Google Calendar

Can it be done? Yes, with that calendar’s secret address in iCal format. This page is about a Google Calendar you want to see in GigGuru. If you want your GigGuru gigs in Google Calendar instead, see GigGuru in your own calendar.

Two situations come up a lot:

• A client puts your shifts in a shared Google Calendar. Connect it as an ordinary feed: the events become gigs.
• You want to bring in your private calendar so you don’t get double-booked. Connect it and switch on Add as blocked days: the events then become days on which you are unavailable, not work.

Who has to act

You, if you manage the calendar yourself or it is shared with you with permission to see all event details. For a calendar on a work or school account, that account’s admin may have switched the secret address off; you then won’t see the option.

Steps

1. Open Google Calendar in a browser on your computer (calendar.google.com). The phone app does not have this option.

2. Go to Settings (the gear at the top right) and, on the left under Settings for my calendars, pick the calendar you want to connect.

3. Scroll to Integrate calendar and copy the Secret address in iCal format.

4. In GigGuru, go to Settings → Connectors, paste the address into Feed URL, give the connection a name and choose Connect. For your private calendar, switch on Add as blocked days first.

What the link looks like

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/<calendar>/private-<key>/basic.ics

The word private- in it is what to look for. The public address in iCal format only works if the calendar has been made public; for an ordinary calendar it returns an error. Use the secret address.

Caution

Anyone with the secret address can read your calendar. Don’t share it. If you think someone else has it, create a new secret address in Google (the Reset option next to the address) and connect that one in GigGuru instead.

What you get in GigGuru

• As gigs: the title, times, location and description of each event. No rate; attach the connection to a client if it is work.
• As blocked days: every day with an event is blocked, labelled with the event’s title.

Known quirks

• Recurring events (the same thing every week) do not come through properly: GigGuru only takes the first occurrence. A regular day off is better blocked in GigGuru itself.
• As blocked days: a day that already has a confirmed gig is not blocked. If you later remove an event in Google, the blocked day stays in GigGuru; you remove it yourself.