specified, the primary calendar will be used.
C3: Destination Calendar ID	No	Specify the ID of the calendar to which the event is moved. If not specified, the primary calendar will be used.
C4: Event ID *	Yes	Select the Data Item that saves the appointment ID.
C5: Data item to save Event URL	No	Select the Data Item to save the appointment display URL.

When the processing of the “Confirmation” Step is completed, this auto-step will move the appointment registered in the “Workflow Starter” calendar to the “Started Items.” The appointment URL stored in the Data Item will be overwritten with the moved URL.

Auto-step Logs

Clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Property Settings screen opens the Event Details screen which lists the Auto-Processing Log (Process Log) for the operation of the Process in question. You can check the details of the process log for polling and Process Start.
If you see “Polling by Start Event Failed” in the Auto-processing log, please review your settings.

The following screen capture shows an example of a Process being started from an appointment, with the appointment starting at 16:00 and the Process being started at 16:01. The text entered in the title and description of the appointment has also been copied into the Data Item. After the task processing is completed it changes from “Workflow Starter” (brown) to “Started Items” (blue).
That’s all for now.

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