Choosing the Right Endpoint for Calendar Event Fetching: import events vs. Get all Events

 import events vs. Get all Events

Question: Should I use the import events endpoint for periodically fetching calendar events (e.g., for meeting room bookings)?

Answer:

For periodically fetching events from a specific calendar (such as regularly checking meeting room bookings), you should continue to use the Get all Events endpoint.

The import events endpoint is specifically designed for scenarios where you need to import, store, and synchronize events into your application for purposes like enriching them with custom data or integrating into your own calendaring solution. It is not optimized for regular, periodic polling of live calendar data.

Key Limitations of the import events Endpoint (Making it Less Suitable for Periodic Fetching):

• Order Not Guaranteed: Events are not guaranteed to be sorted by their start time.
• Recurring Event Duplication: Nylas might return multiple instances of a single recurring event if results are paginated.
• Incomplete Results: The number of events returned might be lower than max_results, even if more match your query.
• No Metadata Support: Metadata is not supported for this endpoint.
• Beta Support for Microsoft Graph: Support for Microsoft Graph via this endpoint is still in beta.

For use cases requiring reliable and performant regular polling of calendar data (e.g., displaying current and upcoming room bookings), the standard Get all Events endpoint provides better stability and performance.

Note: The import events endpoint is currently in BETA.

July 14, 2025 16:03