Automating Google Meet Creation with Google Calendar API and Service Account
In this blog post, we will walk through the process of automatically creating a Google Meet link by creating a Google Calendar event using the Google Calendar API. We'll use a service account to authenticate, making it possible to create events on behalf of a user in your Google Workspace domain.
Prerequisites
Before we get started, make sure you have the following:
- A Google Cloud Project with the Google Calendar API enabled.
- A Service Account created and its JSON key file downloaded.
- Domain-Wide Delegation of Authority enabled for the Service Account.
- Access to your Google Admin Console to grant the necessary permissions.
- Basic knowledge of Node.js and API requests.
Steps to Create Google Meet Automatically
Step 1: Set Up Google Cloud Project
- Go to the Google Cloud Console.
- Create a new project or select an existing one.
- Enable the Google Calendar API:
- In the sidebar, search for Calendar API and enable it for your project.
- Create a Service Account:
- In the IAM & Admin section, create a new service account.
- Download the JSON key for the service account.
Step 2: Enable Domain-Wide Delegation
- Go to the Google Admin Console (admin.google.com).
- Navigate to Security → API Controls → Manage Domain-Wide Delegation.
- Add a new Client ID for the service account:
- Find the Client ID in the Google Cloud Console under your service account.
- Add the service account’s OAuth scopes, which are required for accessing Google Calendar:
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar
- Grant the service account permission to impersonate users in your domain.
Step 3: Install Required Packages
You need a few Node.js packages to interact with the Google API and handle JWT signing:
npm install google-auth-library jsonwebtoken node-fetch
Step 4: Generate JWT Token for Authentication
Next, we’ll write a Node.js script to generate a JWT (JSON Web Token) to authenticate the service account.
const fs = require('fs');
const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');
// Path to your service account JSON file
const SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_FILE = '/path/to/your/service-account-key.json';
// Scopes required for the API
const SCOPES = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar']; // Full calendar access
const AUDIENCE = 'https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token';
async function generateJWT() {
try {
// Read and parse the service account credentials
const serviceAccount = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_FILE, 'utf8'));
// JWT payload
const jwtPayload = {
iss: serviceAccount.client_email, // Issuer: service account email
sub: '[email protected]', // Subject: email of the user whose calendar to access
aud: AUDIENCE, // Audience: Google token URL
scope: SCOPES.join(' '), // Scopes: space-separated list of scopes
iat: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000), // Issued at: current time in seconds
exp: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 3600 // Expiration: 1 hour from now
};
// Sign the JWT using the service account's private key
const signedJwt = jwt.sign(jwtPayload, serviceAccount.private_key, { algorithm: 'RS256' });
console.log('Generated JWT:', signedJwt);
} catch (error) {
console.error('Error generating JWT:', error);
}
}
generateJWT();
Step 5: Exchange JWT for OAuth 2.0 Token
Now, use the JWT to obtain an OAuth 2.0 token from Google’s OAuth 2.0 token endpoint:
const fetch = require('node-fetch');
async function getAccessToken(signedJwt) {
const response = await fetch('https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
},
body: new URLSearchParams({
'grant_type': 'urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:jwt-bearer',
'assertion': signedJwt
})
});
const data = await response.json();
return data.access_token;
}
Step 6: Create a Google Calendar Event with Google Meet Link
Using the access token, we can now create a Google Calendar event with a Google Meet link.
async function createEvent(accessToken) {
const eventData = {
summary: 'Meeting with Team',
description: 'Discuss project updates',
start: {
dateTime: '2025-01-15T10:00:00Z'
},
end: {
dateTime: '2025-01-15T11:00:00Z'
},
attendees: [
{ email: '[email protected]' },
{ email: '[email protected]' }
],
conferenceData: {
createRequest: {
conferenceSolutionKey: { type: 'hangoutsMeet' },
requestId: 'unique-request-id'
}
}
};
const response = await fetch('https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/calendars/primary/events?conferenceDataVersion=1', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Authorization': `Bearer ${accessToken}`,
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
},
body: JSON.stringify(eventData),
});
const event = await response.json();
console.log('Event Created:', event);
}
Step 7: Run the Full Process
Combine all the parts and run the script to create the Google Meet event automatically.
(async () => {
const signedJwt = await generateJWT();
const accessToken = await getAccessToken(signedJwt);
await createEvent(accessToken);
})();
Conclusion
With the above steps, you can create Google Calendar events with Google Meet links automatically, using a service account and Domain-Wide Delegation of Authority. This method is perfect for automating meetings in a Google Workspace domain.
By enabling Domain-Wide Delegation and configuring the service account to impersonate users, you can access and manage Google Calendar events programmatically, which is extremely useful for enterprise environments.
Happy coding! ✨
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