Google Calender Backend

Setting up

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
2. On the left, find the My calendars section. To expand it, click the Down arrow button.
3. Hover over the calendar you want to share, and click Options for <Calendar Name> (three vertical dots) and then Settings and sharing.
4. On the left, find the Integrate calendar section and click it.
5. On the right, copy the Public URL to this calendar link.
6. Use the copied link as the value of the mv-source (mv-init) attribute in your app.

Note: If you want to access your primary calendar, simply use https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ as the source, like so: mv-source="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/". This is equivalent to mv-source="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=your_email"

Note: To learn about other ways of sharing your calendar, you may find this article useful. All the calendar URLs you can get by following the steps described in the article or Google Calendar Help are supported by the plugin. I.e., those are the allowed values of mv-source (mv-init):

• https://calendar.google.com/calendar/
• https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=your_email
• https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=cDlkOWxkOXZ2aHNrOXE5M2hhcDQxN2sxZHNAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ
• https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=p9d9ld9vvhsk9q93hap417k1ds@group.calendar.google.com
• https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=fr.french%23holiday%40group.v.calendar.google.com

Note: The plugin supports both public and private calendars. However, to read data from a private calendar and work with events in it (create, update, delete), the user must be logged in using their Google account.

Events

The plugin will return a collection of events from the specified calendar (by default 250 events but not more than 2500 events).

Every event has numerous properties, the most useful of which are the following:

Property	Simple/Complex/Collection	Description
summary	Simple	Title of the event.
description	Simple	Description of the event.
location	Simple	(Geographic) location of the event (as text).
start	Complex	The (inclusive) start time of the event. For a recurring event, this is the start time of the first instance. Properties: date (if this is an all-day event), dateTime, timeZone.
end	Complex	The (exclusive) end time of the event. For a recurring event, this is the end time of the first instance. Properties: date (if this is an all-day event), dateTime, timeZone.
attendees	Collection	The attendees of the event. Every element of the collection has the following properties: email, displayName, responseStatus, etc.
creator	Complex	The creator of the event with the following properties: email, displayName, etc.
organizer	Complex	The organizer of the event with the following properties: email, displayName, etc. If the organizer is also an attendee, this is indicated with a separate element in the attendees collection with the organizer property set to true.
hangoutLink	Simple	An absolute link to the Google Hangout associated with this event.
attachments	Collection	File attachments for the event. Every element of the collection has the following properties: title, mimeType, fileUrl, etc.

Note: For the list of all the supported properties (with description), see the documentation.

Actions

The plugin supports the following custom actions:

• create_event(text) to create an event based on a simple text string.
• create_event(text1, text2, ...) to create multiple different events based on simple text strings.
• create_event(event) to create an event by specifying its properties.
• create_event(event1, event2, ...) to create multiple different events by specifying their properties.
• update(event, values) to update one or more events.
• delete_event(events) to delete the entire collection of events.
• delete_event(event1, event2, ...) to delete multiple different events.

Warning: To perform any of these actions, the user must be logged in using their Google account and have the corresponding permissions in the specified calendar. In other words, they are to be allowed to make changes to events in that calendar. See Google Calendar Help for more details.

Create events: The create_event() function

The parameter of the function might be the text(s) describing the event(s) to be created. E.g., <button mv-action="create_event('Appointment at Somewhere on June 3rd 10am-10:25am')">Create Event</button>.

The other way to create an event is by specifying its properties. The start and end complex properties are mandatory (the event won't be created if you don't specify them). In this case, you may find the group() function useful.

For example,

<article property="event">
  <input property="summary" value="Event Title" />
  <p property="start">Start: <input type="datetime-local" property="dateTime" value="2022-06-20T12:00" /></p>
  <p property="end">End: <input type="datetime-local" property="dateTime" value="2022-06-20T13:00" /></p>
</article>
<button mv-action="create_event(event)">Create Event</button>
<button mv-action="create_event(group(start: event.start, end: event.end, summary: 'Mavo is awesome!'))">Create Event (with another title)</button>

If you provide multiple values, you will get multiple new events. E.g., <button mv-action="create_event(group(start: event.start, end: event.end), 'Appointment #1 at Somewhere on July 3rd 10am-10:25am')">Create Two Events</button>.

Update event: The update_event() function

You can update events with the update_event() function. The first argument is the event(s) you want to update, and the second is the new value(s) of some (or all) of its properties (fields). The field values you specify replace the existing values. Note that you can use this to update multiple events at once.

To specify new field values for the event(s), use the group() function.

E.g., <button mv-action="update_event(last(2, events), group(summary: 'Mavo is awesome!'))">Update two last events</button>.

Warning: You can't undo the event update.

Delete events: The delete_event() function

The parameter of the function is the event(s) to delete. This could be an entire collection, or specific items.

