Yesterday I posted an article on how to create events in SalesForce programatically now we will do the same thing for Google Calendar. The processes are nearly the same but it’s not as straightforward as the SalesForce one specially on Event Creation and Custom fields extensions. One good thing though that Google has is a native .Net API that you can add to your project so you do not need to reference to the Google Calendar web service and the dll handles its for you.
First you need to download that API and add it in your .Net Project. You need to install the Google_Data_API_Setup_{CurrentVerion}.msi and to refer to it, you need to browse to “C:Program Files (x86)GoogleGoogle Data API SDKRedist” on 64 bit machines and “C:Program FilesGoogleGoogle Data API SDKRedist” on 32 bit machines by default
You need to reference 4 main items for this scenario and it is the following
Now include that reference in your codes
using Google.GData.Client; using Google.GData.Calendar; using Google.GData.Extensions;
Then like what we had done with the SalesForce article we need a method for login and here is the code snippet. Again I provided a proxy setting in case you need
private CalendarService GAuthenticate() { string sGoogleUserName = "username"; string sGooglePassword = "password"; Uri oCalendarUri = new Uri("http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/" + sGoogleUserName + "/private/full"); //Initialize Calendar Service CalendarService oCalendarService = new CalendarService("CalendarSampleApp"); oCalendarService.setUserCredentials(sGoogleUserName, sGooglePassword); //Use Proxy GDataRequestFactory oRequestFactory = (GDataRequestFactory)oCalendarService.RequestFactory; WebProxy oWebProxy = new WebProxy(WebRequest.DefaultWebProxy.GetProxy(oCalendarUri)); oWebProxy.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials; oWebProxy.UseDefaultCredentials = true; oRequestFactory.Proxy = oWebProxy; return oCalendarService; }
Now lets go to the methods you need, on all of the methods discussed below you will need the GAuthenticate to execute your methods
1. Creating Calendar Entries in Google programatically
Now if you notice we used 4 different object types unlike in SalesForce where we used only 1 object which is the SalesForceService.Event. Here we have to define an Event, Where, When and ExtendedProperty if you need one. ExtendedProperty is a way of adding properties to the objects programatically , so in this case we created a property called SynchronizationID which will hold our Guid that you can use with other apps.
Hint: I use this for my sync application.
//Set Event Entry EventEntry oEventEntry = new EventEntry(); oEventEntry.Title.Text = "Test Calendar Entry From .Net"; oEventEntry.Content.Content = "Hurrah!!! I posted my first Google calendar event through .Net"; //Set Event Location Where oEventLocation = new Where(); oEventLocation.ValueString = "New Zealand"; oEventEntry.Locations.Add(oEventLocation); //Set Event Time When oEventTime = new When(new DateTime(2011, 5, 31, 9, 0, 0), new DateTime(2011, 5, 31, 9, 0, 0).AddHours(1)); oEventEntry.Times.Add(oEventTime); //Set Additional Properties ExtendedProperty oExtendedProperty = new ExtendedProperty(); oExtendedProperty.Name = "SynchronizationID"; oExtendedProperty.Value = Guid.NewGuid().ToString(); oEventEntry.ExtensionElements.Add(oExtendedProperty); CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate(); //Prevents This Error //{"The remote server returned an error: (417) Expectation failed."} System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = false; //Save Event oCalendarService.Insert(oCalendarUri, oEventEntry);
You might also notice this line “System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = false”, that takes care of the HTTP 417 Error which is explained here.
2. Searching Calendar Entries in Google programatically
Searching is also straightforward, just use the EventQuery properties to pass to the CalendarService.Query method. Set the EventQuery.Query to the same query you use when you search for the calendar in Google.
You can also fliter by date start and end by using the StartDate and EndDate properties
CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate(); //Search for Event EventQuery oEventQuery = new EventQuery(oCalendarUri.ToString()); oEventQuery.Query = "Query String"; oEventQuery.StartDate = new DateTime(2011, 6, 5); oEventQuery.EndDate = new DateTime(2012, 6, 5); Google.GData.Calendar.EventFeed oEventFeed = oCalendarService.Query(oEventQuery); //Delete Related Events foreach (EventEntry oEventEntry in oEventFeed.Entries) { //Do your stuff here string sEventTitle = oEventEntry.Title.ToString(); }
But if you want to search for the ExtendedProperty like the “SynchronizationID” we created on the event creation on step 1 then you need to use the ExtraParameters property and use the extq=[YourCutomProperty:TheValue] to get what you need.
CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate(); //Search for Event EventQuery oEventQuery = new EventQuery(oCalendarUri.ToString()); oEventQuery.ExtraParameters = "extq=[SynchronizationID:Your GUID Here]"; Google.GData.Calendar.EventFeed oEventFeed = oCalendarService.Query(oEventQuery); //Delete Related Events foreach (EventEntry oEventEntry in oEventFeed.Entries) { //Do your stuff here string sEventTitle = oEventEntry.Title.ToString(); }
3. Updating Calendar Entries in Google programatically
Updating is straight forward, just search for the item then use the CalendarService.Update method
CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate(); //Search for Event EventQuery oEventQuery = new EventQuery(oCalendarUri.ToString()); oEventQuery.ExtraParameters = "extq=[SynchronizationID:{Your GUID Here}]"; Google.GData.Calendar.EventFeed oEventFeed = oCalendarService.Query(oEventQuery); //Delete Related Events foreach (EventEntry oEventEntry in oEventFeed.Entries) { //Update Event oEventEntry.Title.Text = "Updated Entry"; oCalendarService.Update(oEventEntry); break; }
4. Deleting Calendar Entries in Google programatically
Deleting is straight forward, as well, just search for the item then use the CalendarService.Delete method
CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate(); //Search for Event EventQuery oEventQuery = new EventQuery(oCalendarUri.ToString()); oEventQuery.ExtraParameters = "extq=[SynchronizationID:{Your GUID Here}]"; Google.GData.Calendar.EventFeed oEventFeed = oCalendarService.Query(oEventQuery); //Delete Related Events foreach (EventEntry oEventEntry in oEventFeed.Entries) { oEventEntry.Delete(); break; }
Nice post! Thanks for sharing… 🙂
hi,
how does one send an appointment to someone else? All the examples I have found on the net are authenticating to a known user. what if I want to send an appointment to someone else
I have done it with Hotmails calendar no problem
Hi,
Please tell me how to do this in windows phone 7 ?
am unable to add the google dll’s in wp7 please give me reply asap
thanks in advance
I haven’t tried this in a mobile project yet
hi, excelente article but…where can i download the code? Thanks!
Can you please tell me if i want to add guests programmatically in the above code ?
For Google do something like this
foreach (CalendarParticipant oGuest in oCalendarEvent.Guests)
{
if (oGuest.Email != "")
{
Who oEventParticipant = new Who();
oEventParticipant.ValueString = oGuest.Name;
oEventParticipant.Email = oGuest.Email;
oEventParticipant.Rel = Who.RelType.EVENT_ATTENDEE;
oEventEntry.Participants.Add(oEventParticipant);
}
}
For SalesForce its something like this
if (oCalendarEvent.Guests.Count != 0)
{
oEvent.EventAttendees = GetContactIDs(oCalendarEvent.Guests);
}
public QueryResult GetContactIDs(List oCalendarParticipants)
{
string sWhereClause = "";
foreach (CalendarParticipant oCalendarParticipant in oCalendarParticipants)
{
sWhereClause += "'" + oCalendarParticipant.Email + "',";
}
sWhereClause = "(" + sWhereClause.Substring(0, sWhereClause.Length - 1) + ")";
//SforceService oSalesForceService = Authenticate();
QueryResult oQueryResult = null;
oSalesForceService.QueryOptionsValue = new QueryOptions();
oQueryResult = oSalesForceService.query("select Id from Contact where email in " + sWhereClause);
return oQueryResult;
}
hi !, Nice code with very helpful details , please help me in following:
1: Want to add some Guests programmatically.
2: then send invitations to all of them so that they can add this to their Calendar or Accept/Reject (if possible).
this will help me a lot.
Thank you for all these code.
Hi Rit, please read this on my last comment. It shows how to add guests and if I can remember once this is added they will be sent an email automatically as Gmail does that (still have to confirm though)
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using Google.GData.Calendar;
using Google.GData.Client;
using Google.GData.Extensions;
using System.Net;
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
string sGoogleUserName = “username”;
string sGooglePassword = “password”;
Uri oCalendarUri = new Uri(“http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/” + “username” + “/private/full”);
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Google.GData.Calendar.EventEntry oEventEntry = new Google.GData.Calendar.EventEntry();
oEventEntry.Title.Text = “Test Calendar Entry From .Net”;
oEventEntry.Content.Content = “Hurrah!!! I posted my first Google calendar event through .Net”;
Where oEventLocation = new Where();
oEventLocation.ValueString = “India”;
oEventEntry.Locations.Add(oEventLocation);
When oEventTime = new When(new DateTime(2015, 1, 15, 9, 0, 0), new DateTime(2015, 1, 15, 9, 0, 0).AddHours(1));
oEventEntry.Times.Add(oEventTime);
CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate();
System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = false;
oCalendarService.Insert(oCalendarUri,oEventEntry);
}
private CalendarService GAuthenticate()
{
//Initialize Calendar Service
CalendarService oCalendarService = new CalendarService(“CalendarSampleApp”);
oCalendarService.setUserCredentials(sGoogleUserName, sGooglePassword);
//Use Proxy
GDataRequestFactory oRequestFactory = (GDataRequestFactory)oCalendarService.RequestFactory;
WebProxy oWebProxy = new WebProxy(WebRequest.DefaultWebProxy.GetProxy(oCalendarUri));
oWebProxy.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
oWebProxy.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
oRequestFactory.Proxy = oWebProxy;
return oCalendarService;
}
}
Show Above Code i try and i getting error like:-
Google.GData.Client.GDataRequestException: Execution of authentication request returned unexpected result: 405
Remove the proxy part if you are not using one
To use Google calender Api is it Compulsory to Create Project in Google Console? And Further Process to be done?
if Yes Then Please Tell me All step By step information to use Google Calender API in Asp.net Website.
Thank you For Replaying…..
Nope its not compulsory, I just used it on my project where I can connect to the Public as well as Enterprise Google