16

I'd like to access a public calendar using Google's REST API.

Google's calendar API suggests I need an OAuth token to get access to calendars:

https://developers.google.com/google-apps/calendar/auth

However, I'm accessing a public calendar and am doing this from the server so can't/shouldn't have to ask the user to authenticate.

I'm using the node.js api:

googleapis
  .discover('calendar', 'v3').execute(function(err, client) {
    client.calendar.calendars.get({ calendarId: '***@group.calendar.google.com' })
      .execute(function (err, response) {
        console.log('response from google', response);
      });
  });

This returns "Your client has issued a malformed or illegal request. That’s all we know."

Calling .withApiKey('***') after .calendars.get() returns the same error.

Any suggestions?

Alasdair McLeay
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2 Answers2

19

Oh come on guys! You can fetch data without OAuth without requiring a user to login as long as the calendar is set to be public! I've tested it myself.

$.ajax({
  url:"https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/calendars/" + cal_id + "/events?key=" + api_key,
  success: function(data) {
    console.log(data);
  }
    });

Just try it.

The documentation is here https://developers.google.com/google-apps/calendar/v3/reference/events/list#examples

Jim Zenn
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    I've tried this over and over and for whatever reason I cannot get this to work. – JeremyF Jan 03 '19 at 22:14
  • I removed the Authorization header. It is working after that – Tiny Rick Jun 09 '20 at 07:03
  • You can find the calendar id by going to the calendar settings and scrolling to `Integrate calendar`. It will look something like this: `itdvh0lo7f1o0tk769a6mbk@group.calendar.google.com` – NSjonas Oct 16 '21 at 15:29
14

As the documentation states more than once

All requests to the Google Calendar API must be authorized by an authenticated user.

Hence, if you want to use the google calendar API you need an authenticated user. This can be easily achieved using modules like Passport.js and Passport-google-oauth.

However, if you can leave aside the API for a moment and

  • the calendar is public
  • you want read only access

you can easily grab the public address and consume the calendar through ical, xml or html. Have a look at the UK holidays public calendar: https://i.stack.imgur.com/vwyx6.jpg

You can access the data publicly from:

At this point, it's trivial to fetch such resources with node and get the data you want.

danielepolencic
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    unfortunately the "basic" feed doesn't include all of the calendar data, and the "full" feeds were just decommissioned. – squarecandy Nov 22 '14 at 20:45