Programmatically entry working places with the Calendar API — Google for Builders Weblog

Posted by Chanel Greco, Developer Advocate

Giving Google Workspace customers the power to set their working location and dealing hours in Google Calendar was an vital step in serving to our clients’ workers adapt to a hybrid world. Sending a Chat message asking “Will you be within the workplace tomorrow?” quickly grew to become out of date as anybody may share the place and once they could be working inside Calendar.

To enhance the hybrid working expertise, many organizations depend on third-party or company-internal instruments to allow duties like scorching desk reserving or scheduling days within the workplace. Till not too long ago, there was no technique to programmatically synchronize the working location set in Calendar with such instruments.

Robin shows the working location from Google Calendar of their software and updates the person’s Google Calendar once they e-book a desk in Robin

Programmatically learn and write working places

We’re happy to announce that the Calendar API has been up to date to make working places out there and this added performance is usually out there (characteristic is barely out there for eligible Workspace editions). This permits builders to programmatically learn and write the working location of Google Workspace customers. This may be particularly helpful in three use circumstances which have surfaced in discussions with clients which we’re going to discover collectively.

Enhancing the Calendar API permits builders to synchronize person’s working location with third-party instruments like Robin and Comeen. For instance, some firms present their workers with desk reserving instruments to allow them to e-book their office prematurely for the times they are going to be on-site. HR administration instruments are additionally frequent for workers to request and set “Do business from home” days. In each conditions the person needed to set their working location in two separate instruments: their desk reserving instrument and/or HR administration system and Google Calendar.

Because of the working location being accessible by means of the Calendar API this duplicate work is now not vital since a person’s working location might be programmatically set. And if a person’s calendar is the one supply of reality? In that case, the API can be utilized to learn the working location from the person’s calendar and write it to any permissioned third-party instrument.

Comeen’s Google Workspace Add-on synchronizes the person’s’ working places every time the person updates their working location, both in Google Calendar or in Comeen’s add-on

The API permits the surfacing of the person’s working location in different instruments, creating attention-grabbing alternatives. For example, a few of our clients have requested for methods to higher coordinate in-office days. Think about you might be planning to be on the workplace tomorrow. Who else out of your staff will likely be there? Who from a neighboring staff is perhaps on-site for a espresso chat?

With the Calendar API, a person’s working location might be displayed in instruments like directories, or a hybrid-work scheduling instrument. The aim is to make a person’s working location out there within the techniques which are related to our clients.

The third use case that surfaced from discussions with our clients is analyzing working location patterns. With a lot of our clients having a hybrid work method it’s very important to have a superb understanding of the working patterns. For instance, which days do places attain maximal authorized capability? Or, when does the on-campus restaurant have to organize extra meals for workers working on-site?

The API solutions these and different questions in order that facility administration can adapt their assets to the wants of their workers.

Methods to get began

Now that you’ve got an thought of the probabilities the up to date Calendar API creates, we need to information you on how one can get began utilizing it.

Try the developer documentation for studying and writing a person’s working places.

Watch the announcement video on the Google Workspace Builders YouTube channel.

Test the authentic submit concerning the launch of the working location characteristic for a listing of all Google Workspace plans which have entry to the characteristic.