PART 1
I am working on an .ics file which generates an event/appointment in Outlook:
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
STATUS:TENTATIVE
.....
..........
DESCRIPTION:Absence Request
SEQUENCE:0
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
The user gets the email with the .ics file attached.
When opened, the user gets the following details:
Screenshot of the ics file
Question:
How to disable the .ics so it does not allow to make multiple entries when the exact appointment (date) does exist?
PART 2
Is it also possible to delete an entry from the Outlook Calendar via the .ics file? I have tried with the following code but it does not work:
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
METHOD:CANCEL
STATUS:CANCELLED
.....
..........
DESCRIPTION:Absence Request
SEQUENCE:1
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
The cancel meeting button responds but does not actually remove the entry from the Calendar. Yes, the user can go manually and delete it from the calendar - which works fine but thought there may be an option to do via the .ics file.
I also read about the UID having to match the event but this is where I am also lacking of expertise of how to pull it from there.
Any ideas or suggestions ?
Bucki, This is the difference between importing events and subscribing to a calendar (even one with one event only).
When people click on an actual ics file, calendar apps will 'import' the event/s. I think these days some have the smarts to check the UID and not duplicate but many do not. It depends on the app how well they attempt to detect a duplicate. Strictly speaking one is just importing the data into one's own event in a calendar which one can then edit as one pleases.
If an ics URL is sent (not the actual file) most apps will 'subscribe' to the URL. IE: they will create a separate calendar in the individuals calendar app. The app will check for updates on that ics url regularly. In that case the UID and SEQUENCE can be used to indicate a later update. These are not editable by the user.
Related
I'm trying to implement the possibility to export a work schedule as ical using ical.net. The basic functionality was easily implemented, but I can't figure out how to update existing events. When I import an event with the same UID but diffent time, the calender just creates a new appointment regardless of the existing one, even when I raise the sequence number. This is the basic ical file that I tried:
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//github.com/rianjs/ical.net//NONSGML ical.net 4.0//EN
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTEND:20220610T164500
DTSTAMP:20220610T130324Z
DTSTART:20220610T064200
SEQUENCE:1
SUMMARY:Kundenservice | Telefonie
UID:15233
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
I tried modifying several other fields but outlook doesn't even recognize it as the same event.
Google seems to work fine, there the appointment is updated without changing the sequence number.
Am I missing something?
I need an ICS-File for a allday event which includes a reminder, one day before the event takes plays.
The ICS-File generates the event without any problem. But the reminder is always set on 18hours, even if the trigger is set on e.g. "-PT15M"....
Can anybody help?
ICS Testfile:
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:Karabulut
BEGIN:VEVENT
CATEGORIES:Planing
DTSTART; VALUE=DATE:20200129
SUMMARY: Revenue
METHOD:PUBLISH
CLASS:PUBILC
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
BEGIN:VALARM
TRIGGER:-PT1D
ACTION:DISPLAY
DESCRIPTION:REMINDER
END:VALARM
END:VCALENDAR
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
This may be the expected behaviour by the receiving application. The 18 hours may be the default set by you or the application.
Many applications do ot let ics files create alarms. I know I would not want the ics file to be creating alarms & notifications for me!
See also
Ical VALARM not registrering and
Sent email with iCal to outlook with valarm reminder and the links in the answers.
The RFC5545 specification See https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5545#page-75 says:
Note: Implementations should carefully consider whether they
accept alarm components from untrusted sources, e.g., when
importing calendar objects from external sources. One
reasonable policy is to always ignore alarm components that the
calendar user has not set herself, or at least ask for
confirmation in such a case.
Here is the ICS file content:
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Test//Test 1.0//EN
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Asia/Tokyo
X-LIC-LOCATION:Asia/Tokyo
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP;TZID=Asia/Tokyo:20190108T154626
UID:a0K1I000007ljAxUAI-a0D1I000007daO4UAI
RELATED-TO:a0K1I000007ljAxUAI
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Tokyo:20190123T080000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Tokyo:20190123T200000
SUMMARY:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX2
LOCATION:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX2
DESCRIPTION:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX2
TRANSP:OPAQUE
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP;TZID=Asia/Tokyo:20190108T154626
UID:a0K1I000007ljAxUAI-a0D1I000007daNzUAI
RELATED-TO:a0K1I000007ljAxUAI
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Tokyo:20190110T080000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Tokyo:20190110T200000
SUMMARY:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX1
LOCATION:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX1
DESCRIPTION:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX1
TRANSP:OPAQUE
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
In Thunderbird and Gmail I able to see only first (by order) event. Is this normal behaviour for mail clients, should I create separate .ics file for each VEVENT then and send it with single mail? Thanks in advance for help!
