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Integrating Google Calendar API with Python

Ram Bansal

This is a step-by-step guide to integrating Google Calendar API with Python. We will use the Nylas Calendar APIs to integrate with Google Calendar.

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Intro

In this blog post, we integrate Google Calendar API with Python. We’ve previously explored and discussed the Google Calendar API, and this blog post focuses on managing Google Calendar over API using the Python language. We will be using the Nylas APIs to connect to the Google Calendar API, let’s chat about Nylas before we dive in.

The Nylas APIs allow developers to manage all communication data (Calendar, Email, Contact) using a single API that seamlessly integrates with all providers (i.e. Outlook, Yahoo, Google, iCloud). We recently discussed build vs. buy decisions and how tricky some integrations like IMAP can be.

Let’s consider reasons to build with Python to integrate with Google Calendar API

  • Large developer ecosystem, so you will find extensive libraries and frameworks,  including the Nylas Python SDK
  • Build full-stack applications using the Python programming language that is geared toward rapid development

We will integrate the Nylas Python SDK with the Google Calendar API. The benefit of using an SDK over Restful API calls is that we can use Python functions to retrieve data from a Google Calendar to make calls to the Nylas API.

Let’s dive in!

Prerequisites

For this blog post, we reference the Nylas Quickstart Guides with downloadable code that you can run locally on your machine or using Github Codespaces. Let’s go through the steps to get started:

  1. Setting up a Nylas developer account for free!
  2. Click on the navigation link: Quickstart guides
  3. Select and download the Read and Create Events, selecting the backend as Python:

Before you continue, ensure the download code contains a pre-filled .env file with the Nylas credentials. 

⚠️Note: Ensure the environment variables are not shared or pushed to a remote git repository.

Installing the Nylas Python SDK

Ensure you are using Python 3.7 or later. We can check this by running the following:

python3 --version

 
To install the Nylas Python SDK, included in the Quick Start Guide, run the following command:
pip install nylas

Authenticating and Initializing the SDK

Let’s set up the Nylas Python SDK using the environment variables we received:

nylas = APIClient(
    os.environ.get("NYLAS_CLIENT_ID"),
    os.environ.get("NYLAS_CLIENT_SECRET"),
    api_server = os.environ.get("NYLAS_API_SERVER") or "https://api.nylas.com"
)

For the API Server, check that you are following the URL for your region. We can double check our docs on data residency.

The environment variables can be found in the Nylas Dashboard under App Settings:

We have initialized the Nylas SDK and are ready to authenticate users.

Setting Up Google Calendar API Authentication

For connecting a user to retrieve their calendar data, we will use authentication provided by Nylas. For the Quick Start Guide, we provide a sandbox environment with credentials to connect user accounts, so you are ready to go! 

Consider our guides on a Google Project or Azure App if you are setting up a new project. The guides show you how to setup up authentication on your own and add your credentials to the Nylas dashboard.

The Quick Start Guide requests an email to authenticate and starts the Nylas authentication flow with the following code:

@flask_app.route("/nylas/generate-auth-url", methods=["POST"])
def build_auth_url():
    request_body = request.get_json()

    # SDK method generates a Nylas Hosted Authentication URL
    auth_url = nylas.authentication_url(
        (CLIENT_URI or "") + request_body["success_url"],
        login_hint=request_body["email_address"],
        scopes=['calendar'],
        state=None,
    )

    return auth_url

Once the user is redirected from an application like Google Calendar, we are given an authorization code to exchange for an access token. The access token is what we can use to make requests on the user’s behalf:

@flask_app.route("/nylas/exchange-mailbox-token", methods=["POST"])
def exchange_code_for_token():

    request_body = request.get_json()

    # SDK method exchanges authorization code for an access token
    access_token_obj = nylas.send_authorization(request_body["token"])

    # process the result and send to client however you want
    access_token = access_token_obj['access_token']
    email_address = access_token_obj['email_address']

    print('Access Token was generated for: ' + email_address)

