Examples¶

Each example on this page describes a problem and explains how to solve it with the help of ChronoLink.

Sync two calendars to display your real availability on both sides¶

Problem

You have two company calendars. Meeting organizers can not (or will not remember to) check your other calendar to see if you are really available. To avoid scheduling conflicts, you would have to manually block time in advance.

Solution

Use ChronoLink to automatically create and maintain copies of each event in the other calendar.

Steps

Click New connection.
Select calendar A as the Source and calendar B as the Target.
Set Triggers to "Scheduled".

(Optional) Add one or more Transformers if the event copies in calendar B should be altered in any way.

Here are some examples:

Drop detailsKeep details but add iconDrop details but distinguish event types

[
  {
    "type": "textchange",
    "field": "TITLE",
    "mode": "OVERWRITE",
    "value": "Blocked"
  },
  {
    "type": "textchange",
    "field": "LOCATION",
    "mode": "CLEAR"
  },
  {
    "type": "textchange",
    "field": "DESCRIPTION",
    "mode": "CLEAR"
  }
]

[
  {
    "type": "textchange",
    "field": "TITLE",
    "mode": "APPEND",
    "value": " 🔗︎📆︎"
  }
]

[
  {
    "type": "textchange",
    "field": "DESCRIPTION",
    "mode": "CLEAR"
  },
  {
    "type": "textchange",
    "field": "LOCATION",
    "mode": "CLEAR"
  },
  {
    "type": "switch",
    "cases": [
      {
        "when": {
          "type": "status",
          "is": "OUT_OF_OFFICE"
        },
        "then": {
          "type": "textchange",
          "field": "TITLE",
          "mode": "OVERWRITE",
          "value": "Out of Office"
        }
      },
      {
        "when": {
          "type": "eventtype",
          "is": "MEETING"
        },
        "then": {
          "type": "textchange",
          "field": "TITLE",
          "mode": "OVERWRITE",
          "value": "Meeting"
        }
      }
    ],
    "default": {
      "type": "textchange",
      "field": "TITLE",
      "mode": "OVERWRITE",
      "value": "Busy"
    }
  }
]

Click Save.
Repeat the steps to set up another connection for the reverse direction (B to A).

Note

Don't worry about the two connections copying the same events back and forth forever; connections will never copy events that were written by ChronoLink.

Publish a selection of events for stakeholders¶

Problem

You want to keep stakeholders (e.g. management or the customer) informed about various meetings and events relating to a project without opening up your entire calendar.

Solution

In Google Calendar or Outlook, create an additional calendar and grant read access to the stakeholders. Then, set up ChronoLink to automatically copy relevant events to that calendar.

Steps

Click New connection.
Select the original calendar as the Source and the newly created calendar as the Target.
Set Triggers to "Scheduled".

Set up Conditions that tell ChronoLink which events to copy, e.g. those where the title includes the project or customer name.

If the Source is a Google calendar, you can also check for event colors (see our reference for the valid color names).

Here are some examples:

Keyword onlyColor onlyKeyword and colorKeyword or color

[
  {
    "type": "text",
    "search": "Cyberdyne",
    "field": "TITLE"
  }
]

[
  {
    "type": "property",
    "key": "google:color.name",
    "is": "Blueberry"
  }
]

[
  {
    "type": "text",
    "search": "Cyberdyne",
    "field": "TITLE"
  },
  {
    "type": "property",
    "key": "google:color.name",
    "is": "Blueberry"
  }
]

[
  {
    "type": "or",
    "conditions": [
      {
        "type": "text",
        "search": "Cyberdyne",
        "field": "TITLE"
      },
      {
        "type": "property",
        "key": "google:color.name",
        "is": "Blueberry"
      }
    ]
  }
]

Click Save.

Automatically block holidays in your work calendar¶

Problem

You want to block official or religious holidays on your work calendar. You found an ICS feed for these holidays and added it to Outlook or Google Calendar, but the holidays appear only in a separate calendar.

Solution

Set up ChronoLink to automatically copy all events from the holiday calendar to your primary calendar.

Multiple connections

Currently, ChronoLink does not support multiple connections writing to the same Microsoft calendar. Until that limitation is lifted, you therefore cannot use this solution if you also use the "sync two calendars to display your real availability" solution.

Writing to Google calendars, however, already works with multiple connections.

Steps

Click New connection.
Open the Source selection list to choose the holiday calendar using one of these options:
- Choose the Outlook or Google calendar that you added earlier.
- Scroll down to the "Other" section and choose the option "iCalendar", then paste the ICS address into the Source Calendar Address field.
Select your primary calendar as the Target.
Set Triggers to "Scheduled".
(Optional) You can mark the copied events as "out of office" by setting Transformers as shown below. Note that this only works for Microsoft calendars and for Google Workspace.
```
[
  {
    "type": "statuschange",
    "value": "OUT_OF_OFFICE"
  }
]
```
Click Save.

Copy pending invitations to your main account¶

Problem

You have another email/calendar account that occasionally receives meeting invitations, but you cannot (or do not want to) forward emails to your main account. As you rarely log in to that account, you often miss invitations sent there.

Solution

Set up ChronoLink to synchronize any pending meeting invitations to your main account, so you know that you need to respond.

Multiple connections

Currently, ChronoLink does not support multiple connections writing to the same Microsoft calendar. Therefore, if you also want to sync two calendars to display your real availability, the solution for pending invitations needs to be adapted so that it is part of the same connection. Contact support@chronolink.app to get assistance.

Writing to Google calendars, however, already works with multiple connections.

Steps

Click New connection.
Select the other calendar as the Source and your main calendar as the Target.
Set Triggers to "Scheduled".

Set up Conditions that tell ChronoLink which events to copy:

[
  {
    "type": "response",
    "is": "PENDING"
  }
]

Set up Transformers to opt in to copying pending events and change their title so you can easily tell them apart from others:

[
    {
      "type": "include"
    },
    {
      "type": "textchange",
      "field": "TITLE",
      "mode": "PREPEND",
      "value": "❓ "
    }
]

(Optional) To make these events stand out more, add further transformers, depending on the type of the target calendar:

GoogleMicrosoft

[
    {
      "type": "include"
    },
    {
      "type": "textchange",
      "field": "TITLE",
      "mode": "PREPEND",
      "value": "❓ "
    },
    {
      "type": "statuschange",
      "value": "FREE"
    },
    {
      "type": "propertyset",
      "key": "google:color.name",
      "value": "peacock"
    }
]

[
    {
      "type": "include"
    },
    {
      "type": "textchange",
      "field": "TITLE",
      "mode": "PREPEND",
      "value": "❓ "
    },
    {
      "type": "statuschange",
      "value": "TENTATIVE"
    }
]

Click Save.