Separate them. I don't know a calendar app that allows one to 'invite' someone to multiple events at the same time. One can of course send a multi event file and ask the user to import it (but for multi events sometimes subscribe is better). If one sends an ics file generated by google calendar, it does the same thing (along with option to download ics file), so nothing to do with your file.
If the need is to have a person see multiple events at a time, a better approach would be to offer them a personal subscribeable ics url. That way they see it separately in their calendar app and it will update/refresh when there are changes.
I'm trying to create an ICS file to add events to a Google calendar via email. In the end, the calendar will be sent to multiple users, from a desktop app. Ideally I'd like to be able to modify the calendar if the events change (just event times, I'm ignoring cancelled events)
Here is my ICS file
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//MY COMPANY//Calendar//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:shift-439-emp-128#mycompany.com
DTSTART:20180604T090000
DTEND:20180604T153000
DTSTAMP:20180519T081800
SUMMARY:Morning shfit
LOCATION:Morning Location
DESCRIPTION:Morning shift
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:shift-446-emp-128#mycompany.com
DTSTART:20180605T153000
DTEND:20180605T233000
DTSTAMP:20180519T081800
SUMMARY:Night shift
LOCATION:
DESCRIPTION:Night
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
When I email that file to my gmail account, I can see a "Add to Google calendar" button which I can use to add the events to my prinary calendar.
Now, say the events times changed.
Question : How can I create a new ICS file with the new times so that existing events will be modified in google calendar?
I used UIDs for events so that google does not create duplicate entries. But when I email a second ics file with modified events (with uids), the "add to google calendar" button does not appear. If I try to manually import the ics file from google calendar Import feature, then I get this error message
Could not upload your events because you do not have sufficient access on the target calendar.
If I set different UIDs each time, the import process will work but duplicate entries will be created.
I also tried using REQUEST instead of PUBLISH method
Thanks
I was able to get this working with Gmail using the following:
METHOD: set to REQUEST
SEQUENCE: Set to 0 on first request and increment by 1 each time
ATTENDEE: Identify the Gmail user that is receiving the email by email address
Other variations would have non-desirable effects:
Only seeing 1 of the two events
Not updating existing event
Office 365 sends ICS files to Gmail that can be updated so it can be used to reference a commercial implementation. You can see the requests Outlook 365 sends by using "Show Original" in Gmail to retrieve the base64 encoded calendar body. Outlook 365 uses many other fields so it's instructive to examine.
I have a test script in Go using SparkPost so if you have any questions or would like to use it, just let me know. SparkPost has a free tier but you still need to configure your outbound sending domain to use it.
Here is an example modified request. I just increment the SEQUENCE and change the time to update the request in Gmail.
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//MY COMPANY//Calendar//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:REQUEST
BEGIN:VEVENT
ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;CN=example#gmail.com:MAILTO:example#gmail.com
UID:shift-1807-emp-128#mycompany.com
DTSTART:20180807T010000
DTEND:20180807T020000
DTSTAMP:20180601T033455
SEQUENCE:0
SUMMARY:Morning shift
LOCATION:Morning Location
DESCRIPTION:Morning shift
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;CN=example#gmail.com:MAILTO:example#gmail.com
UID:shift-1808-emp-128#mycompany.com
DTSTART:20180807T130000
DTEND:20180807T140000
DTSTAMP:20180601T033455
SEQUENCE:0
SUMMARY:Night shift
LOCATION:Night Location
DESCRIPTION:Night
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
Of note, when sending multiple events in a single ICS file, sometimes it takes Gmail a second or so to show both events with the correct time in my testing.
I'd like to set up a script to produce weekly event ICS files that include guests and reminders for them a few days in advance. I created an event in Google Calendar and tried to copy what it produced, but it didn't work. Here's what I tried:
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Urbina//Personal//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART:20151011T160000Z
DTEND:20151011T170000Z
DTSTAMP:20151006T172727Z
ORGANIZER;CN=Me Dude:mailto:urbancenturion#gmail.com
UID:urbancenturion#yahoo.com0005
ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;CN=urbancenturion#hotmail.com;X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:urbancenturion#hotmail.com
ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;CN=urbancenturion#yahoo.com;X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:urbancenturion#yahoo.com
LOCATION:Kaos
SUMMARY:event led by two people
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
There may even be a problem with the line breaks, but they won't render properly in the code window--since I clearly don't know what I'm doing here (new-ish guy).
Edit:
Oops, right and right.
What I wanted was for the two people to be indicated as guests and for there to be a reminder e-mail sent to them 4 or 5 days before the event. (I would produce the event files for each week, all at the same time, months in advance, and import them so I don't have to manually enter them each week.) The event is created, but the 'guests' don't appear. I am assuming the e-mails won't be sent either in that case.
Before BEGIN:VEVENT you need to have METHOD:REQUEST