Add events to outlook calendar with php script

Question

I want to add events to my outlook calendar from the php code. As outlook can accept a file of extension ".ics", I have tried this sample code to generate an ics file:

<?php
header("Content-Type: text/Calendar");
header("Content-Disposition: inline; filename=calendar.ics");
echo "BEGIN:VCALENDAR\n";
echo "VERSION:2.0\n";
echo "PRODID:www.testMeiCalendar.net\n";
echo "METHOD:REQUEST\n"; // requied by Outlook
echo "BEGIN:VEVENT\n";
echo "DTSTART:20101231T230000\n";
echo "DTEND:20110101T010000\n";
echo "SUMMARY:New Years Eve Reminder\n";
echo "LOCATION:Downtown\n";
echo "DESCRIPTION:Let's get together for New Years Eve\n";
echo "UID:ABCD1234\n";
echo "SEQUENCE:0\n";
echo "DTSTAMP:20101125T112600\n";
echo "END:VEVENT\n";
echo "END:VCALENDAR\n";
?>

So now when I run this code in Firefox, I got a pop-up asking to open the generated ics file using the Microsoft Outlook and I opened it and saved it to outlook and finally an event is added in outlook.

But is there a way I can automate this process? I mean, can I store the event in Outlook calendar directly from a php script, without needing to generate an ics file and saving it?

Answer 1

<?php
/**
 * @category   iCalendar
 * @description Basic code for sending an event invitation.
 * @version    1.0
*/

//Create ICAL Content (Google rfc 2445 for details and examples of usage) 
//reference : http://www.mavetju.org/programming/outlook-ics.php

$message="BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:REQUEST
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART:20110718T121000Z
DTEND:20110718T131000Z
DTSTAMP:20110525T075116Z
ORGANIZER;CN=From Name:mailto:from email id
UID:12345678
ATTENDEE;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP= TRUE;CN=Sample:mailto:[email protected]
DESCRIPTION:This is a test of iCalendar event invitation.
LOCATION: Kochi
SEQUENCE:0
STATUS:CONFIRMED
SUMMARY:Test iCalendar
TRANSP:OPAQUE
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR";

/*Setting the header part, this is important */
$headers = "From: From Name <From Mail>\n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: text/calendar; method=REQUEST;\n";
$headers .= '        charset="UTF-8"';
$headers .= "\n";
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit";

/*mail content , attaching the ics detail in the mail as content*/
$subject = "Meeting Subject";
$subject = html_entity_decode($subject, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');

/*mail send*/
if(mail("To email", $subject, $message, $headers)) {

    echo "sent";
}else {
    echo "error";
}

?>

Answer 2

If you've not implemented it yet, CalDAV (http://caldav.calconnect.org/) provides calendaring extensions to WebDAV, if you need to add this functionality to your site. DAViCAL (http://www.davical.org/) appears to offer a solution to your problem but I've not used it so YMMV on it.

Answer 3

How your server application should be able to access a client application? You may send an email to your client with a calendar entry. Maybe this is slightly more comfortable for your user.

Answer 4

I played around with this and Outlook will automatically add it to the calendar if you send it as an email and the from address is the same email address as the account setup in Outlook. As soon as Outlook downloads the message it automatically adds it to the calendar.

Answer 5

I did this with PHP, basically creating an ical event inline on a separate php file that doesn't require any extra libraries for those of you still out there wanting to do it. Outlook/iCal event with PHP

Basically did it like this

echo "BEGIN:VCALENDAR\n";
echo "VERSION:2.0\n";
echo "PRODID:-//YourSite//NONSGML YourSite//EN\n";
echo "METHOD:PUBLISH\n"; // required by Outlook
echo "BEGIN:VEVENT\n";
echo "UID:".date('Ymd').'T'.date('His')."-".rand()."-yoursite.com\n"; // required by Outlook
echo "DTSTAMP:".date('Ymd').'T'.date('His')."\n"; // required by Outlook
echo "DTSTART:$year"."$month"."$day"."T"."$time\n"; //20120824T093200 (Datetime format required) 
echo "SUMMARY:$summary\n";
echo "DESCRIPTION: this is just a test\n";
echo "END:VEVENT\n";
echo "END:VCALENDAR\n";