Dynamic „dd.MM.“ date ranges from OCR → Google Calendar event via Make.com – Value is not a valid date / missing start parameter

How To
,
1

Hello Make Community,
I’m new and I am trying to build a scenario since the weekend already with ChatGPT plus that:

  1. Watches a Google Drive folder for new PDFs/images
  2. Downloads the file and runs OCR via Google Cloud Vision
  3. Extracts all date-ranges in the form dd.MM.-dd.MM. (e.g. 19.07.-23.07.) with the Text parser → bundles like: { “i”: 1, “$1”: “19.07.”, “$2”: “23.07.” }, { “i”: 2, “$1”: “05.08.”, “$2”: “12.08.” }
  4. Creates a Google Calendar “All Day” event per bundle on the correct year (i.e. if the month < current month → next year, otherwise current year).

What I’ve tried
• Text parser regex and “Match pattern” to split out $1 and $2. That works reliably.
• In the Create an Event (In Detail) module I map Start Date and End Date fields to IML expressions which doesnt work at all. Always different error messages. • I’ve also tried Quick-Add („Quickly“) with a single smart string (e.g. 19.07.2025 – 23.07.2025 all day), but that doesnt work as well.

Errors I’m seeing
• “Value is not a valid date” on both Start Date and End Date → I can’t even save the module settings because the fields refuse to accept my IML.
• “Missing value of required parameter ‘start’” at runtime when I manage to save.
• Invalid IML for parameter with “Unexpected [ at XX” or “Module references non-existing module ‘NaN’”.
I suspect it’s either:
• A subtle IML syntax issue (escaping, semicolons vs commas, braces)
• A formatting mismatch: Make expects ISO8601 YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss±hh:mm, not dd.MM.yyyy under the hood

What I’d like help with

  1. Correct IML expression for Start Date and End Date in the Create an Event (In Detail) module that:
    o Takes matches[1] (e.g. “19.07.”) and matches[2] (e.g. “23.07.”)
    o Strips trailing dots
    o Appends the right year (current or next)
    o Outputs ISO8601 all-day format:
    o 2025-07-19T00:00:00+00:00
    and
    2025-07-23T00:00:00+00:00
  2. Advice on whether I should switch to the Quickly mode or continue with Detail.
  3. Any known quirks around Make’s parseDate / formatDate / parseNumber functions inside calendar modules.
    I’ve checked the docs & forum, googles and used AI but can’t find a solution. Any pointers or a working snippet would be hugely appreciated! Attached are also some screenshots and a blueprint.
    Thank you in advance :folded_hands:t2:
    Marco
2

Hey Marco,

passing a date in this format 07.05.2025 worked for me. Can you share the configuration of the Google Calendar module?

3

blueprint.json (27.8 KB)

Thanks a lot! Here is the blueprint. does it work and can be seen?
In the meanwhile I made a workaround with extracting the data to Google Sheets, format it there to YYYY-MM-YY 00:00:00s and then to the calendar. It worked but is not the straightest way I assume…