E.g., after clicking the <button mv-action="delete_event(events where starts(summary, 'Appointment'))">Delete Event</button> button the events which summary property starts with “Appointment” will be deleted.

Especially with the delete_event() function, you may find the where operator useful.

Warning: You can't undo event deletion.

Customization

The plugin supports a number of options for customizing the way it reads data from a calendar. You can specify these options by using the mv-source-options (mv-init-options) attribute. To separate the options, you can use either commas or semicolons.

E.g., by specifying mv-source-options="singleEvents, q: birthday, orderBy: startTime, maxResults: 15" you will get not more than 15 events ordered by the start time that have text “birthday” in either of the following properties: summary, description, location, attendee's displayName, attendee's email. All recurring events will be expanded into instances (recurring events themselves won't be returned).

Warning: You can use orderBy: startTime only with the singleEvents option together.

For more information, see the Optional query parameters section of the documentation.

Supported values of the mv-source-* (mv-init-*) family of attributes

Value	Description
calendar	(Optional) Calendar ID.

Localization strings

id	Value
mv-gcalendar-read-permission-denied	You don't have permission to read data from the calendar. Please, log in.
mv-gcalendar-write-permission-denied	You don't have permission to write data to the calendar.
mv-gcalendar-calendar-not-found	We couldn't find the calendar you specified.
mv-gcalendar-event-not-found	We couldn't find the event you specified.
mv-gcalendar-create-event-not-authenticated	Only authenticated users can create events. Please, log in.
mv-gcalendar-create-event-no-start-or-end	We couldn't create the event since it lacks required data: the start and/or the end time of the event.
mv-gcalendar-create-event-bad-data	We couldn't create the event since you provided incorrect data.
mv-gcalendar-delete-event-not-authenticated	Only authenticated users can delete events. Please, log in.
mv-gcalendar-event-already-deleted	Event “{event}” has already been deleted.
mv-gcalendar-delete-not-existing-event	The parameter of delete_event() needs to be an existing event, {event} is not.
mv-gcalendar-update-event-not-authenticated	Only authenticated users can update events. Please, log in.
mv-gcalendar-update-not-existing-event	The first parameter of update_event() needs to be one or more existing events, {event} is not.
mv-gcalendar-update-event-bad-data	We couldn't update the event since you provided incorrect data.
mv-gcalendar-creating-event	Creating event
mv-gcalendar-updating-event	Updating event
mv-gcalendar-deleting-event	Deleting event

Demo

<section mv-app="holidays" mv-source="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=fr.french%23holiday%40group.v.calendar.google.com" mv-source-options="maxResults: 5" mv-plugins="gcalendar">
  <h2>Jours Fériés en France</h2>
  <ul mv-list="events">
   <li mv-list-item>
    <h3 property="summary"></h3>
    <p property="start">
     La date: <time property="date"></time>
    </p>
   </li>
  </ul>
</section>

<section mv-app="mavo_events" mv-source="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=cDlkOWxkOXZ2aHNrOXE5M2hhcDQxN2sxZHNAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ" mv-source-options="singleEvents, orderBy: startTime" mv-plugins="gcalendar">
  <h2>Mavo Events</h2>
  <ul mv-list="events">
   <li mv-list-item>
    <h3 property="summary"></h3>
    <p property="start">
      Date: <time property="dateTime"></time><time property="date"></time>
    </p>
    <p property="description"></p>
   </li>
  </ul>

  <h2>Give the actions a try!</h2>
  <article property="event">
    <input property="summary" value="Event Title" />
    <p property="start">Start: <input type="datetime-local" property="dateTime" value="2022-06-20T12:00" /></p>
    <p property="end">End: <input type="datetime-local" property="dateTime" value="2022-06-20T13:00" /></p>
  </article>

  <button mv-action="create_event('Appointment #1 at Somewhere on July 3rd 10am-10:25am')">Create Event (from text)</button>
  <button mv-action="create_event(event)">Create Event (with specified properties)</button>
  <button mv-action="create_event(group(start: event.start, end: event.end, summary: 'Mavo is awesome!'))">Create Event (with another title)</button>
  <button mv-action="create_event(group(start: event.start, end: event.end), 'Appointment #1 at Somewhere on July 3rd 10am-10:25am')">Create Two Events</button>

  <button mv-action="delete_event(events where starts(summary, 'Appointment'))">Delete events whose title starts with “Appointment”</button>
  <button mv-action="delete_event(last(events))">Delete Last Event</button>

  <button mv-action="update_event(last(events), group(summary: 'New Title!'))">Update Last Event</button>
  <button mv-action="update_event(last(2, events), group(summary: 'New Title!'))">Update Two Last Events</button>
  <button mv-action="update_event(events, group(summary: 'Mavo is Awesome!'))">Update All Events</button>
</section>