  # Store user credentials in in-memory database
    user = db.create_or_update_user(email_address, {
        'access_token': access_token,
        'email_address': email_address
    })

    return {
        'id': user['id'],
        'emailAddress': user['email_address']
    }

Here is an example of the hosted authentication flow that you can try out from the Nylas Quickstart:

Fetching Calendar Events for Google Calendar API in Python

Let’s look at how we can fetch events for the Google Calendar API in Python. Here is the code for fetching calendar events:

@flask_app.route('/nylas/read-events', methods=['GET'])
@is_authenticated
def read_events():
  # pass in the criteria for searching for calendar events
    calendar_id = request.args.get('calendarId')
    starts_after = request.args.get('startsAfter')
    ends_before = request.args.get('endsBefore')
    limit = request.args.get('limit')

    res = nylas.events.where(
        calendar_id=calendar_id,
        starts_after=starts_after,
        ends_before=ends_before,
        limit=int(limit)
    ).all()

    # enforce_read_only=False is used to return the full event objects
    res_json = [item.as_json(enforce_read_only=False) for item in res]

    return res_json

We can retrieve calendar events from the Google Calendar API in Python using Nylas.

Creating New Calendar Events for Google Calendar API in Python

Let’s look at how to create new events for the Google Calendar API in Python. Here is the code for creating calendar events:

@flask_app.route('/nylas/create-events', methods=['POST'])
@is_authenticated
def create_events():
    request_body = request.get_json()

    calendar_id = request_body['calendarId']
    title = request_body['title']
    description = request_body['description']
    start_time = request_body['startTime']
    end_time = request_body['endTime']
    participants = request_body['participants']

    if not calendar_id or not title or not start_time or not end_time:
        return 'Missing required fields: calendarId, title, starTime or endTime', 400

    event = nylas.events.create()

    event.title = title
    event.description = description
    event.when = {
        'start_time': start_time,
        'end_time': end_time,
    }
    event.calendar_id = calendar_id
    if participants:
        event.participants = [{"email": email}
                              for email in participants.split(", ")]

    event.save(notify_participants=True)

    return event.as_json(enforce_read_only=False)

We can retrieve calendar events from the Google Calendar API in Python using Nylas.

Updating and Deleting Events with Google Calendar API in Python

Let’s look at how we can modify events for the Google Calendar API in Python. This will be very similar to creating events, just that we need to provide an eventId for the event we like to update. 

Here is the code for modifying calendar events:

@flask_app.route('/nylas/update-events', methods=['POST'])
@is_authenticated
def create_events():
    request_body = request.get_json()
	
    event_id = request_body['eventId']
    calendar_id = request_body['calendarId']
    title = request_body['title']
    description = request_body['description']
    start_time = request_body['startTime']
    end_time = request_body['endTime']
    participants = request_body['participants']

    if not calendar_id or not event_id or not title or not start_time or not end_time:
        return 'Missing required fields: eventId, calendarId, title, starTime or endTime', 400

    event = nylas.events.get(event_id)

  if event.read_only:
    return 'You can only modify events that are not ready only for the user'

    # modify event parameters
    event.title = title
    event.description = description
    event.when = {
        'start_time': start_time,
        'end_time': end_time,
    }
    event.calendar_id = calendar_id
    if participants:
        event.participants = [{"email": email}
                              for email in participants.split(", ")]

    event.save()

    return event.as_json(enforce_read_only=False)

Now, we can modify calendar events from the Google Calendar API in Python using Nylas.

Let’s look at how we can delete calendar events using Nylas:

@flask_app.route('/nylas/delete-events', methods=['POST'])
@is_authenticated
def create_events():
    request_body = request.get_json()
	
    event_id = request_body['eventId']
  
    if not event_id:
        return 'Missing required fields: eventId', 400

    nylas.events.delete(event_id, notify_participants='true')

  data = {"status": "success"}

    return data, 200

Now, we can modify and delete calendar events from the Google Calendar API in Python using Nylas.

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