Auto-creating Talk public links for calendar events created in any CalDAV client. Has this been done, and is it a good idea?

ℹ️ Support
, , ,
1

Hi!

Some of my users want to keep using the native iOS Calendar app, but they don’t want to leave it just to create a Talk public link for a meeting. The Nextcloud Calendar web UI makes this easy, but iOS Calendar obviously has no idea about Talk. This goes for any CalDav client actually…

My idea is to run a server-side process that handles this automatically:

  1. Watch specific calendars for newly created events.

  2. For each new event, check whether a Talk conversation is already attached.

  3. If one exists, do nothing.

  4. If not, create a public Talk conversation via the Talk API.

  5. Add the link to the event:

    • If the location field is empty, put the link in the location.

    • If the location is already filled, add the link to the description instead.

This way, no matter which app or device an event is created with, it ends up with a Talk link.

My questions:

  • Has anyone built something like this before (app, script, or workflow)?

  • Is this a good or bad idea? What are the pitfalls?

  • Specifically: how would you reliably detect new events server-side (CalDAV polling, hooks, etc.), and how would you avoid edge cases like duplicate conversations, events with no attendees, or private or personal appointments getting a link they don’t need?

Thanks for any input!

PS: I know NC Connector does this really good but some people really do not want to leave their Apple stuff. We can have all kinds of opinions on that but still I would like to service these people (especially since one them is providing my income :wink:

2

This feels a bit complicated.. I use the Apple calendar too and also want to create events with nextcloud talk links. My approach is to just create the link each time and copy/paste it into the event. That doesn’t take too much time. But I agree it would be nice to be able to have these links created automatically.

3

I use this on Android. Not perfect yet but I like it very much. haven´t had the chance to test it on iOS

4

A colleague of mine creates the event in his apple calender, at a later time opens his webmail calender and adds a talk conversation to the event after which it shows up on his phone.
I have users that feel this is too much off a hassle.

5

I just read your first post more carefully in light of this conversation, and I really like your idea! I see other benefits too. There are other calendars like Google that also add extraneous Google meet links to events created there. The ability to automatically look for and update events in your calendar with a nextcloud talk link would be super helpful.

Mabe this could be implemented as a nextcloud app that can be enabled and configured on a per user basis?