Workflows: Google Calendar

The Google Calendar workflow node allows you to automatically create calendar events in your Google Calendar whenever a workflow is executed in your Clappia app. This means that when a user makes a new submission, edits an existing submission, or when a status is changed (depending on where you place this workflow node), a corresponding event can be created in Google Calendar with all the necessary details.

This is particularly useful for scheduling meetings, reminders, or task deadlines directly from your app submissions, without needing to manually update your calendar each time.

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Adding the Google Calendar Workflow Node

1. Go to the Workflows section of your app.
2. Under the desired flow (e.g., New Submission Flow, Edit Submission Flow, or Status Change Flow), click on Start or the + icon to add a workflow node.
3. Select Google Calendar from the list of workflow nodes.

Configuring the Google Calendar Node

When you add the Google Calendar node, a configuration panel opens on the right side of the screen. This panel contains all the options needed to set up your integration.

Step Name

You can provide a name for this workflow step in the Step Name field. By default, it will be named Google Calendar, but you can rename it for easier identification (for example: Create Meeting Event).

Authenticate with Google Calendar

Before setting up the node, you need to connect it to your Google account.

• Click on the Authenticate with Google Calendar button.
• A Google pop-up window will appear asking you to sign in to your account and allow Clappia to access your calendar.

• Select your account and click Allow.
• Once connected, you will see a confirmation message under the button: Connected to Google Calendar.

Note: You don’t need to authenticate again once connected. However, if you close the panel without saving the configuration, you may need to reconnect to set it up again.

After authentication, you will get additional options to configure. These options set up the Calendar event details.

Action Type

The Google Calendar node currently supports the action type: Create Event.
This action will create a new event in your connected Google Calendar whenever the workflow executes.

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Event Type

After selecting the action type, you need to specify the Event Type. There are three available options:

• One-time Event: A single event scheduled for a specific date and time.
• Recurring Event: An event that repeats based on a recurrence rule (e.g., weekly team meeting).
• All-day Event: An event that spans the entire day without specific start and end times.

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Event Details

Next, configure the details of the calendar event. These fields can either be filled manually or dynamically using variables from your app’s fields.

• Event Title: The name of the event. Type @ to see and select from the list of fields in your app. For example, you can map this to a Meeting Title field entered by the user.
• Description: Additional information about the event. Again, you can type @ to insert values from your app.
• Start Date and End Date: Choose the date fields from your app submission that mark when the event begins and ends. It can also be the same date field from your app.
• Start Time: The starting time of the event. This should be mapped to a time field in your app submission.
• End Time: The ending time of the event. This should be mapped to a time field.
• Location: You can use text fields, dropdowns, selectors, etc. in your app to specify the location. If you want to include a full address, you can use a GPS Location block with the Fetch Address option enabled. Then, add a Calculation block to pull the GPS address variable, and use this variable in the Location option of the workflow node.
• Attendees: Add the email addresses of the attendees. You can map this to an email field or text fields from your app so that invitees are automatically included.

Using the @ symbol ensures that data entered by users into the app is dynamically captured and inserted into the calendar event, saving you from re-entering it manually.

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Reminder

You can set a reminder for the event so attendees receive a notification before it starts. The dropdown provides different options for how early the reminder should be triggered.

Recurrence Rule (for Recurring Events)

If you select Recurring Event as the event type,

an additional field appears: Recurrence Rule. This is a mandatory field.

The recurrence rule follows the standard iCalendar format (RRULE). For example:

RRULE:FREQ=WEEKLY;COUNT=10

• FREQ=WEEKLY: This specifies that the event should repeat every week.
• COUNT=10: This specifies the number of times the event should occur.

So, the above example means that the event will repeat weekly for a total of 10 occurrences.

You can customize the frequency and count as per your requirements.

Once all the options are set, click Save. The workflow node is now ready and will create calendar events according to your configuration whenever the workflow runs.

Other Options

Parent Step

Set the parent step for the node. This ensures the node is executed only after its parent step (the workflow node above the Google Calendar node) completes.

Enable This Step

Toggle this option to enable or disable the workflow step. Disabling a step skips its execution (and all workflow nodes below it) during the workflow.

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Example Use Case

Suppose you want to automatically schedule meetings based on user submissions and have a meeting scheduler app (or any other app from which you want to send out calendar invites).

The app contains:

• A single line text field for the Meeting Title
• A single Date field for the Start Date and End Date.
• A Time field for the Start Time and another for the End Time
• A Single line text field for Attendees.
• A dropdown field for location.

These fields are mapped to the Google Calendar workflow node accordingly and the event type set to One-time Event.

Whenever a user makes a submission in the app, an event is automatically created in Google Calendar in all the attendees listed.

The event is scheduled for the date and time entered in the submission, the meeting title becomes the event title, and invites are sent to all the email addresses entered in the attendees field.