How to create an ics file programatically

[Sprowler]

Hello everyone,

I want to create an ics file programatically from VB 2005. The reason is so that an appointment created in my app can be exported to an iCalendar supported email system such as iCal or Exchange. My app is a CRM system that creates appointments for specified people, and I would like to place the appointment into a calendar.

I would also like to be able to look up free\busy info for a particular calendar. I have looked at using WebDAV for this bur can't seem to get any good code samples.

Forgive me if my question is not clear but I am a newbie to this and searched the net and tek-tips but can't find any real info. If you can provide code samples or links I will be very grateful to you.

Can anyone please help as I am anxious to find a solution and will be very grateful.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Mastakilla]

just a little tip before an expert joins your thread:

I don't know anything about ics files.... but try opening it with notepad to see if it's just a plain text file, then study the file structure so that you can create ics files yourself.

 

[Sprowler]

Hi Mastakilla,

You're right and as I also posted in the Exchange forum, someone from there has given me a link which shows the file format and it looks simple to add my dates and details to the file from VB.

I also found a third party component for VB2005 called Gravitybox Scheduler which is designed to allow an Outlook style view of appointments from within the program. It also seems to allow scheduling in the same way Outlook does and can seemingly look up free\busy periods within the database. I am evaluating it at present.

With regard to notifying users, my pgm allows email notifications to be sent when a job is booked in, so it may be easier to create and attach an ics file so the user can detach and save into ther own Outlook. As I understand it, if they are connected to an Exchange server the appointment would automatically be uploaded to their Exchange mailbox. This looks like a much less complex solution.

Thanks again for your help and any other comments you have are welcomed.

Regards