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Google Workspace is Google’s productivity platform for businesses, with Gmail, Google Calendar, and managed resources like conference rooms. The integration connects your Workspace organization’s resource calendars with resources in anny and keeps both sides up to date in a two-way sync. With Google Workspace, in anny you can:
  • automatically create bookings as events in your rooms’ resource calendars
  • pull events from Google Calendar into anny as blockers or bookings and thus avoid double bookings
  • optionally attach a Google Meet to synced events
The integration is especially handy when your rooms are booked both through anny and directly in Google Calendar, for example meeting rooms that employees reserve internally via Google and external people via your anny booking page. It is set up once centrally by your IT or Workspace admin; individual employees do not have to connect their own calendars. For individual users’ personal calendars, there are separate integrations; you’ll find an overview in the article on calendar integrations.

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Typical use cases

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How the Google Workspace connection works

The connection runs through a Google service account with domain-wide delegation. You upload the service account’s JSON key into anny and set a Workspace user in whose name the integration acts. anny then accesses only two things: the list of your Workspace resources (read-only) and the events of the resource calendars you release (read and write). anny has no access to personal calendars, emails, or other Workspace data. You then pair each resource you want with a resource calendar in anny. For each calendar, anny registers for push notifications, so changes from Google arrive almost in real time. The synced period runs from today to about 13 months into the future; anny extends it automatically every month. If a single calendar is unreachable or write permissions are missing, anny marks only that connection as faulty and notifies you by email and in anny; the other calendars keep syncing. If all calendars are unreachable, the integration deactivates itself and informs you as well.

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Connect Google Workspace

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Requirements

Before you connect Google Workspace, make sure you have the following:
  • A Google Workspace organization with access to the Google Admin console and the Google Cloud console
  • Resources of the category conference room created in Google Workspace (only these appear in the selection later)
  • Admin rights in your anny account

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Set up the connection

1

Create a project

In the sidebar, open Account › Apps & Integrations, select Google Workspace under All Apps and Integrations and click Set up. Create or use an existing Google Cloud project and activate the Google Calendar API and the Admin SDK API in it. The setup page in anny links you directly to the right places in the Google Cloud console.
2

Create a service account

Create a new service account in the project and download its key as a JSON file. Then upload the file into anny.
3

Add domain-wide delegation

Grant the service account domain-wide delegation in the Google Admin console. To do so, copy the Client ID in anny (button Copy Client ID) and the OAuth scopes (button Copy OAuth scopes) and enter both at Google.
4

Create the service account user

Create a Workspace user in whose name the integration acts. anny suggests an email like anny-workspace-integration@your-domain (button Copy email); via Use a different email, you can also enter an existing user.
5

Set permissions

Log in to Google Calendar as this Workspace user. In the settings, under “Add calendar”, go to “Browse resources” and select every resource that anny should sync.
6

Verify authentication

Click Verify authentication in anny. anny visibly checks four points: the required APIs are activated, Workspace resources can be retrieved (with a count), and a resource’s calendar can be read and edited. Only when all points are green is authentication complete.
7

Create connections

Under Google Workspace connections, use Add to define which anny resource is paired with which Workspace resource. Select the Google Workspace resource, the anny resource, and the options you want (see settings below). Each combination of resource and Workspace resource can only be connected once.
8

Activate the integration

Activate the integration via the toggle in the page header. anny then starts the full initial reconciliation in both directions.
As soon as the integration is active, bookings and events are automatically synced in both directions.
The initial reconciliation can take a few minutes with well-filled calendars or many connections, because anny throttles the requests to Google. Afterwards, spot-check whether events and blockers appear on both sides.

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Settings & options

You set these options per connection. To edit them, the integration must be deactivated.

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Limitations

The Google Workspace integration does not support:
  • Other resource categories: Only Workspace resources of the category conference room appear in the selection, no devices or other resources.
  • Personal calendars: Individual users’ calendars are not synced; the Google Calendar integration covers those.
  • The past and the distant future: Only the period from today to about 13 months ahead is synced. Past events are never imported.
  • Series linking: Series events from Google are imported as individual, independent entries.
  • Invitation emails: For events that anny creates or changes, Google does not send invitations to guests. Guests are also only entered if Google Meet is active for the connection.
  • Editing others’ events: Entries from events whose organizer is not the connected resource calendar are read-only in anny.
  • Changes during operation: Connections and the service account can only be edited while the integration is deactivated. A second integration with identical setup cannot be active in parallel.

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Disconnect

If you deactivate the integration, syncing stops immediately; events, blockers, and bookings already created remain on both sides. When you delete, anny removes the syncs created by the integration: in the dialog, you choose whether only future ones or all (including past ones) are removed. Events created by anny are then deleted from Google Calendar, and blockers and bookings created from events are removed from anny.
You can do both on the integration’s detail page (Account › Apps & Integrations › Your apps): deactivate via the toggle in the page header, delete via the three dots → Delete.

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FAQ

Yes. Each connection pairs exactly one anny resource with exactly one Workspace resource. You can create any number of connections in one integration; the same combination cannot be connected twice.
Only resources of the category conference room that are visible to the integration’s Workspace user appear. Check the category in the Google Admin console and add the resource to the user in Google Calendar under “Browse resources”.
Yes, they block the resource, but their title is always anonymized in anny. Using the Title of bookings in anny setting, you can additionally anonymize all imported events.
By default, anny ignores them, since they do not block the room in Google either. If you still want them imported, activate Sync all events in the connection.
Yes. Deactivate Create events as blockers in the connection and choose a Default service for bookings. You can convert blockers already created afterwards via Convert existing blockers into bookings.

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Troubleshooting

Usually one of the four check points is missing. Check whether the Google Calendar API and the Admin SDK API are activated in the cloud project, whether the domain-wide delegation contains exactly the copied Client ID and both OAuth scopes, and whether the entered Workspace user exists. Then click Verify authentication again.
anny cannot reach this resource calendar or is not allowed to edit it; the calendar is currently not being synced. Make sure the resource still exists and is released for the integration’s Workspace user, or choose another calendar. Then reactivate the integration so anny reconciles the connection again.
This happens when not a single connected calendar is reachable or the push notifications could not be set up; you receive a notification about it. Check the service account, delegation, and calendar shares and reactivate the integration via the toggle. On activation, a full reconciliation starts automatically.
Check three things: the event is within the synced period (from today to about 13 months), it is not marked as “available” (or Sync all events is active), and the integration is activated. Right after activation, the initial reconciliation can also take a few minutes.